Obama ups criticism of McCain, Wall Street

GREENSBORO, N. C. -- One day after a debate in which some of his supporters here thought he was too polite, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on Saturday came out swinging against Wall Street and his Republican rival, John McCain.

Appearing with his running mate, Joe Biden, in front of a flag-decked train station, Obama tried to turn McCain's aggressive style to his own advantage, portraying his opponent as more interested in scoring points than in presenting a program.

"John McCain had a lot to say about me, but nothing to say about you," Obama told a crowd of 20,000 who waited for the Democratic candidates under drizzly skies.

In a response emailed to reporters, McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said Obama's economic plan would amount to " $860 billion in lavish new government spending which is a crushing burden on middle class families and the Main Street economy."

McCain, who earlier this week rushed to Washington to help broker a deal on stabilizing U.S. financial markets, stayed away from Capitol Hill on Saturday as negotiators inched toward an agreement.

Senior adviser Mark Salter said the Arizona senator spent the morning at his campaign headquarters placing calls to congressional leaders and White House officials involved in finalizing a multibillion-dollar deal to bail out failing financial firms. Earlier in the week McCain suspended most campaign activities to help develop a bipartisan agreement.

Obama, meanwhile, stuck to his campaign schedule which will take him and Biden from here to two other swing states this weekend: Virginia and Michigan.

"He can effectively do what he needs to do by phone," Salter said Saturday. "He's calling members on both sides, talking to people in the administration, helping out as he can."

Though he has dismissed the presidential candidates' intervention in the bailout talks as counterproductive grandstanding, Obama expressed forceful opinions about what the deal should — and should not — include.

"I will not allow this plan to become a welfare program for Wall Street executives," he told the crowd here. And he suggested an additional $50 billion in aid for the unemployed and investments in infrastructure should be part of the deal.