McCain Issues Full-Throated Attack Against Obama In New Mexico Speech

October 7, 2008 9:04 a.m. EST

Albuquerque, NM (AHN) - Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Monday delivered what may have been his harshest criticisms against Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), portraying the freshman Democrat as an angry liberal and raising doubts with the constant chorus, "Who is the real Barack Obama?"

In keeping with the campaign's heightened attacks less than four weeks out until the election, McCain said before a crowd in New Mexico, "Even at this late hour in the campaign, there are essential things we don't know about Senator Obama or the record that he brings to this campaign.... whenever I have questioned his policies or his record, he has called me a liar... I don't need lessons about telling the truth to American people. And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably wouldn't seek advice from a Chicago politician."

"For a guy who's already authored two memoirs, he's not exactly an open book. It's as if somehow the usual rules don't apply... Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that. All people want to know is: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government?... Who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry insults," he added.

McCain accused Obama of "abetting" the corrupt practice by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of backing bad mortgages, "staying silent on regulation."

"To hear him talk now, you'd think he'd always opposed the dangerous practices at these institutions. But there is absolutely nothing in his record to suggest he did," he said.

The Arizona senator touted his tax plan, saying Obama's claim to give 95 percent of Americans tax relief was not true. The Republican senator said Obama made the same pledge when he ran for the Illinois Senate but never introduced legislation to do so.

"Instead, he voted for the Democratic budget resolution that promised to raise taxes on people making just 42,000 dollars a year," he said.

McCain issues his sharp attacks against Obama on the economy just as national polls say the financial crisis is giving Obama the edge among voters.

His campaign recently began an assault on Obama's associations with former 1970s radical Bill Ayers and controversial pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

McCain's remarks on Monday was peppered with such lines as, "I didn't just show up out of nowhere, after all-- America knows me.... You don't have to hope that things will change when you vote for me. You know things will change."

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor responded in a statement saying McCain was the "one truly angry candidate in this race."

Vietor cited a McCain adviser's statement over the weekend that the campaign had to "turn the page" on the economy, and said McCain had wrongly used a quote from a 2007 Obama speech warning of the subprime crisis.

"John McCain has called for less regulation no fewer than 20 times, proving that he hasn't learned any lessons from the last banking scandal he was involved in and would give us more of the same failed economic policies as President," Vietor added, referring to McCain's involvement in the 'Keating Five' corruption scandal in the early 1990s.

Over the weekend, a McCain aide said, "We're looking to turn the page on this financial crisis and getting back to discussing Mr. Obama's aggressively liberal record and how he will be too risky for the Americans," according to the Chicago Tribune.