The flood-ravaged communities of the Midwest became a new battleground in the presidential election as Democratic Senator Barack Obama criticized Republican Senator John McCain for opposing federal spending on flood prevention programs, attacks McCain’s campaign called typical partisan politics.
Both candidates have visited the flood zones in the past two weeks, since heavy rains sent rivers surging over their banks, forcing thousands of people from their homes and inundating towns and cities along rivers in six US states.
The storms have caused the deaths of at least 24 people and injured 148 since June 6.
Obama canceled a visit to eastern Iowa last week at the request of state officials and instead went to fill sandbags in Quincy, Illinois. McCain toured flood damage in Iowa on Thursday.
During a speech on Saturday at the US Conference of Mayors in Miami, Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, criticized McCain for opposing a measure to spend US$23 billion on water projects.
It passed Congress overwhelmingly and was vetoed by US President George W. Bush because he said it spent too much on lawmaker’s pet projects.
Congress voted to override the veto, for the first time in Bush’s presidency.
Talking about the separate trips by the candidates to flood-affected areas, Obama said both he and McCain felt “enormous sympathy for the victims of the recent flooding.
“I’m sure they appreciated the sentiment, but they probably would have appreciated it even more if Senator McCain hadn’t opposed legislation to fund levees and flood control programs, which he considers pork,” Obama said, a reference to McCain’s condemnation of wasteful so-called “pork barrel” spending on legislators’ home districts.
The bill funded hundreds of projects — such as dams, sewage plants and beach restoration — that are important to local communities and their representatives. It also included money for the hurricane-hit Gulf Coast and for Florida Everglades restoration efforts.
McCain’s campaign said Obama opposed an amendment that McCain cosponsored to prioritize flood control spending.
The bipartisan amendment, which failed overwhelmingly on a 69-22 vote, would have made sure “lifesaving levees like those that so tragically failed in Iowa and Missouri are given the highest priority and fixed first,” McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said.
“Barack Obama’s willingness to continue the status quo pork-barrel politics in Washington, and then engage in political attacks that entirely disregard the facts, once again fundamentally shows that he’s nothing more than a typical politician,” Bounds said. “It is beyond the pale that Barack Obama would attack John McCain for actually trying to fix the problem and change the way Washington works.”
During his talk on Saturday, Obama told city leaders that as president he would appoint the first White House director of urban policy to help them cut through federal bureaucracies
The promise sparked a standing ovation.
He promised money for police, higher-paid teachers, transit, housing, broadband Internet and vowed to create jobs by rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects.
“That will be the cause of my presidency,” he said.
Next week, Obama will be joined on the campaign trail by former rival Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a step toward bringing together a Democratic party that was split by their combative primary fight.
Obama and Clinton will meet with some of her top fundraisers on Thursday in Washington, and then the two former rivals will campaign together on Friday.
Obama also got some support from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who on Friday urged Jewish voters in Florida to denounce the online rumors maintaining that Obama is secretly a Muslim — claims that have lingered despite the candidate’s repeated denials.
The deceptive campaign against Obama, who is Christian, “threatens to undo the enormous strides that Jews and Muslims have made together in this country,” said the New York mayor, who is Jewish.
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