Obama moves into endgame

Tuesday, 28 October 2008 12:00 AM

US presidential candidate Barack Obama launched the closing argument of his campaign yesterday, telling supporters his country will emerge from its current economic crisis stronger than before.

The Democrat candidate for the presidency, who leads in the polls against Republican rival John McCain, was in Canton, Ohio, as he made his "case for change" with just seven days left until November 4th.

"I know these are difficult times for America. But I also know that we have faced difficult times before," Mr Obama said.

"The American story has never been about things coming easy - it's been about rising to the moment when the moment was hard. It's about seeing the highest mountaintop from the deepest of valleys. It's about rejecting fear and division for unity of purpose.

"That's how we've overcome war and depression. That's how we've won great struggles for civil rights and women's rights and worker's rights. And that's how we'll emerge from this crisis stronger and more prosperous than we were before - as one nation; as one people."

The rhetoric is designed to match that of the start of the campaign, where concrete policy proposals give way to high-flying idealism.

The Obama campaign's strategy of challenging the Republicans in typically Republican states like North Carolina, Missouri and Montana has seen Mr McCain constantly on the defensive, commentators say.

But Mr McCain, campaigning elsewhere in the same state, was in bullish mood yesterday, describing the Illinois senator as "Barack the redistributor".

"He believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs. He is more interested in controlling wealth than in creating it, in redistributing money instead of spreading opportunity," Mr McCain said.

"I am going to create wealth for all Americans, by creating opportunity for all Americans."

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• foreign policy
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• north america
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• us elections