N.C. on His Mind

Fresh from Friday night's presidential debate, Sen. Barack Obama lambasted his rival, Sen. John McCain, for being out of touch with middle-class Americans during a time of financial crisis and repeatedly linked McCain to what he called the failed policies of the Bush administration.

"(McCain) talked about the economy for 40 minutes, and not once did he talk about the struggles of middle-class Americans," Obama told the crowd of about 20,000 yesterday in downtown Greensboro. "He had a lot to say about me, but he had nothing to say about you."

Obama also called for accountability and oversight in the proposed $700 billion bailout plan that Congress is still debating.

"It's unacceptable to expect the American people to hand this administration -- or any administration -- $700 billion without any oversight when a lack of oversight is what got us into this mess in the first place," he said.

Yesterday was his first campaign appearance after the first presidential debate Friday night in Mississippi, but it was far from his first time in North Carolina. Obama spoke in Charlotte last Sunday to a similar-size crowd, and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, was in Charlotte a week before that. His wife, Michelle Obama, spoke in Greensboro on Sept. 18.

The Obama campaign has left little doubt that it is taking North Carolina seriously, despite the fact that the state hasn't gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

A poll released last week showed Obama with a slight lead over McCain in North Carolina. The poll, done by Rasmussen Reports, had Obama attracting 49 percent of the vote while McCain had 47 percent of the vote.

McCain's campaign has said that it is intensifying its efforts in North Carolina by opening more offices and hiring more staff members.

But McCain has yet to make an appearance in the state since getting the Republican nomination this summer.

Obama is certainly seizing on the possibility that North Carolina might go Democratic in November, said John Dinan, an associate professor of political science at Wake Forest University.

"It's one thing to spend advertising money and be on the air a good amount," Dinan said. "The campaign is aiming to make things competitive."

In the past two presidential campaigns, Republicans have had a comfortable 12-point advantage, he said.

But because Obama rejected public financing, he can raise more money to spend in North Carolina, Dinan said. McCain accepted public financing and is limited in how much money he can raise.

The key question is how the McCain campaign will respond, Dinan said.

McCain may decide that North Carolina will stay true to its historical pattern and go Republican, thus he will focus more on such swing states as Ohio and Wisconsin, Dinan said, or he may become convinced that North Carolina is vulnerable and spend more time here.

Democrats are also looking at capturing Elizabeth Dole's seat in the U.S. Senate, said Kerry Haynie, an associate professor of political science at Duke University. Democrat Kay Hagan is running for the seat, and the race is close.

"It's an attempt to get a veto-proof majority," Haynie said.

Voters, particularly in North Carolina, are anxious about the economy, Haynie said. The state has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs over the years, and that anxiety over the economy explains Obama's rise in the polls, he said.

In Greensboro, Obama and Biden continually bashed Bush and McCain over the economy, saying that a lack of oversight and the loosening of regulations led to the financial crisis that has exploded over the past two weeks.

"Last night, John McCain's silence on the middle class was deafening," Biden said. "We need more than a brave soldier. We need a wise leader."

McCain's campaign suggested yesterday that McCain had referred to the middle class during the debate when he argued that Obama had voted in favor of higher taxes on families making $42,000 a year and proposed hundreds of billions in new government spending that would place a crushing burden on families and businesses. Obama disputed both of the McCain contentions and said that under his plan, 95 percent of American taxpayers would not pay more in taxes. Tax rates would be lower than they were during the Reagan administration, Obama said yesterday.

"If he was honest, Barack Obama knows he was unable to debate the merits of supporting higher taxes on the middle class, and bloated government spending during a looming economic crisis -- it simply proved indefensible last night," Tucker Bounds, a McCain campaign spokesman, said in a statement.

■ Michael Hewlett can be reached at 727-7326 or at mhewlett@wsjournal.com.

■ The Associated Press contributed to this story.