At a packed arena at the University of Maryland, Barack Obama fired back at attacks on his ability to beat John McCain leveled by Hillary Clinton’s campaign as the two Democratic candidates campaigned Monday across Maryland.
As Clinton toured the GM plant in White Marsh near Baltimore with about 30 factory employees earlier in the day, her chief strategist, Mark Penn, released a memo questioning Obama’s ability to handle the Republican”attack machine” during the general election.
“The likelihood is that his negatives will rise,” Penn said, whereas “Clinton has withstood the full brunt of that machine and actually emerged stronger.”
Obama, whom polls show with a wide lead as Marylanders were heading to the polls today, responded to the Clinton attack before a capacity crowd of 18,000 at the University of Maryland, while sneaking a jab at McCain’s age: “I may be skinny, but I’m tough, too, and I’m looking forward to mixing it up with John McCain,” Obama told the excitable young audience, adding he nonetheless admired McCain’s “half-century of service to this country.”
Obama’s 40-minute speech championed affordable education, calling for a $4,000 college credit for students who take part in national service, and a minimum wage that would keep pace annually with inflation.
His loudest cheers came in response to generic calls for change.
“Scooter injustice, Brownie incompetence, Karl Rove politics — that’s all over next year,” Obama said.
“I’m a Republican,” said Tewodros Belhu, 34, a bus driver and Ethiopian immigrant, “but Obama offers the solution of the world — bringing together Christians and Muslims.”
Ricardo Hamilton, 21, said he will vote today for the first time. “Obama motivates and inspires people to get out there and start making decisions about our future and our policies,” the life-insurance salesman said.
Christine Easterling, 57, who recently retired as vice principal at Coolidge High School in Washington, D.C., said Obama deserved a higher grade than Clinton.
“Hillary comes off as kind of lame,” she said. “Obama goes above and beyond the call of duty. Hillary is doing what [is] expected. That’s the difference between a C-student and an A-student. Well, she might be a B-student. She’s on the border.”
