toledoblade.com --

DETROIT - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama yesterday said he was outraged at being asked by the Bush Administration to bail out Wall Street for the financial crisis, but said it was a necessary measure that should be passed soon.

Saying he supports the $700 billion bailout that was agreed to early yesterday, Mr. Obama nonetheless said the financial ruin threatening Wall Street was "the final verdict" on an era of greed that he laid at the feet of the current administration in the White House.

And he attacked his Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, for backing deregulation policies that he said brought on the collapse in the banking system.

Senator Obama of Illinois and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, addressed a crowd of about 28,000 people that filled Woodward Avenue in front of the Detroit Institute of Arts and stretched southward.

Joining them on the stage were their wives, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.

Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr., introduced Mr. Obama, marking the first time Mr. Obama has appeared with a Detroit mayor in this campaign.

Mr. Cockrel earlier this month replaced Kwame Kilpatrick, who resigned after pleading guilty in a criminal probe, averting what some feared would be an embarassing distraction to

Mr. Obama's presidential campaign.

Mr. Cockrel urged his huge audience to register and then try to get other people registered. The deadline to register in Michigan and Ohio is next Monday.

"As Detroit goes, so goes the state of Michigan," Mr. Cockrel said. Noting Detroit's and the nation's economic problems, the mayor said the challenge is to "minimize the gap between the American dream and the American reality."

Mr. Obama said he supports the $700 billion bailout, after claiming credit for changes that were made to the original proposal, including an independent oversight commission and restrictions on benefits for the executives of corporations that are being bailed out.

"I said it was unacceptable to expect the American people to hand this administration, of all administrations, a $700 billion check with no conditions and no oversight when a lack of oversight in Washington and on Wall Street is exactly what got us into this mess," Mr. Obama said.

"The era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has led us to a financial crisis as serious as any we have faced since the Great Depression," he said.

"Well, what we have seen over the last few weeks is nothing less than the final verdict on this failed philosophy.

"It is an outrage - an outrage - that we are now being forced to clean up their mess," Mr. Obama said. "My opponent, John McCain, he talks about getting tough on Wall Street. For most of those 26 years he's been against the common-sense rules and regulations that could've stopped this problem."

Mr. Obama has made repeated trips to Michigan since the end of the Democratic National Convention Aug. 28, including to Detroit, Battle Creek, Flint, and Monroe.

Mr. Biden took the stage first and lambasted Mr. McCain, after first honoring him as a "soldier." He said Mr. McCain responded inconsistently and was wrong on the Iraq war and inconsistent in his response to the crisis on Wall Street.

"John McCain said he'd follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell. President Barack Obama will follow him to where he is and then send him to hell. Because he lives in Afghanistan, he lives in Pakistan. He does not live in Iraq," Mr. Biden said.

Mr. Obama told the Detroit audience that his program to invest heavily in clean-energy technology will "allow the cars of the future to be built right here."

"We're not going to wait. We should have done it 10 years ago. We're going to do it right now. We're going to make it easier for the American people to buy these new cars," he said.

The McCain campaign said Mr. Obama's campaign address "ignored" his own record of "opposing middle-class tax relief, opposing a competitive tax rate, and opposing a plan to incentivize new battery technology."

"Detroit's automakers can't survive Barack Obama's opposition to a globally competitive tax rate which will keep jobs in America, or Obama's attacks on an 'all of the above' approach to solving our energy crisis which includes more drilling, alternative energies, and a real path for new battery technology," Tucker Bounds, spokesman for McCain-Palin 2008, said in a prepared statement.

Mr. Obama also reviewed his campaign promises, including tax breaks for 95 percent of Americans and tax increases on people making more than $250,000 a year.

The Democratic ticket was also introduced by Denise Ilitch, a Democratic candidate for the state Board of Regents and a member of the family that owns the Detroit Tigers and the Red Wings hockey team.

She gave Mr. Obama a Red Wings jersey. Alluding to the Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin who has popularized the term, "Hockey Mom," Mr. Biden said Ms. Ilitch is "a real hockey mom."

"I love being here in a city where you call your athletic arena the Joe," Mr. Biden said, referring to the Joe Louis Arena.

Contact Tom Troy at:
tomtroy@theblade.com
or 419-724-6058.

Permanent Link