May 17 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama intensified his criticism of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain with the approach of the May 20 Democratic presidential primaries that may allow him to claim he's locked up a majority of delegates picked by voters.
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Campaigning in Oregon today wow, Obama linked McCain, 71, to President George W. Bush's record on everything from gasoline prices and the war in Iraq to tax cuts for the wealthy ``that never trickle down to you.''
Obama's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton, 60, of New York, joined Obama today in turning her fire on McCain.
Campaigning through central Kentucky, Clinton said McCain's economic agenda is ``nothing but four more years of George Bush economics: Corporate special interests first, middle class families last, borrow from China and stick our children and grandchildren with the bill,'' she said.
Obama now has 1,610 of the 1,627 pledged delegates needed to gain a majority, according to an Associated Press count. Polls suggest Clinton will win Kentucky, which has 51 pledged delegates at stake. Obama is leading in Oregon, which has 52. Obama is likely to take away more than the 23 he needs to claim a majority of pledged delegates under the party's apportionment rules.
Obama also has 294.5 of the officials and officeholders designated as superdelegates, compared with 276.5 for Clinton, according to lists and announcements by both campaigns. Obama, who needs a total of 2,026 delegates to secure the nomination world of warcraft gold, is previewing his general election campaign strategy against McCain.
Meeting With Iran
During a town hall forum in Roseburg, Oregon, today, Obama defended his position that he would be willing to meet unconditionally with the leaders of hostile nations such as Iran during his first year in office.
``If George Bush and John McCain have a problem with direct diplomacy led by the United States then they can explain why they have a problem with John F. Kennedy because that's what he did with Khrushchev,'' said Obama, referring to the former Soviet leader.
The McCain campaign quickly fired back.
``Senator Obama is missing the point,'' said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. His ``pledge to unconditionally bring Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the world stage isn't `new politics,' it's incredibly weak judgment,'' said Bounds, referring to Iran's president.
Four More Years
McCain is ``promising four more years of the exact same foreign policy that George Bush has been perpetrating,'' said Obama, including a war that's cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars and which he called ``the best recruiting tool al-Qaeda ever had.''
He also said Osama bin Laden is still sending out videotapes and that Iran poses the greatest threat to Israel and the U.S. in a generation cheap wow gold. ``This is his idea of strong leadership and strong judgment,'' said Obama.
He also attacked McCain on health care, saying he has no plan to cover all Americans and no plan to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to individuals who need it.
The average American family is paying 78 percent more on health care than it was when Bush took office, said Obama. ``He wants to give you the failed'' health care policies of the past eight years, he said.
Two Sides of Coin
``President Bush and Senator McCain are like two sides of the same coin, and it doesn't amount to a whole lot of change,'' Clinton said to cheers and applause from a few hundred supporters at Kentucky State University in Frankfort buy wow gold. ``My top priority is making this economy work for middle-class and working families again.''
Clinton said that while McCain has pledged $100 billion in corporate tax breaks to oil companies and corporations that have profited in Iraq, she would channel the same tax cuts to middle- class families instead. Individuals making more than $250,000 would return to paying the same tax rates as they did under the administration of her husband, former president Bill Clinton, she said.
``We're going to go back to what worked in the 1990s,'' Clinton said.
The Republican National Committee fired back, accusing her of offering costly solutions.
Costly Solutions
``Rather than explain why both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will raise taxes on hardworking Americans, Clinton is launching her own desperate attacks on John McCain,'' said Republican spokesman Alex Conant. ``The Democrats' plans for more taxes, more spending and more regulations will not grow the economy or create jobs.''
Clinton also told supporters in Kentucky that she is leading Obama by more than 40,000 popular votes if ballots cast in Michigan and Florida are included -- and urged supporters to push Democratic leaders to count the votes of the states, which were punished for holding their primaries early.
Clinton, who has lagged behind Obama in fundraising, has spent time trying to fill her campaign coffers in the last few days. In Los Angeles on May 15, she attended an event that brought in $400,000. She raised more than $200,000 in Oregon yesterday, her campaign said.
McCain has no public events today while he sits for interviews and tapes an episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live.
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