Democrat Barack Obama is attacking Republican presidential rival John McCain about his track record on improving education, focusing on a key voter concern as he looked to pick up support of independent voters in a crucial swing state and regain the lead in the polls.
Obama's push into a subject Republicans have typically focused on reflects how the first-term Illinois senator is trying to recapture some of the momentum in a White House race where McCain has seen support increase largely because of his choice of running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
In the aftermath of both parties' national conventions, polls show McCain with a small lead or about even with Obama, who has surrendered what had been his minimal advantage. That effectively resets an already extended campaign with eight weeks remaining until election day on Nov. 4.
Obama planned on Tuesday to move in on a Republican theme, vowing to double federal funding for privately run charter schools and accusing opponent John McCain of having done nothing in his long Senate tenure to improve education for American students.
Charter schools, so-called because they are privately run, are a campaign issue because they generally conflict philosophically with the long U.S. tradition of providing federal education funding to public schools that are run by local governments.
In remarks prepared for delivery in Ohio, Obama said Tuesday the country needed a bipartisan drive to stop the deterioration of the U.S. educational system, which McCain has said must include a wide spectrum of school choices — including charter institutions.
"If we're going to make a real and lasting difference for our future, we have to be willing to move beyond the old arguments of left and right and take meaningful, practical steps to build an education system worthy of our children and our future," Obama planned to say.
Education reform has been the focus of a longtime partisan battle in the presidential election swing state.
While sounding a bipartisan note, Obama also attacked McCain for having spent three decades in Congress and "not done one thing to truly improve the quality of public education in our country. Not one real proposal or law or initiative. Nothing."
In conjunction with plans to unveil what aides called a major plan for education reform during a speech in Dayton, Ohio, Obama's campaign disclosed a new television ad that says "John McCain doesn't understand."
"John McCain voted to cut education funding. Against accountability standards. He even proposed abolishing the Department of Education. And John McCain's economic plan gives two hundred billion more to special interests while taking money away from public schools."
McCain, meanwhile, accumulated a sizable haul for the Republican campaign treasury during a fundraiser in Chicago, Obama's home base. Seizing on Palin's popularity, McCain told donors Monday that he is overwhelmed by the fervor she is generating for his White House bid. The event raised $4 million.
"I'm very proud and I'm very pleased at the enthusiasm that's been sparked," the presidential nominee said. The fundraiser followed several days of campaigning in which Palin, the once-little-known governor of Alaska, has nearly overshadowed the head of the ticket.
Palin already has been a boost to McCain's fundraising efforts. Of the $47 million he raised in August, $10 million came in the three days after he announced her as is vice presidential choice.
Because McCain has accepted public financing for the remainder of the campaign, the money raised Monday will go to the national Republican Party and state GOP committees, which will spend it on his behalf.
Earlier Monday, Obama broadly accused his Republican rivals of dishonesty as he battled to reclaim ownership of his message of change and stem the post-convention boost in the polls for McCain.
McCain has radically shifted tactics by putting less emphasis on claims to superior experience while moving in on Obama's promise to shake up the way Washington does business.
With his choice of Palin as running mate, McCain signaled he had decided he could not catch Obama by hammering on the Democrat's thin resume on the national stage.
Obama began the campaign's final eight-week push by criticizing Palin as much as he did his Senate colleague from Arizona.
He told supporters in Flint, Mich., that Palin has an interesting biography — "Mother, governor, moose shooter. That's cool" — but the election should be about who can change people's lives for the better. Obama said that won't come from a Republican ticket that almost always supports the same positions as President George W. Bush even though they say they will bring reform.
Putting their new attack strategy to work in swing state Missouri on Monday, McCain and Palin criticized Obama, in his first term as a Senator representing Illinois, for the amount of money he has requested for his home state, even though Alaska under Palin's leadership has asked Washington for 10 times more money per citizen for pet projects, by far the largest per-capita request among the 50 U.S. states.
While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, she had backed the project and only began her opposition after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
Obama criticized a new McCain ad that says Palin "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere."
"I mean, you can't just make stuff up. You can't just recreate yourself. You can't just reinvent yourself. The American people aren't stupid," Obama said.
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds responded to the charges of dishonesty by saying: "Barack Obama should familiarize himself with the honest facts: John McCain and Governor Palin have actually reformed government to root out money in politics and fought wasteful spending — Sen. Obama has not."
