Strickland mashes McCain on economy

Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio, speaking for Democrat Barack Obama, ripped into Republican John McCain today on issue No. 1: jobs.

Citing Friday's job report that showed another 159,000 jobs cut during September, Strickland went after McCain for saying on Sept. 15, in the early days of the current Wall Street meltdown, that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”

McCain has tried to explain that he was talking about American workers, but Strickland continued Obama's line of attack: "John McCain doesn’t seem to understand that this crisis isn’t two weeks old. Maybe he doesn’t realize that we’ve lost jobs every month this year. Maybe he doesn’t know that the average family’s income is down $2,000 in the Bush economy. Maybe because John McCain’s trying to remember how many homes he owns, he doesn’t understand that 7,000 families are losing their homes each day."

Strickland, who supported Hillary Clinton during the primaries, then proceeded to bash McCain's tax cut and healthcare proposals. "John McCain just doesn’t get it," he said. "He hasn’t said one thing he’d do to make his economy look any different than George Bush’s economy.

"Barack Obama does gets it," Strickland said, then outlining Obama's proposals on jobs, taxes, and healthcare aimed at helping the middle class.

"Right now, the change we need is Barack Obama’s plan to jumpstart our economy and move America forward."