RICHMOND, Va - Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday brushed aside Republican charges that his tax plan amounts to socialism, but he acknowledged it involves "spreading around opportunity" so that wealthier Americans -- like himself -- pay a little more to help lower-rung workers.
The core of Obama's plan would reverse tax cuts for Americans at the high end of the income scale that were passed during the Bush era. He noted that when those Bush-backed cuts were first proposed, his opponent for the White House, Republican John McCain, opposed them as irresponsibly targeted.
"Was John McCain a socialist back in 2000?" Obama asked at a news conference. Responding to the late-campaign line of attack repeated daily by McCain and running mate Sarah Palin, he said, "I think it's an indication that they have run out of ideas."
Obama made his remarks at a news conference after a meeting with foreign policy and military luminaries to discuss "urgent issues" facing the country from abroad, an attempt to inoculate himself against the fresh charge from the McCain side that he is too untested for the White House.
McCain and Palin have seized on comments from Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden that Obama would face a "generated crisis" within six months of becoming president because adversaries across the world would want to test his mettle.
McCain has said the statement from Obama's own running mate illustrates the danger of electing Obama. Biden, however, reached a different conclusion: He said Obama would fare well in such tests because he's "got steel in his spine."
Obama said that what Biden meant was that either man who takes over from President Bush on Jan. 20 will face significant tests on the global stage and that the period of transition between administrations "is always one in which we have to vigilant."
"Joe sometimes engages in rhetorical flourishes," Obama said. "His core point was the next administration is going to be tested regardless of who it is. ... The question is: Will the next president meet that test by moving America in a new direction, by sending a clear signal to the rest of the world that we are no longer about bluster and unilateralism and ideology?"
In a statement issued after the meeting, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said, "It's not leadership for Barack Obama to promise to be straight with Americans, only to dismiss serious statements and concern from his own running mate as simple rhetorical flourishes."
Obama sidestepped a question on whether he would attend a summit of world leaders the Bush administration has called for Nov. 15 to discuss the global economic crisis, saying he has ideas but doesn't want to say much about them yet.
"We have one president at a time," he said.
With 13 days remaining in the race, most polls show Obama leading in his bid to become the nation's first black president. He was campaigning in Virginia on Wednesday as he kept to an itinerary devoted almost exclusively to states that voted Republican in 2004, an indication of his confidence about the state of the race.
Both sides are nervous about what surprises could spring up to affect the race. McCain has had a perceived dominance on foreign policy issues over Obama, and the campaign wants to tamp down any impact of that issue.
Obama got a boost on that front over the weekend, when longtime Republican Colin Powell, a secretary of state under Bush, endorsed him.
Obama's meeting called together over a dozen retired generals and foreign policy mavens from Capitol Hill and the diplomatic word, all campaign advisers at some level, and included Biden and others by phone. He was flanked by the group on stage as he spoke, and a "Judgment to Lead" sign hung from the podium to further reinforced the point.
Obama said the meeting had been scheduled for weeks and was not planned to try to stem any political damage from Biden's remarks.
On taxes, McCain launched a new attack over the weekend, saying Obama's plan to provide a US$500 tax credit would include even those who pay no taxes and "convert the IRS into a giant welfare agency, redistributing massive amounts of wealth at the direction of politicians in Washington." McCain has accused Obama of favoring socialistic tax redistribution policies.
Obama's response at the news conference did not address the US$500 tax break. Instead, he said that overall, he wants to reverse the cuts that went to the wealthiest Americans when Bush's plan was enacted in 2001 and use the revenue to give tax cuts to workers who make less than US$250,000 a year.
"That does involve us spreading around opportunity and it means that for people like myself, making a lot more than US$250,000 a year, paying a little bit more so that the waitress who is surviving on minimum wage can put a roof over her head," Obama said.
Bush's reductions provided across-the-board cuts for all income levels, and McCain opposed them at the time because they were not accompanied by spending cuts and because they went "to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans."
Now McCain wants to extend those Bush tax cuts and argues that anything else amounts to a tax increase.
