Calling on Republicans to unite behind Sen. John McCain's bid for the presidency, former President George H.W. Bush endorsed the Arizona Republican on Monday.
"His character was forged in the crucible of war," Bush said as he stood in a Houston aircraft hangar with McCain. "He has the right values and experience to guide our nation forward at this historic moment."
Bush said the criticism that McCain cannot appeal to conservative Republicans was "absurd" and asserted that McCain has "a solid conservative record, yet he is not above reaching out to the other side."
"He will do just fine with the base of the Republican Party," he said.
Bush also hinted that it was time for contenders for the Republican nomination to drop out and unite behind a candidate. As McCain has drawn further ahead of his chief rival, Mike Huckabee, McCain has made it clear that he would like the former Arkansas governor to drop out of the race.
DEMOCRATS FOCUS ON THE ECONOMY
Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y, and Barack Obama, D-Ill., intensified their populist appeals, responding to economic anxiety and pushing the Democratic Party further from the business-friendly posture once championed by Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton, speaking on the eve of the Wisconsin primary but looking to primaries in Ohio and Texas on March 4, issued a 12-page compendium of her economic policies that emphasizes programs aiding families stressed by high oil prices, home foreclosures, costly student loans and soaring health care premiums.
"We need tax breaks for the middle class, not for the wealthy and the well-connected," she said at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis. "We're going to rein in the special interests and get the $55 billion in giveaways and subsidies they've gotten under Republicans back into your pockets."
Campaigning in Ohio before flying to Wisconsin, Obama said the wealthy had "made out like bandits" under the Bush administration and called for an end to tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas.
OBAMA DEFENDS BORROWED LINES
Obama said he doesn't think it's a big deal that he borrowed lines from his friend Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, although he probably should have given him credit.
Patrick said a year and a half ago that words matter, like "I have a dream" and "all men are created equal." Obama used the same lines Saturday in Wisconsin. Obama said that Patrick suggested that he use the lines to respond to Clinton's suggestion that Obama is more of a talker than a doer.
Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson accused Obama of plagiarizing Patrick and the campaign posted clips on YouTube to illustrate the similarities in the speeches.
Said Obama: "I've written two books, wrote most of my speeches. Deval and I do trade ideas all the time. He's occasionally used lines of mine, and I ... used words of his."
NEWS SERVICES
