Today on the presidential campaign trail

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - IN THE HEADLINES

McCain says windfall profits tax would worsen dependence on foreign oil ... ABC News-Washington Post poll: Obama leads McCain by small margin ... With economy top issue, McCain and Obama offer competing visions on taxes ... AFSCME and MoveOn together criticize McCain's stance on Iraq war in new ad

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McCain hits Obama on windfall profits tax

DALLAS (AP) — Sen. John McCain criticized Barack Obama's call for a windfall profits tax on the oil industry, predicting it would worsen America's dependence on foreign energy supplies.

"If that plan sounds familiar, it's because that was President Carter's big idea, too. ... I'm all for recycling, but it's better applied to paper and plastic than to the failed policies of the 1970s," the Republican presidential contender said in excerpts of a speech planned for Tuesday evening.

McCain also criticized Obama for supporting energy legislation sought by the Bush administration in 2005, a measure he called "a grab bag of corporate favors." McCain opposed the measure, although his campaign did not immediately respond to a request for specific provisions that he opposed.

McCain said United States dependence on foreign oil has grown markedly worse since the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s.

He said he favors lifting the existing moratorium on offshore oil drilling and leaving it up to the states to decide whether to explore for energy sources in coastal waters.

He also called for greater use of nuclear power as well as for alternative energy sources and greater conservation measures.

The campaign also began airing a new television ad on Tuesday to draw attention to McCain's call for cutting back on the pollutants that cause global warming.

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Poll: Obama slightly ahead of McCain

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain nationally by a small margin in the presidential race, a new survey shows.

The ABC News-Washington Post poll finds Obama slightly ahead, 48 percent to 42 percent.

Nearly half say they're not comfortable that Obama has enough experience to be president, a large number of doubters. Among two pivotal swing groups, the rivals split independents evenly while McCain is ahead among white Catholics. Strains from the drawn-out Democratic primaries are still showing: While nearly nine in 10 Republicans back McCain, just eight in 10 Democrats support Obama. Yet Obama leads McCain in trust to handle most issues asked in the survey, including the top problem — the economy. He also does better on most personal attributes, including better understanding peoples' problems, and is tied with McCain on leadership, which the Republican was ahead on three months ago.

The poll was conducted from June 12-15 and involved telephone interviews with 1,125 adults. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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McCain, Obama offer different visions on taxes

WASHINGTON (AP) — Make more than $250,000 a year? Watch out. Barack Obama wants to raise your income taxes. Social Security taxes, too.

Run a corporation? Lucky you. John McCain wants to cut your business taxes.

Those positions illustrate pieces of two vastly different approaches to the economy, an issue at the forefront of voters' minds given that the country is teetering on the brink of — if not already in — a recession as gas prices soar and layoffs rise amid a credit crisis and a housing slump.

Obama, the Democrat, seemingly has a traditional liberal outlook of taxing the rich more while having the government help people of more modest means through tax breaks. McCain, the Republican, advocates a classic conservative vision of cutting taxes — many geared toward businesses — to promote competition within a free-market system.

Neither plan is cheap.

The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, gives a preliminary estimate that over the next decade, McCain's tax proposals would reduce federal revenues $3.7 trillion while Obama's cuts would amount to $2.7 trillion.

The center said the cuts would slice roughly 10 percent and 7 percent, respectively, of the federal revenues scheduled for collection under current law. But the center's estimate — seemingly the first nonpartisan comprehensive comparison of the plans — is incomplete because it doesn't account for health care tax proposals or, at least in McCain's case, consider how proposals to slash spending would offset some costs.

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AFSCME, MoveOn ad targets McCain on Iraq war

WASHINGTON (AP) — A major labor union and the liberal organization MoveOn.org are joining forces to air a provocative new ad portraying John McCain's Iraq policy as a prolonged presence that would involve a new generation of Americans.

Paid for by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and by MoveOn.org, the commercial represents an expansion by Democratic-leaning groups of a campaign against McCain. It also targets one of McCain's major assets — his public credibility on national security issues.

The ad will begin airing nationally Wednesday on CNN and MSNBC, and in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin markets. It will run for a week at a cost of $543,000. In the ad, an actress with an infant child speaks as if she were addressing McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee.

"Hi John McCain," she says. "This is Alex. And he's my first. So far his talents include trying any new food and chasing after our dog. That, and making my heart pound every time I look at him. And so, John McCain, when you say you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex? Because if you were, you can't have him."

McCain has stressed that his goal is to reduce American casualties, shift security missions to Iraqis and, ultimately, have a non-combat U.S. troop presence in Iraq similar to that in South Korea. He has speculated that such a presence could last 100 years or more.

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THE DEMOCRATS

Barack Obama meets with community leaders in Detroit before talking to students in Taylor, Mich.

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THE REPUBLICANS

John McCain gives a speech on energy and raises campaign cash in Texas.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Over time, we must shift our entire energy economy toward a sustainable mix of new and cleaner power sources." — Republican John McCain, in excerpts of a speech planned for Tuesday evening.

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STAT OF THE DAY:

John McCain won Michigan's Republican presidential primary in 2000, beating George W. Bush by 8 points — 51 percent to 43 percent. Turnout for the GOP contest topped 1.2 million.

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Compiled by Ann Sanner.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080617/ap_on_el_pr/2008_race_rundown [link]