http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/27/AR2008032703279.html?hpid=topnewsBy Perry Bacon Jr. and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, March 28, 2008; Page A06
Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday sharply criticized presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain's views on the housing crisis, illustrating a wide gap between the two parties on how to fix the ailing economy.
Sen. McCain and the Democrats long have sparred over U.S. policy toward Iraq, but the collapse of the subprime lending market and subsequent softening in other sectors of the economy have opened a second front in the competition among the presidential rivals.
In an economic speech on Tuesday, McCain (Ariz.) said he supports government assistance for Americans facing home foreclosure because of the turmoil in financial markets. But he declined to embrace the kind of government intervention for individuals and institutions favored by Clinton and Obama, arguing that "it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers."
Obama (Ill.) and Clinton (N.Y.) have pounced on that quote in an effort to paint McCain as indifferent to the problems of ordinary Americans. Speaking in New York yesterday, Obama characterized McCain's views as amounting to "little more than watching this crisis happen." Clinton, appearing in Raleigh, N.C., said McCain prefers to ignore the crisis or simply blame families for their problems.
"Sometimes the phone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House and it's an economic crisis," Clinton said, alluding to an ad she ran against Obama weeks ago. "And we need a president who is ready and willing and able to answer that call." McCain's plan, she said, does virtually nothing to ease the credit or housing crisis. "It seems like if the phone were ringing, he would just let it ring and ring and ring," she said.
Stung by the Democrats' rhetoric, the McCain team fought back yesterday. Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive who was recently tapped by McCain to head the Republican National Committee's 2008 victory fund, accused the Democrats of "mischaracterizing" McCain's remarks, calling their criticisms "politics of the worst sort."
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