Obama Calls McCain A Bush Imitator In Colorado

Democrat Barack Obama portrayed Republican rival John McCain as a weak imitation of President George W. Bush on Sunday and warned a McCain White House would mean four more years of failed policies and broken politics.

"We're not going to let George Bush pass the torch to John McCain," Obama told a crowd of more than 100,000 supporters who jammed a downtown Denver park and sprawled up the steps of the Colorado state capital building.

The Illinois senator, concluding a two-day campaign swing through the crucial Western battlegrounds of Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, once again hit his favorite theme -- that Americans cannot afford four more years of failed Republican leadership.

"Just this morning, Senator McCain said that he and President Bush 'share a common philosophy,'" Obama said. "I guess that was John McCain finally giving us a little straight talk."

Obama said "the Bush-McCain philosophy" benefited the rich and promised the wealth would trickle down to everyone else. He noted Bush had voted for McCain last week.

"Well, Colorado, George Bush isn't the only one who gets to vote early -- you can vote early too. And you can finally put an end to the Bush-McCain philosophy," he said.

Obama leads McCain in national opinion polls nine days before the Nov. 4 election, and is hoping to put Colorado's nine electoral votes in his column. Colorado is one of about a dozen states won by Bush in 2004 that McCain is struggling to defend.

EARLY VOTING

Obama has focused on states like Colorado that allow early voting, urging supporters to cast their ballots before Nov. 4 in the hopes of luring first-time and infrequent voters to the polls.

Polls show Obama with a solid lead in Colorado, where the Democrats held their national nominating convention and Obama gave his acceptance speech before 75,000 in Denver's open-air football stadium.

"Do you guys ever have a small crowd in Denver?" Obama asked as he took the stage before the sprawling sea of supporters.

Colorado has been trending toward Democrats in recent years amid an influx of new residents and growth in the Hispanic population. Bush carried the state by five percentage points in 2004.

Obama told supporters McCain was cranking up his negative attacks in the race's final days in a desperate effort to catch up.

"John McCain has been throwing everything he's got at us, hoping something sticks," he said.