Democrats take swings at McCain

WILKES-BARRE, PA. —  Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama trained their sights Tuesday on presumed Republican nominee John McCain -- needling him over his lack of economic expertise and what they said was his failure to understand the financial troubles of average Americans.

Wrestling for votes in Pennsylvania, which holds its primary April 22, Clinton and Obama mocked McCain for conceding last year that economic policy was “not something I’ve understood as well as I should.”

During a town-hall-style meeting here, Obama said McCain offered “four more years of the same George W. Bush policies that have gotten us into the pickle that we’re in right now.” He argued that McCain was most interested in tax cuts for wealthy Americans and trade agreements “that fail to look after American workers.” McCain’s response to the housing crisis, Obama said, “amounts to little more than standing on the sidelines and watching millions of Americans lose their homes.”

Clinton touched on similar themes as she addressed the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO in Philadelphia. “He looked at the housing crisis and he blamed consumers,” Clinton said of McCain, according to a text of her remarks. “The Bush-McCain philosophy could not be clearer: It’s the ownership society, which really means, ‘You’re on your own.’ ”

Steve Schmidt, a senior McCain advisor, on Tuesday described the economic plans of both Democratic candidates as “a recipe for disaster for the American family.”

“John McCain is going to make an argument to the American people that we don’t want to turn a page back to the failed policies of the past -- of high taxes, of out-of-control spending, of a regulatory environment that punishes the job creator,” Schmidt said.

McCain returned to his alma mater, Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday as part of his tour highlighting experiences that shaped his values.

He all but ignored his Democratic rivals when he spoke to several hundred students in the school’s field house about his indiscretions as a youth and his tendency to respond “aggressively and sometimes irresponsibly” when his honor was challenged.

McCain told students that the honor code he adopted at Episcopal stayed with him even in his most difficult hours as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

“There are many times when you will be tempted, or someone will tempt you to do something and no one will know,” he told his young audience. “The problem is -- because you have been imbued with the honor code -- is that you will know.”

McCain was greeted warmly by students, who laughed when he joked about his lack of interest in academics. But not everyone was pleased with his visit. McCain’s last questioner, 16-year-old Katelyn Halldorson, asked why he had come back to Episcopal.

“Judging by the amount of press representatives here . . . we can see that political motivation isn’t completely absent -- yet we were told this isn’t a political event,” Halldorson told McCain. “So what exactly is your purpose in being here?”

“I knew I should have cut this thing off,” McCain said with a grin, explaining that the tour is partly about inspiring public service. “I hope that attendance here was not compulsory. If it was, then I apologize.”

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maeve.reston@latimes.com

peter.nicholas@latimes.com

Reston reported from Virginia and Nicholas from Pennsylvania.