By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Democrat Barack Obama opened a campaign blitz in battleground Florida on Monday, buoyed by the endorsement of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, while Republican opponent John McCain defended his turf in bellwether Missouri.
With two weeks left to the Nov. 4 election, Obama promised a Tampa, Florida, audience he would halt home mortgage foreclosures in their tracks and updated a famous Ronald Reagan line to criticize Republican handling of the nation's deepening economic distress.
"At this rate, the question isn't just `Are you better off than you were four years ago?', it's `Are you better off than you were four weeks ago?"' Obama told the raucous crowd of 8,000.
Voters are consumed with anxieties over chaos in the financial system that has wiped out billions in retirement savings, sent home mortgage foreclosures to near record levels and produced an economic nosedive that many fear could mean a deep and prolonged recession. The economic turmoil has played to Obama's favor, as McCain has turned in what has been perceived as an unsteady performance on economic issues.
In an October 1980 debate with incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter, Reagan asked listeners, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" Reagan went on to oust Carter in that presidential election.
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store