Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

McCain compares Obama to Europe's socialist leaders

Updated at 6:49 pm on 19 October 2008

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has compared Barack Obama to socialist leaders in Europe, saying his rival wants to raise taxes on the wealthy to give money to the poor.

The Arizona senator is trying to erode the advantage Senator Obama has built on the issue of the economy as he spent Saturday campaigning in traditionally Republican states that he is in danger of losing - North Carolina and Virginia.

Barack Obama drew two huge crowds, totalling about 175,000 people, in Missouri, a battleground state that backed Republican President George Bush twice.

He accused Senator McCain of mischaracterizing his tax plan.

He also said the Republican's economic program put the interests of the well-connected above those of waitresses and janitors.

Latest poll

Democrat Barack Obama's lead over Republican John McCain in the United States presidential race has dropped to 3 points.

That's according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll which says Senator Obama leads his rival by 48 to 45% among likely American voters, down 1 percentage point.

The four-day tracking poll has a margin of error of 2.9 points.

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