Obama to tackle security issue with Powell support

Washington: With some polls showing him opening a double-digit lead, Democrat Barack Obama pressed his assault on Republican John McCain's economic proposals while also introducing national security differences into the mix in the campaign's final stretch.

The endorsement of Obama by longtime Republican Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, gives the Democrat an opening to go on the offensive on foreign affairs. The topic is generally considered his weakest against McCain, but Powell's backing undercut McCain's perceived dominance.

So, while in the Virginia capital of Richmond yesterday, Obama and running mate Joe Biden met a group of national security advisers to the campaign.

Obama planned to talk publicly after the discussion about his approach to world affairs, and how it differs from McCain's.

The meeting comes a day after McCain questioned Obama's readiness to respond to a major crisis that the Democrat's own running mate, Joe Biden, predicted he was bound to face early in his presidency.

McCain recalled his experience as a Navy pilot preparing to launch a bombing run during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which Biden said tested a new President John F. Kennedy. "America will not have a president who needs to be tested," McCain said. "I've been tested, my friends."

Obama's surge in the polls has coincided with Americans' growing anxiety over the economic crisis which has emerged as the predominant issue with less than two weeks to Election Day.

Obama's other events in Virginia, rallies in Richmond and Leesburg, were to focus heavily on the financial meltdown.

Lessons from grandma

In his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Barack Obama spoke of how his grandmother started as a secretary without a college degree and worked her way up to be a vice-president of a bank.

"She's the one who taught me about hard work," Obama said in that speech in Denver. "She put off buying a new car or a new dress so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me."

Obama's maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has been a powerful figure throughout his life. But now 85, she has a broken hip and other ailments, and her medical condition has been described as "very serious". He is therefore cancelling his campaign appearances for two days to fly to her bedside today.