The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, St Louis

Addressing a sea of 100,000 supporters Saturday, Democrat Barack Obama fired back against White House rival John McCain on taxes and toxic campaign messages 17 days out from election day.

Just over two weeks before the November 4 election, the Republican insisted that Obama's economic plan would drive up taxes and "kill" job creation as the United States weathers its worst financial crisis in decades.

But the Democrat, who is riding high in national and state polls, said McCain was positing false arguments including via automated "robo-calls" to voters that portray Obama as a secret radical bent on subverting democracy. "You guys have seen the ads. Some of you have received the phone calls," the Illinois senator told an enormous crowd in St Louis numbered by police at 100,000, his biggest yet in the United States.

Missouri voted for Republican President George W. Bush in both the last two elections, but Obama said the "winds of change" were blowing in the heartland state and across the nation.

He added: "With the economy in turmoil and the American Dream at risk, the American people don't want to hear politicians attack each other.

"You want to hear about how we're going to attack the challenges facing middle-class families each and every day."

At his own rally in North Carolina, another Republican state now very much in play, McCain once again invoked Ohio plumber Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher, who is now a hero of conservatives after challenging Obama on taxes.