Obama tells La Crosse crowd action needed on crisis

LA CROSSE, WIS. -- Barack Obama returned to "Minnewisowa" on Wednesday, vowing to clean up messes in far-off places called Wall Street and Washington.

Just a day earlier, John McCain had been in Des Moines, making the same vow.

The visits, the 11th and 12th to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa in just over a month by Obama, John McCain and their running mates, were the latest evidence of just how crucial these states have become to both campaigns.

"Minnewisowa" is a fanciful name coined for a battleground region rich in electoral votes that has been relentlessly targeted by strategists for both presidential campaigns.

Taken together, the three states yield 27 electoral votes, more than either Ohio or Florida, traditionally considered the jackpots in presidential elections.

The Democratic presidential nominee Wednesday called for swift action on a rescue plan for the nation's financial sector, while declaring the crisis that necessitates it "an outrage" caused by "the greed and irresponsibility that has dominated Washington and Wall Street for years."

Addressing a crowd estimated at 15,000 by the La Crosse Fire Department, he added: "While there is plenty of blame to go around ... all of us now have a responsibility to solve this crisis because it affects the financial well-being of every single American. There will be time to punish those who set this fire, but now is the moment for us to come together and put the fire out."

It was an anger-tinged message tailored to confused and resentful residents of Main Street America who are the focus of both presidential campaigns.

All three Upper Midwest states have been up for grabs during the past two presidential election cycles, and the campaigns' event scheduling and ad spending show that they intend to make a stand in all three in November.

"What you've got here is a mega-state with similar demographics, overlapping media markets, and you can see that the campaign strategists are taking advantage of that by coming back here," said Barry Casselman, a Minneapolis-based political columnist, who coined "Minnewisowa" during the 2004 campaign. "After the last two elections, if these states continue to be close this year, the Minnewisowa notion will continue to matter."

Edgier populism

During his 45-minute speech, Obama dwelt on the nation's financial crisis, only touching on the campaign promises contained in his usual stump speech.

"This crisis is the final verdict on this failed philosophy" of economic deregulation, he said.

Unpopular as the financial bailout package may be, Obama argued that it's needed. "If we do not act, it will be harder for you to get a mortgage for your home or the loans you need to buy a car or send your children to college," he said.

Obama called the current crisis "an outrage because we did not get here by accident. ... It's the result of speculators who gamed the system, regulators who looked the other way and lobbyists who bought their way into our government."

Obama traveled from La Crosse to Washington, where he planned to vote Wednesday night for the bailout plan.

McCain, also headed back to the Capitol for the vote, said Wednesday the resurrected financial bailout bill isn't perfect but warned that the nation's financial crisis will become a full-fledged disaster if the plan fails. In a speech in Independence, Mo., McCain said the original proposal was flawed because it did not contain taxpayer protections, limits on executive compensation or protection of Americans' bank accounts.

Obama said that if he's elected Nov. 4, "my top priority will be to do everything I can to make sure that your tax dollars are protected."

And once the Wall Street rescue plan is in place, "we need to rescue families right here in La Crosse and across Wisconsin who are struggling to hold onto their jobs," he said.

Obama shed his often professorial tone for an edgier populism, mentioning McCain by name just once and castigating the Republican's claim that "Oh, Obama's going to raise your taxes. It's not true." He said his tax plans would result in a tax cut for 95 percent of the households in the nation, those making less than $250,000 a year.

"How many of you are making less than a quarter-million?" he asked, as virtually every hand in the crowd shot up.

Bellwether region?

Obama's stop in La Crosse was the fifth time he has visited Wisconsin since the primary season ended in June, and the city is at the heart of a swath of counties along the state's western border that have been solidly Democratic in recent presidential elections. But he was casting for a far broader audience, with media coverage coming not only from local news outlets, but also from the Twin Cities and northeastern Iowa.

"Because of the proximity of the states, the campaigns have a strategic rationale to think about them together," said Kathryn Pearson, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota. "You can go to one state and get media attention in the others, so it makes sense to look at them as a unit. But at the end of the day, each state is its own Electoral College prize."

Except for Iowa four years ago, all three states have voted Democratic during the past two election cycles -- but by such tight margins that both campaigns targeted them this year. That might seem surprising to Minnesotans, who live in the most reliably Democratic state in the nation; the last time it backed the Republican presidential candidate was in 1972.

"Iowa may not be in play anymore, primarily because of McCain's opposition to ethanol subsidies, but Minnesota and Wisconsin certainly aren't out of his reach," Casselman said. "If Minnesota goes for McCain, you won't have to look to any other states to see who's going to win."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Bob von Sternberg • 612-673-7184