Obama takes hit on economic policy

Campaign's a ripoff of Clinton's, her supporters, McCain adviser maintains

White House hopeful Barack Obama's economic platform set off a three-way fight Wednesday as aides to Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton accused Obama of stealing Clinton's ideas.

Obama fired back that McCain lacks economic know-how.

"Obama's plan today is the most shameless piece of potential plagiarism that I have ever seen," McCain economic advisor Kevin Hassett said. The Clinton campaign helpfully e-mailed his comments to reporters.

"He basically took Clinton's words and Clinton's policies and called them his own," Hassett said. "If I were a professor I'd give him an F and try to get him kicked out of school for something this terrible ... I remember Mrs. Clinton saying shared prosperity and I remember the bill that she introduced in August for infrastructure. The fact is these are things Obama has taken as his own without crediting the source of the ideas which was Mrs. Clinton."

Clinton herself said, "A plan that fails to provide universal health care, fails to address the housing crisis, and fails to immediately start creating good paying jobs in America again will not turn the economy around and provide the real relief that our people need. We need real results not more rhetoric."

The New York senator's campaign said she proposed a national infrastructure bank in August and that Obama's energy plan is a rehash of hers. The Obama campaign responded that his bank proposal is better than hers and that he introduced his energy plan before hers.

"John McCain started attacking me on economic policy, which I thought was flattering. It makes clear that he knows who his opponent is going to be, and I am looking forward to a great debate on the issues with John McCain," Obama told a crowd at the Waukeshaw County fairgrounds in Wisconsin.

"I have to say though that I was surprised that he took me on on economics because he has admitted ... economics is not his strong suit," Obama said. "I mean he said 'I don't understand economics very well' and after what he said it shows because his main economic philosophy is to continue the same tax breaks that George Bush has been perpetuating over the last seven years. If John McCain wants to debate the specifics of how well the economy has worked for ordinary families over the last seven years that is a debate that I am happy to have."