Obama Takes Populist Message to Wisconsin

JANESVILLE, Wis. -- Sen. Barack Obama blamed the politics of Washington for the faltering economy, saying the country is "not standing on the brink of recession due to forces beyond our control."

"It was a failure of leadership and imagination in Washington -- the culmination of decades of decisions that were made or put off without regard to the realities of a global economy and the growing inequality it's produced," Obama said in a speech today at a General Motors assembly plant.

Obama took a populist tone in linking the power of corporate special interests to the struggles of middle-class and lower-income workers, who have proven to be a loyal constituency for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Wearing a suit and tie, Obama stood at a podium on the factory floor and spoke from a TelePrompTer to workers in baseball caps and jeans.

Just a day earlier, they had absorbed news of GM's plans to shed 74,000 unionized jobs through buyouts.

Obama will spend much of the next week in Wisconsin, where economic themes are expected to play heavily in the campaign.

The Illinois senator argued that the Washington culture had created tax breaks "that could've gone into the pockets of working families," and sealed trade deals like NAFTA that contain "plenty of protections for corporations and their profits" but none for workers.

Lobbyist and special interest influence has killed health care reform, "riddled" the tax code with loopholes and "rigged our bankruptcy laws to make it harder to climb out of debt," Obama said.

He went on to lump Clinton with Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, by citing their votes to authorize the Iraq war.

"It's a Washington where politicians like John McCain and Hillary Clinton voted for a war in Iraq that should've never been authorized and never been waged - a war that is costing us thousands of precious lives and billions of dollars a week that could've been used" on schools, bridges, job training and child care, Obama said.

Announcing a new proposal, Obama said he would establish a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to invest $60 billion over 10 years and create nearly 2 million new construction jobs.

The Clinton campaign pointed out to reporters that the New York senator had already co-sponsored legislation creating an infrastructure bank.

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