U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, who had planned an economic  tour through the industrial Midwest, is changing his schedule because of Hurricane Gustav. Instead of staying overnight in the battleground state of Wisconsin on Monday, Obama is flying back to his home in Chicago to monitor the storm.

He also called for a moment of silence at a Labor Day rally in Detroit in the afternoon, saying it was not a time for political speeches.

“I wanted to talk about organized labor as the backbone of our economy and of our country and I wanted to talk about how we sustain that middle class against all the challenges we face today and how we promote policies that honor the dignity of work,” he said.

“But I have to tell you that, as we meet today, I have to change my plans a little bit. Our neighbors and our fellow citizens in Louisiana and across the Gulf Coast are once again under siege from a terrible storm,” he added.

“Although  we are prayerful that this will not be the same kind situation that we saw three years ago, today’s not a day political speeches. I hope you’ll forgive me. I hope you don’t mind.” 

“I want everybody to remember that there is a time for us to argue politics but there’s a time for us to come together as Americans.

“I know John McCain wants what’s best for the people who have been evacuated. I know (President) George Bush wants what’s best for them and so do I. And so I want all of us to come together.”

The Obama campaign sent e-mails and text messages to its network of volunteers and donors, asking them to send donations to the Red Cross in order to help the residents of the Gulf Coast.

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Photo credit: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook. Sen. Barack Obama speaks to a crowd at the annual Labor Day parade in Detroit. Sept. 1, 2008

Sen. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, on the floor of the Democratic convention, talks about the importance of the economy as an issue in the 2008 elections with Corbett Daly, Washington bureau chief for Thomson Reuters Markets.

Reuters Inside the Tent has more than 40 delegates and other attendees in Denver and St. Paul, equipped with video cameras to capture the conventions from the ground up. Click here for a full list of contributors at the Democratic National Convention. We’ll be moving to St. Paul for the Republican National Convention next week.

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PHOENIX - Part of the drill when running for the highest office in the United States is simply looking  and sounding  presidential.

Cue John McCain. The Arizona senator and Republican presidential candidate started a weekly radio address on Saturday, modeled after President George W. Bush’s regular broadcast ritual.

“Good morning. I’m John McCain, and this week I’ve been on the road in Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,” the candidate said in his first address, according to a copy of the remarks.

“I’ve been holding town hall meetings to talk over the subject on most everyone’s minds these days – our slowing economy.”

McCain went on to review his week, speaking about the economy and his proposals to wean the nation from its dependence on foreign oil.

No mention was made of comments by a top economic adviser, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, who described the United States as “a nation of whiners” in a mental recession.

McCain did get a few jabs in at his opponent, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, though.

“In an economic downturn, the worst of all ideas is to raise taxes. And Senator Obama will do just that,” McCain said.

He ended by saying the country had beat longer odds during challenging circumstances in the past. “Very soon, we’re going to get this economy running again at full strength,” he said.

“Thanks for listening.”   

 Photo credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst; McCain addresses League of United Latin American Citizens in Washington, D.C., July 7, 2008.

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CHARLES CITY, Indiana - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried on Thursday to win over members of one of his most skeptical audiences: senior citizens.

Those voters have tended to be a strong base for Obama’s rival Hillary Clinton, a former first lady and New York senator. At 60, Clinton is older than the 46-year-old Obama and is seen by many older voters as the more experienced candidate.

Visiting an assisted living center in Indiana, the Illinois senator shared stories about his grandfather’s service in World War II, his grandmother’s frugality and his mother’s battle with cancer.

He also expressed empathy for the daily struggles of older people worried about paying for prescription drugs and health care while trying to get by on a fixed income.

In a proposal that was popular with the group, Obama promised to try to eliminate the income tax on their Social Security benefits.

He also underlined his opposition to a temporary suspension of the federal gasoline tax — an idea proposed by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain  and also supported by Clinton.

Obama said the gas tax suspension “isn’t a real solution” because it would provide, at most, only a short-term fix to the energy problem. He also said it would divert money from the fund used to pay for highway repairs.

One questioner mentioned an idea that Clinton has proposed — suspending the gasoline tax and making up the difference for the highway trust fund with a tax on windfall profits of oil companies.

The questioner, an older woman, asked whether a short-term fix to the energy problem was such a bad thing, remarking jokingly that “a lot of us are nothing but short-timers.”

That drew laughter from the group, prompting Obama to say: “You look like you’re going to be around for a while.”

Obama seemed to impress the crowd after a nearly hour-long visit.

Lavera Schroeder, 82, said she found Obama to be a “normal person” who “talked on our terms” and did not use confusing words or jargon that the group would not understand.

“He said his mother tried to get by,” she said. “That’s how we grew up. We ate molasses and home-made bread.”

But Schroeder said she would not be able to vote for Obama in Tuesday’s primary election in Indiana because she had been in the hospital and not had a chance to register.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/John Gress (Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama campaigns at the CMW specialty metals factory in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 30)

To great effect during the Texas primary, Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton ran a television ad arguing that she was best able to handle a late night national security crisis if elected to the White House. Now she’s gone back to that well again.

The focus this time is the see-sawing economy and imploding housing market, leading Clinton to question whether presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain can handle that call at 3 a.m.

Clinton, who trails rival Barack Obama in the overall Democratic delegate race, leads in polls in Pennsylvania, the next state to hold its primary. The two senators are neck-and-neck in Indiana, which follows in early May.

Can this new ad focused on McCain help her close the gap again on Obama?

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