Obama, back on trail, hits McCain on economy

RENO, Nevada (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama, back on the campaign trail on Saturday after an emotional trip to Hawaii, blasted White House rival John McCain for backing the Republican fiscal policies that led to an economic crisis.

At a campaign stop in normally Republican Nevada, where polls show him running slightly ahead of McCain, Obama expanded on a favorite theme: That McCain would be an economic clone of President George W. Bush.

He criticized McCain for saying again on Friday that government should ease its regulations on business and mocked the senator from neighboring Arizona for saying Bush's economic policies had gotten "out of hand."

"Let's be clear: John McCain attacking George Bush for his out-of-hand economic policy is like (Vice President) Dick Cheney attacking George Bush for his go-it-alone foreign policy," Obama told about 11,000 supporters at a chilly morning rally at the University of Nevada in Reno.

He said Bush did not seem offended, since he voted on Friday for McCain.

"And that's no surprise, because when it comes to the policies that matter for middle-class families, there's not an inch of daylight between George Bush and John McCain," Obama said.

Obama noted McCain had met with small business owners on Friday in Colorado and said afterward they wanted "lower taxes and less government regulation" of their businesses.

"None of us want to see unnecessary burdens on business. But after what we've seen on Wall Street, isn't it obvious by now that we need some common-sense rules of the road to protect consumers and our economy?" Obama said.

OBAMA IN LEAD

Obama has solidified his lead over McCain in national opinion polls ahead of the November 4 election, and McCain is playing defense against a surging Obama in about 10 states won by Bush in 2004.

Fast-growing Nevada, with five electoral votes, is a prime target for Obama, whose campaign is counting on a surge in Democratic voter registrations to aid it in key battlegrounds like Reno's Washoe County.

Democrats moved ahead of Republicans in voter registration in Washoe County last week for the first time in 30 years. In 2004, it had about 17,000 more registered Republicans than registered Democrats.

The Nevada campaign swing -- Obama will have a rally later on Saturday in Las Vegas -- followed a day in Hawaii, where Obama visited his seriously ill grandmother, who helped raise him from the age of 10 while his mother lived in Indonesia.

Obama, who arrived in Nevada from Hawaii in the early hours of Saturday morning, thanked the crowd for their support for his 85-year-old grandmother.

"So many people sent out their thoughts and prayers, sent my grandmother flowers," he said. "It meant the world to her and it meant the world to me. Thank you."

The rally at the university's baseball stadium was interrupted for about 10 minutes by a power outage. Obama left the stage and shook hands with chanting supporters until the power was restored.

"I told you, people are having a tough time paying their electricity bills," Obama said once the microphone worked again.

"Either that, or somebody from the McCain campaign kicked our plug out," he said, adding: "That's just a joke. There is no evidence of foul play."

(Editing by Philip Barbara)