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Today in Charlotte, NC Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama expanded his attack on John McCain and the economy to include McCain’s support for deregulating the health insurance industry. He said that McCain wants to continue on the same disastrous path that created the economic crisis.

He painted McCain as dangerous because of his lack of knowledge about the economy, “We’re now seeing the disastrous consequences of this philosophy all around us – on Wall Street as well as Main Street. And yet Senator McCain, who candidly admitted not long ago that he doesn’t know as much about economics as he should, wants to keep going down the same, disastrous path.”

The Democrat then connected McCain, deregulation, and healthcare, “He calls himself “fundamentally a deregulator,” when reckless deregulation and lack of oversight is a big part of the problem. And here’s the really scary part. Now this “Great Deregulator” wants to turn his attention to health care. He wrote in the current issue of a magazine – the current issue – that we need to open up health care to – quote – “more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking.” That’s right, John McCain says he wants to do for health care what Washington has done for banking.

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“Over the years, states have come up with common sense rules to make sure that insurance companies aren’t just looking out for their own profits, but for your health. And we cannot toss those rules out the window. As anyone who has health care knows, the one thing we don’t need to do is give insurance companies an even freer hand over what they charge, who they cover, and what they’ll cover,” Obama said.

He stressed that deregulation can’t be allowed to spread to healthcare, “The radical idea that government has no role to play in protecting ordinary Americans has wreaked havoc on our economy. And we cannot let this dangerous philosophy spread to health care. What we’ve seen over the last few days is nothing less than the final verdict on this failed philosophy.”

Obama seems to have hit his stride on the issue of the economy. The campaign has found a message that they can use against McCain with voters every single day. The complete bungling of the issue of the federal bailout is something that the McCain campaign is still reeling from, and we have reached the point in the campaign where voters are paying attention and the time for gimmicks and distractions is over. McCain can’t hide anymore. He has to talk about the issues that matter, and so far, he is off to a very poor start.

Full Text of Obama’s Remarks