Obama takes campaign to Republican heartlands

Democrat Barack Obama today begins a two-week tour of US battleground states, aiming to draw sharp contrasts with Republican opponent John McCain – especially on the struggling American economy that has been laid low by shrinking growth, bounding unemployment and staggering increases in energy costs.

Mr McCain planned a series of fundraising stops first in Virginia and the nation’s capital, looking for donors as the general election campaign begins in earnest now that Hillary Clinton suspended her bid for the Democratic nomination and robustly threw her support behind Mr Obama over the weekend.