'The World'

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

DENVER (Reuters) – Democrat Barack Obama sharpened his criticism of rival John McCain Sunday, warning a huge crowd of more than 100,000 supporters that a McCain White House would mean four more years of failed Republican policies and broken politics.

The Illinois senator, concluding a two-day swing through the Western battlegrounds of Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, renewed his favorite theme -- that McCain represents another term for Republican President George W. Bush.

"We're not going to let George Bush pass the torch to John McCain," Obama told audience estimated by Denver police at more than 100,000 -- the biggest crowd in a campaign that has already set records for fundraising.

The thunderous gathering, which Obama aides said exceeded the 100,000 who saw Obama at a recent rally in St. Louis, jammed a downtown Denver park and filled the steps of the Colorado state capital building.

"Just this morning, Senator McCain said that he and President Bush 'share a common philosophy,'" Obama told the crowd. "I guess that was John McCain finally giving us a little straight talk."

Obama repeated the criticism at a later rally in Ft. Collins, where about 50,000 supporters filled a campus yard at Colorado State University.

He said "the Bush-McCain philosophy" benefited the rich and promised the wealth would trickle down to everyone else. He noted Bush had voted for McCain last week.

"Well, Colorado, George Bush isn't the only one who gets to vote early -- you can vote early too. And you can finally put an end to the Bush-McCain philosophy," Obama said.

A spokesman for McCain, an Arizona senator, said Obama had not bucked the Democratic Party on major issues.

"John McCain opposed President Bush's wasteful spending policy, his Big Oil energy policy and his efforts to grow the federal government by 40 percent -- Obama supported Bush on all three," campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said.

MCCAIN ON DEFENSIVE

Obama leads McCain in national opinion polls nine days before the November 4 election, and is hoping to put Colorado's nine electoral votes in his column. Colorado is one of about a dozen states won by Bush in 2004 that McCain is struggling to defend.

Obama has focused on states like Colorado that allow early voting, urging supporters to cast their ballots before November 4 in the hopes of luring first-time and infrequent voters to the polls.

Polls show Obama with a solid lead in Colorado, where the Democrats held their national nominating convention and Obama gave his acceptance speech before 75,000 in Denver's open-air football stadium.

"Do you guys ever have a small crowd in Denver?" Obama asked as he took the stage before the sprawling sea of supporters.

Colorado has been trending toward Democrats in recent years amid an influx of new residents and growth in the Hispanic population. Bush carried the state by five percentage points in 2004.

Obama plans to launch a tour of Ohio and Pennsylvania on Monday that will feature what aides called his "closing argument" to voters, making his case for change from Bush's Republican policies.

He told supporters McCain was cranking up his negative attacks in the race's final days in a desperate effort to catch up. "John McCain has been throwing everything he's got at us, hoping something sticks," he said.

Obama picked up the endorsement of Britain's Financial Times newspaper, which said in an editorial it was "confident that Mr. Obama is the right choice."