By David Saltonstall
Daily News Senior Correspondent
Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden went after rising GOP star Sarah Palin Monday, casting the vice presidential nominee as a flip-flopper with "extreme" views.
With his poll numbers sliding, Obama smacked Palin and GOP nominee John McCain for a new ad boasting that as governor of Alaska, she killed the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere," a $398 million span proposed for an island of 50 people.
In fact, Palin at first supported the bridge, numerous records show. As recently as July, she told reporters she pulled her support only after the bridge became a symbol of pork-barrel spending and she saw "the writing on the wall," a video Monday showed.
"I mean, you can't just make stuff up," Obama, stumping in Michigan, told CBS News. "You can't just reinvent yourself. The American people aren't stupid."
Just in case no one got the message, Obama's team later released a hard-hitting ad that disputed the GOP nominees' self-description as "mavericks," with Palin's bridge flip-flop Exhibit A.
"Politicians lying about their records?" says the ad. "You don't call that maverick. You call it more of the same."
The Democrats' tough talk came as new polls showed McCain surging since naming Palin to his ticket 11 days ago.
A USA Today/Gallup poll showed McCain up, 50% to 46%, among registered voters, the Republican's biggest lead since January. A Washington Post/ABC News survey found white women flocking to McCain, 53% to 41%, a statistical reversal from two weeks ago.
Republicans responded in kind, saying that as an Illinois senator, Obama had requested nearly $1 billion in pork projects through legislative earmarks.
"The only explanation for their hysterical attacks is that they're afraid that when John McCain and Sarah Palin are in the White House, Barack Obama's nearly $1 billion in earmark spending will stop dead in its tracks," McCain-Palin spokesman Brian Rogers said.
Earlier, Biden ramped up his rhetoric against Palin, saying the Alaska governor would soon have to defend her "fairly extreme" positions.
Asked to elaborate, aides to Biden later cited Palin's past statements expressing doubt that manmade pollution contributed to global warming as well as her opposition to stem-cell research and abortion, even in cases of rape.
The Democratic duo got an assist from former primary rival Hillary Clinton, who stumped through Florida for Obama.
Clinton argued that returning Republicans to the White House "is like asking the iceberg to save the Titanic." With News Wire Services
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