U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama raised about the same amount of money in May.
Figures
released by their campaigns show Democrat Obama brought in $21.9
million. Republican McCain reported $21.5 million raised in May. Since
their respective presidential campaigns began, Obama has raised more
than twice as much money as McCain.
On the campaign trail
Friday, McCain traveled to Canada, where he delivered a speech
supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a pact that
Obama has criticized.
McCain told a group of business leaders in
Ottawa that if he is elected, the United States will honor its
international commitments to NAFTA.
During the Democratic
primary, Obama said the U.S. should negotiate with Canada and Mexico to
add tougher environmental and labor rules.
On Friday, Obama
launched an attack against McCain's proposal to allow offshore oil
drilling in U.S. coastal waters. Obama said the proposed drilling
would not lower fuel prices for many years.
McCain opposed such
drilling when he ran for president in 2000, but this week he said he
supports giving individual states the right to decide whether to allow
oil drilling.
Separately, the Obama campaign announced that the
Illinois senator will campaign next week for the first time with former
rival Hillary Clinton. Obama's campaign said the two senators will
campaign together June 27, but it released no further details.
These
meetings are a step towards unifying the Democratic Party after a long
and bruising primary campaign in which Obama clinched enough delegates
to secure the party nomination.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
