Sen. John McCain has been conducting radio addresses for several weeks now as the anticipated Republican presidential nominee.

Sen. Barack Obama has just aired first radio address in that same role for the Dems. Bursting the lead balloon of McCain’s recent hollow attacks on everything from “substance” to Iraq to comprehensive energy strategy, Sen. Obama lays out in very clear terms exactly why his course of action will work — on so many levels — for Americans by tying Iraq’s oil-driven budget surplus directly to the Bush Administration’s record deficits and the exorbitant $10 billion a month cost of the Iraq War to our own country’s need for economic growth.

In other words… hammer, meet nail head:

Presidential Candidate Barack Obama’s Radio Address (aif audio file)

Some excerpts (rush transcript):

First, we learned that the federal budget deficit could reach nearly half a trillion dollars next year. Eight years after we had a record surplus, we’re now faced with record deficits. This mortgaging of our children’s future is a direct result of the Bush Administration’s dangerously failed fiscal policies.

The second thing we learned this week was that the Iraqi government now has a $79 billion budget surplus thanks to their windfall oil profits. And while this Iraqi money sits in American banks, American taxpayers continue to spend $10 billion a month to defend and rebuild Iraq.

That’s right. America faces a huge budget deficit. Iraq has a surplus. Now, Senator McCain promises to continue President Bush’s open-ended commitment to the war in Iraq, while refusing to pressure Iraqis to take responsibility for their own country.

…So, the choice in this election could not be clearer. The American people our worse off than they were eight years ago. Everywhere I go I meet people who are working hard for their families but are still falling behind.

Our government has lost touch with the most fundamental American values: the belief that everyone should be able to live the American dream; the sense that we are all in this together as Americans.

Senator McCain talks about putting our country first, but he is running for a third term of the very same policies that have set our country back. We can’t afford to take that chance. We can’t afford to keep running up record deficits while we favor the few over the many. We can’t prioritize a misguided war in Iraq over the urgent needs of the American people.

I believe that we need to move in a new direction.

It’s time to restore balance and fairness to our economy and give working people immediate and meaningful relief. It’s time to stop giving tax cuts to corporations that ship jobs overseas and to put a tax cut into the pocket of 95% of working Americans and their families. It’s time to end the war in Iraq responsibly by asking Iraqis to take responsibility for their future and to invest in their own country. It’s time to make a historic effort to end our dependence on foreign oil by investing $150 billion over the next decade in alternative energy and more fuel-efficient cars even as we push oil companies to increase production. This will create millions of new “green jobs”. Good jobs that lift up our families and communities.

This is a defining moment in our history. We can either continue down a failed course or we can choose a better future. …

(Emphasis added)