Clinton's 100-day agenda included the start of a troop withdrawal from Iraq and submitting a budget to Congress that rolls back some of Bush's tax cuts. She also promised to sign bills he has vetoed to expand federal embryonic stem-cell research and broaden government-supported health care to millions of lower-income children who now go without.
"In short, starting from Day One, the Bush-Cheney era will be over in name and in practice," she said at a meeting of the Newspaper Association of America.
For his part, Obama promised a union audience he would reverse a decision by Bush that effectively lowered wages for construction crews on government projects, and he mocked McCain in the process.
"He seems to think Davis-Bacon is something that comes from a pig farm," Obama said, referring to the law that covers wages on government construction projects.
Like Clinton, Obama said he was ready to move away from Bush's policies.
"We're ready to play offense for the minimum wage. We're ready to play offense for retirement security," he said.
In tone and substance, the two speeches marked a change in the campaign rhetoric that has held sway since the weekend, when a furor erupted over Obama's remark that residents of small towns cling to religion and guns out of bitterness over their economic plight.
Clinton and her campaign surrogates have criticized him virtually nonstop in the days since, suggesting he is an elitist who would lead the party to defeat this fall.
For his part, Obama has struggled to overcome the fallout from the worst gaffe of his 15-month campaign for the White House, and on Sunday, accused Clinton in turn of posing as a supporter of gun rights despite her longtime record in favor of gun control. If the personal rhetoric was tempered, the Clinton campaign signaled it was not ready to let go of the issue.
Late Monday, aides unveiled a new television commercial that they said will run in Pennsylvania. It features several unidentified younger men and women criticizing Obama for his remarks. "It just shows how out of touch Barack Obama is," says one man.
