WATERVILLE -- Waterville native and former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell on Thursday said he believes Sen. Barack Obama will promote economic growth and educational opportunities, end the war in Iraq and restore the country's standing in the world.

Mitchell, in a meeting with the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal's editorial board, said Obama's policies are unlike those that have landed the country in a serious financial crisis and caused it to have such low esteem around the world.

"Why in the world does anyone want to essentially pursue the same policies in the future?" he said.

Mitchell said he counts McCain as a friend but thinks he is not the right person for the job.

"I know Senator McCain very well," he said. "I served 10 years with him in the Senate and we became quite good friends. I think he's a good guy; I just think that Barack Obama is the right guy to be president."

Mitchell believes the policies of the Democratic party are more likely to create jobs and economic growth. When Bill Clinton was president, for instance, 23 million new jobs were created. In the eight years George W. Bush has been in office, fewer than five million have been created, he said.

In Maine, 98,000 jobs were created under Clinton; only 5,000 were created under Bush, Mitchell said, adding that when he was in the U.S. Senate, he spent 15 years traveling to every community in Maine several times and the single most important issue to people in those communities was jobs.

"This is the historic reality," he said. "This is facts. It's not speculation."

The McCain campaign on Thursday countered Mitchell's assertion that Obama is the best candidate for president.

"Barack Obama, in his short time in the U.S. Senate, has voted 94 times for higher taxes, including on Americans making as little as $42,000 a year," said Jeff Grappone, New England communications director for the McCain campaign. "His record of support for higher taxes signals that, as president, he would increase taxes on small business, workers, seniors -- that would undeniably harm the economy."

Asked if McCain plans any trips to Maine before the Nov. 4 election, Grappone said: "I don't have anything to report at this time, but stay tuned."

Meanwhile, Todd Palin, husband of McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, plans to visit Maine this weekend, stopping in the Somerset County town of Palmyra.

Mitchell said he has never met Sarah Palin.

"I don't know her but I do know Senator (Joe) Biden and I saw on the television news the day after the debate that 90 percent of the public believes Senator Biden is well-qualified to serve as president if it becomes necessary and fewer than 50 percent feel that about Governor Palin."

He is confident Obama will win the election Nov. 4.

"I believe he's going to win, but I can't make specific projections," he said.

Mitchell, 75, is now a New York resident and chairman of DLA Piper, the largest law firm in the world.

He was a federal judge before being appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1980 by Maine Gov. Joseph Brennan and served 15 years in that capacity, including six years as Senate majority leader.

Mitchell's mother immigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon; his father was of Irish descent. They lived at Head of Falls, off Front Street in Waterville when he was a child and then moved across the street, several houses north of the intersection with Temple Street.

Since leaving the Senate, Mitchell has been deeply involved in improving access to higher education, he said, adding that Obama has the best program of any presidential candidate in his (Mitchell's) lifetime.

"We are a state of relatively low incomes and relatively low aspirations, and we've got to raise those," he said.

He said he is very concerned about Bush's assertion that he has authority to arrest a person and hold him indefinitely in prison with no charges being filed, no lawyer and no contact with friends or family.

"To me, that's a message that the rule of law doesn't apply to the government and I think it's, frankly, at odds with our constitutional principles," he said.

Mitchell recommends that Obama reassert that a U.S. president is subject to the same laws as everyone else.

Of the current financial crisis, Mitchell said it is serious but not irreversible.

"This is not a situation in which the U.S. can't turn things around," he said.

Mitchell stopped short of saying a depression is imminent.

"I'm not an economist but in my estimation, we do not face a depression. I do think that we face a long and severe recession."

Obama should work to end the Iraq war, close Guantanamo Bay and reassert the fundamental American principle of adherence to the law, Mitchell said.

As a senator, Mitchell helped create a low-income heating-assistance program that he says McCain consistently opposed, but which Obama supports.

Amy Calder -- 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com