Everett, Wash.
Published: Tuesday, September 16, 2008

McCain, Obama try to seize economy issue

Associated Press

 WASHINGTON -- With chaos rocking financial markets, Sen. John McCain assailed "greed and corruption" on Wall Street and promised to clean it up, while Sen. Barack Obama blamed White House policies and said his opponent would only deliver more of the same.

The presidential candidates tried Monday to seize control of the issue voters say is most important -- the economy.

However, in a dizzying day of speeches and statements, neither White House hopeful offered any fresh ideas for turning things around. Instead each relied on the same vague, though vastly different, pitches he has sounded over the past few months for fixing what ails the country.

Bemoaning "the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression," Democrat Obama faulted Republican McCain's domestic policy agenda as the same as President Bush's -- "one that says we should just stick our heads in the sand and ignore economic problems until they spiral into crises."

McCain declared in a new TV ad, "Our economy is in crisis. Only proven reformers John McCain and Sarah Palin can fix it" -- though he also told voters in Jacksonville, Fla., "The fundamentals of our economy are strong."

With about seven weeks left in the campaign, Obama and McCain are trying to find a message that resonates with anxious voters who are fretting about their retirement nest eggs, home mortgages and job security.

In line with historical positions of Democrats and Republicans, Obama generally supports stronger consumer protections, better regulatory oversight and more government intervention, while McCain broadly prefers a market system of less federal involvement and red tape.

Both advocate tax cuts, though to different degrees and different ends. Obama seeks to cut into inequality between rich and poor by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and give breaks to the middle class and lower-income people. McCain wants to spur the economy and create jobs by keeping tax rates low for higher-income taxpayers and slashing rates for corporations.

Obama has led for months on the question of who would best handle the economy, but some polls show that his advantage has dwindled. He had a slight advantage over McCain on the economy -- 47 percent to 42 percent -- in an ABC News/Washington Post poll last week, the Democrat's edge cut in half since spring.

However, CNN's latest poll showed Obama with a larger edge, 52 percent to 44 percent.

McCain focused mostly on a need for regulatory reforms and applauded the federal government's refusal to bail out the latest cash-strapped institutions. It was a posture designed to bolster his free-market stance and strike a populist chord.

He promised: "The McCain-Palin administration will replace an outdated, patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight and bring transparency and accountability to Wall Street. We will have transparency and accountability and we will reform the regulatory bodies of government." He didn't say precisely how.

At a campaign appearance in Grand Junction, Colo., Obama chastised McCain by saying: "It's not that I think John McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of most Americans. I just think he doesn't know. He doesn't get what's happening between the mountains in Sedona where he lives and the corridors of power where he works."

As for government regulation, he said, "For years I have called for modernizing the rules of the road."
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA