John McCain accused his rival of being untested and untruthful when it comes to the economic crisis, as the McCain campaign attempted Wednesday to sow doubts about Barack Obama's ability to lead the nation through turbulent times.
John McCain gives a thumbs-up before giving a speech at a rally, Wednesday, in Strongsville, Ohio. (AP Photo)
Obama earlier accused the Republican ticket of recycling "Bush economics" on health care and other critical issues, as his campaign ridiculed the plan McCain pitched at Tuesday night's debate for the Treasury Department to spend billions buying up bad mortgages.
The sharp exchanges were just the latest set of pleas from the presidential candidates to trust them with the daunting task of veering the nation away from recession. They came after the Federal Reserve joined other global central banks Wednesday in announcing an emergency rate cut.
"What was my opponent's actual record in the years before the greatest economic crisis of our lifetimes?" McCain asked at a rally in Strongsville, Ohio, accusing Obama of abetting the runaway behavior of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "Senator Obama was silent. He was dead silent. ... There's absolutely nothing in his record to suggest he did anything."
While Obama promises he will not raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year, McCain all but called Obama a liar.
"If he's such a defender of the middle class, why did he vote to raise their taxes?" he said. "Why should middle-class Americans trust him to keep promises that he's already broken?"
Earlier at a rally in Bethlehem, Pa., with his running mate, Sarah Palin, and wife, Cindy, in Bethlehem, Pa., McCain repeated his call for a government plan to buy up bad mortgages directly from Americans.
He said the country's economic woes call for "decisive" action and questioned whether his opponent had the record of taking such action.
"In a time of trouble and danger for our country, who will put our country first?" he said. "We've all heard what he's said, but it's less clear what he's done or what he will do."
But Obama's campaign rejected McCain's call to spend $300 billion on distressed mortgages.
The plan would cause the government "to massively overpay for mortgages in a plan that would guarantee taxpayers lose money and put them at risk of losing even more if home values don't recover," Obama economic adviser Jason Furman said in a written statement. "The biggest beneficiaries of this plan will be the same financial institutions that got us into this mess, some of whom even committed fraud."
Speaking to several thousand people earlier in Indianapolis, Obama acknowledged public anxiety over the financial crisis in starker terms than usual. He called it a "moment of great uncertainty for America."
"But this isn't a time for fear or panic," Obama said. "This is a time for resolve and leadership. I know that we can steer ourselves out of this crisis."
Obama repeated his claims that McCain's proposals would cause many Americans to lose their employer-provided health insurance because McCain would tax those benefits. He said the $5,000 tax credit McCain would give people would not be enough for them to buy private insurance, a claim McCain disputes.
"All we heard from Senator McCain was more of the same Bush economics that led us into this mess," Obama said in Indianapolis the day after their second debate. "He thinks we won't notice" downsides of his health care proposals, but "we're not going to be hoodwinked. We're not going to be bamboozled. We're not going to let him get away with it."
After McCain's campaign spent the weekend drawing attention to Obama's personal ties to figures like 1960s radical William Ayers, on Wednesday McCain attempted to balance that criticism with a renewed focus on the economy.
Although the campaign circulated a statement critical of Obama's ties to Ayers, neither McCain nor Palin mentioned the Ayers connection on the stump in Pennsylvania.
Instead, they questioned Obama's veracity and tied questions over character and judgment to the current economic turmoil.
"What Senator Obama says today and what he has done in the past are often two different things," McCain said. "Rather than answer his critics, Senator Obama will try to distract you from noticing that he never answers the serious and legitimate questions he has been asked. He has even questioned my truthfulness."
McCain continued by saying he didn't "need lessons about telling the truth to American people."
"And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably wouldn't seek advice from a Chicago politician," he said.
Palin said Obama's attempts to link McCain to Bush are "starting to wear pretty darn thin."
But Ayers is not off the table. Palin criticized Obama in an interview with FOX News for giving "conflicting stories" over his relationship with Ayers.
Obama continues to enjoy a healthy lead in the polls as the economy dominates the campaign conversation. The Gallup daily tracking poll Wednesday showed Obama with an 11-point lead over McCain -- his highest ever lead in the national survey.
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