Which Candidate Has the Best Economic Plan?

Sept. 17, 2008 — -- With 48 days left before election day, rival presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are trying to convince voters that they have the best plan to fix what is being called the worst economic crisis the nation has faced since the Great Depression.

Obama and McCain released fresh television ads today looking straight into the camera, appealing to Americans to trust them to fix the staggering economy as Wall Street reeled this week with stock prices plummeting, investment banks collapsing, and the Federal Reserve rescuing an insurance giant from bankruptcy.

"This isn't just a string of bad luck," Obama says in his latest two-minute ad. "The truth is that while you've been living up to your responsibilities, Washington has not."

"Enough is enough," McCain declared in his 30-second ad. "New rules for fairness and honesty, I won't tolerate a system that puts you and your family at risk. Your savings, your jobs -- I'll keep them safe."

While both candidates have made the economy the centerpiece of their campaigns in recent days, neither has been able to capture the issue -- which voter say is their No. 1 concern -- like Bill Clinton did in 1992 with the slogan, "It's the economy, stupid."

And while McCain and Obama offer starkly different plans to fix the economy rooted in their basic philosophies about the role of government in the nation's economy, the details of those plans have been lost in a swirl of slogans and political accusations.