Candidates scramble to shift economic message

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By TOM RAUM and GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writers

23 minutes ago GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - With economic anxiety rising, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama scrambled Wednesday to adjust their messages to connect more directly with financially struggling voters.

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Both McCain and Obama advocated cracking down on freewheeling Wall Street practices and for tough new regulations on financial institutions.

Obama ridiculed McCain's calls for more regulation as an eleventh-hour conversion for one who has long championed deregulation.

Too many in Washington and on Wall Street "weren't minding the store. They sat on their hands until it was too late," Obama told a rally in Elko, Nev. He challenged McCain's vow to take on the "old boy's network...He hasn't taken them on for the last 26 years."

The increased emphasis on the faltering economy came on a day when stocks resumed their downward plunge following Tuesday night's government takeover of American International Group Inc. with an $85 billion two-year loan from the Federal Reserve in return for a majority stake in the company.

"The focus of any such action should be to protect the millions of Americans who hold insurance policies, retirement plans and other accounts with AIG," McCain said in a statement. "We must not bail out the management and speculators who created this mess."

The turnabout came a day after McCain strongly opposed additional government relief and praised the government's decision not to rescue Lehman Brothers after it had intervened to help investment bank Bear Stearns and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080917/ap_on_...didates_economy