Barack Obama and John McCain agree on this much: The economy is staggering under the Bush administration, and Americans are hurting.
But who's to blame and how best to fix it?
Well, they part ways on that, as they made clear in dueling economic speeches Monday on the issue that has taken center stage in their presidential contest.
Obama said that McCain offers a third term of President Bush's policies. "John McCain's policies are essentially a repeat, a regurgitation of what we've been hearing from the Republican Party over the last two decades, maybe three," Obama said in St. Louis, where his plane made an unscheduled stop because of mechanical problems that forced him to cancel an appearance in Charlotte, N.C. "It's part of the reason that we're in the situation that we find ourselves in right now."
McCain has been forced into a more defensive crouch because his party has held the White House while jobs, home values, stock prices and consumer confidence have tumbled. While calling Obama's plans expensive and unwise on Monday, he tried to distance himself from Bush where he could.
