Barack Obama and John McCain struggled to seize control of the No. 1 issue on voters’ minds –the economy – at a pivotal moment in the presidential campaign with Americans increasingly worried about the fallout from the meltdown on Wall Street.

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Republican McCain on Monday assailed "greed and corruption“ on Wall Street and promised to clean it up, while Democrat Obama said his opponent would only deliver more of the same failed Bush administration economic policies.

Obama mocked McCain for declaring the "fundamentals of our economy are strong,“ saying his Republican rival was out of touch with the economic distress of struggling middle-class families.

With just seven weeks remaining to the Nov. 4 elections, the first-term Illinois senator is fighting to regain momentum after slipping in the polls following McCain’s surprise announcement that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, virtually unknown on the national political stage until then, would join him on the Republican ticket.

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Campaigning in battleground Colorado, Obama courted working-class voters who gave him grief in the primary campaign and called the chaos in financial markets "the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression“ of the 1930s.

"In 19 months he (McCain) has not named one thing he would do differently from this administration on the central issue of this election. Not one thing,“ Obama said, continuing his attempts to link McCain to deeply unpopular President George W. Bush. "And we know that if we go down that path, that the next four years will look exactly like the last eight.“

McCain sought to ease voter concerns by vowing to "clean up Wall Street,“ and promising during a Florida campaign stop that "The McCain-Palin administration will replace an outdated, patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight and bring transparency and accountability to Wall Street,“

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The nation’s economic anxieties were sharpened by a historic upheaval on Wall Street with the announcements that financial giant Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was filing for bankruptcy protection while titan Merrill Lynch & Co. was being bought by Bank of America for about $50 billion.

And an even more dangerous shoe may yet fall.

American International Group Inc. is seeking emergency funding to shore up its balance sheet. Should the world’s largest insurance company tumble, it likely would have financial implications far beyond that of Lehman’s bankruptcy filing.

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While McCain declared the U.S. economy was fundamentally strong, he acknowledged "these are very, very difficult times, so I promise you: We will never put America in this position again.“ But his campaign issued a television ad that further muddled his economic message about sound fundamentals.

"Our economy in crisis,“ the commercial says. "Only proven reformers John McCain and Sarah Palin can fix it. Tougher rules on Wall Street to protect your life savings. No special interest giveaways. Lower taxes to create new jobs. Offshore drilling to reduce gas prices.“

The Obama campaign ridiculed the commercial.

"Today of all days, John McCain’s stubborn insistence that the ’fundamentals of the economy are strong’ shows that he is disturbingly out of touch with what’s going in the lives of ordinary Americans,“ spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. "Even as his own ads try to convince him that the economy is in crisis, apparently his 26 years in Washington have left him incapable of understanding that the policies he supports have created an historic economic crisis.“

In a fiery campaign speech in Grand Junction, Colorado, Obama delivered a frontal attack that showed none of the hesitancy that has worried some of his own supporters as McCain edged ahead in the polls.

"I certainly don’t fault Sen. John McCain for these problems. I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to,“ Obama said.

"It’s a philosophy we’ve had for the last eight years – one that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.“

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"Can you afford to take a chance on someone who’s voted against the minimum wage 19 times,“ Obama asked a crowd of thousands. "When it was $4, he was against it, when it was $5 he was against it, when it was $6 he was against it.“

Courting working-class voters who favored Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primary campaign, Obama lamented Republican policies over the last eight years that he said "encouraged outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans“ and said: "Instead of prosperity trickling down, the pain has trickled up – from the struggles of hardworking Americans on Main Street to the largest firms of Wall Street.“

Obama closed the day in Pueblo with a rally at the Colorado State Fairgrounds before a wildly enthusiastic crowd estimated by the facility’s general manager at 13,500. Colorado is one of several battleground Western states which Obama hopes to put in his column on Nov. 4 even though George W. Bush narrowly carried them in the 2004 race.

McCain said in a statement issued in advance of market openings that he agreed there should be no taxpayer-financed bailout of Lehman Brothers.

"It is essential for us to make sure that the U.S. remains the pre-eminent financial market of the world. This will be a highest priority of my administration. In order to do this, major reform must be made in Washington and on Wall Street,“ McCain said.

Financial turmoil was overshadowing a campaign that has grown increasingly nasty.

Earlier, Obama’s campaign announced it would begin airing a new television ad that challenges McCain’s campaign tactics – questionable and, in some cases, untrue assertions about Obama.

The commercial begins with videotape of McCain saying: "I will not take the low road to the highest office in this land,“ after which an announcer asks "What’s happened to John McCain?“

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The 30-second ad then quotes snippets of negative media commentary about the Republican’s campaign tactics and concludes: "After voting with Bush 90 percent of the time proposing the same disastrous economic policies it seems ’deception’ is all he has left.“ The word "deception“ is attributed to The Washington Post.

McCain, when challenged on the issue last week, said the contest would not have reached this point had Obama agreed to the four-term Arizona senator’s call for weekly joint appearances at town hall meetings to answer voters’ questions.

Obama appears to be refocusing his campaign on the issue distinctions between him and McCain after having spent much of the previous week trying to figure out a campaign strategy to blunt the Republican surge in the polls.

Obama running mate Sen. Joe Biden, meanwhile, accused McCain of adopting what he termed the serve-the-rich policies of Bush and the divisive tactics of ex-Bush strategist Karl Rove.

"If you’re ready for four more years of George Bush, John McCain is your man,“ Biden said at a high school in a Detroit, Michigan, suburb.

"The campaign a person runs says everything about the way they’ll govern,“ Biden said. "John McCain has decided to bet the house on the politics perfected by Karl Rove.“

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McCain’s appearance in Jacksonville, Florida, meanwhile, was his first solo rally since announcing Palin as running mate more than two weeks ago.

Palin attended a rally in Colorado, on her first campaign swing outside her home state of Alaska without McCain at her side. She said Obama "wants to raise income taxes and raise payroll taxes and raise investment income taxes and raise business taxes and raise the death tax.“

"But John McCain and I know that’s not the way you grow the economy,“ she added.

In fact, independent groups such as the Tax Policy Center have concluded that four out of five U.S. households would receive tax cuts under Obama’s proposals.

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