Obama, McCain attack each other on economy

POTTSVILLE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama slammed each other's economic plans on Monday as wrong for the current downturn as they butted heads in Ohio and Pennsylvania in launching an eight-day dash to the election.

Trailing in the polls, McCain attempted to gain traction on the economy by appearing with economic advisers at a Cleveland hotel and vowing to quickly take steps to restore confidence in the wilting U.S. stock market, keep people in their homes and create jobs if elected on November 4.

Obama, holding a poll lead nationally and in many battleground states, began making what his campaign called a "closing argument."

In Canton, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Obama rallied supporters not to let up in their drive to gain Democratic control of the White House. "We can't afford to slow down, sit back. We cannot let up for one day or one minute or one second in this last week," he said.

"In one week, at this defining moment in history, you can give this country the change we need," he said.

Twenty-one months after he began an uphill climb that has culminated with him "so close" to the White House, Obama said, "My faith in the American people has been vindicated."

In Washington, court documents disclosed that two white supremacist skinheads were arrested in Tennessee over plans to go on a killing spree and eventually shoot Obama. The plan did not appear to be advanced. Obama would be the first black U.S. president.

McCain and Obama rallied their core supporters and reached out to undecided voters in Pennsylvania and in Ohio, a state critical to Republican victories in the last two presidential elections. No Republican has won the White House without carrying Ohio.

Polls have Obama leading in Ohio and several other states that President George W. Bush won in 2004, putting Arizona Sen. McCain in a perilous position.

Obama, a senator from Illinois, is comfortably ahead of McCain in Pennsylvania, but McCain hopes to score an upset.

Obama held steady with a 5-point lead over McCain among likely U.S. voters nationally in a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby national tracking poll released on Monday.

In Dayton, Ohio, McCain said electing Obama would leave a "dangerous threesome" of Democrats in charge of the U.S. government, including House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, who would need to raise taxes to pay for their ambitious spending plans.

ATTACK OVER REMARK

In Pottsville, McCain talked up a remark Obama made in a radio interview seven years ago.

In the comment to Chicago Public Radio being circulated by Republicans, Obama discussed the 1960s U.S. civil rights movement and said the Supreme Court then "never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society."

McCain used the comment to play up his charge that Obama wants to "spread the wealth around," as Obama said in comments to an Ohio man dubbed "Joe the plumber" two weeks ago.

"Senator Obama is running to be Redistributionist in Chief. I'm running to be Commander in Chief. Senator Obama is running to spread the wealth. I'm running to create more wealth. Senator Obama is running to punish the successful. I'm running to make everyone successful," McCain said.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said McCain's charge was another of the "same false, desperate attacks that have failed for months."

"In this 7-year-old interview, Senator Obama did not say that the courts should get into the business of redistributing wealth at all," Burton said.

Fresh from huge rallies in Colorado on Sunday, Obama laid blame for the deepening financial crisis on Bush and said McCain's economic approach would mirror the president's.

He took aim at McCain's proposal for cuts in corporate tax rates and his opposition to rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

"At a moment like this, the last thing we can afford is four more years of the tired, old theory that says we should give more to billionaires and big corporations and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else," he said.

McCain attempted to make up ground he has lost on economic issues during the financial crisis. Majorities of Americans tell pollsters they trust Obama more to handle the economy.

McCain said in Cleveland his approach would be to get government spending under control and cut taxes to encourage people to invest in the stock markets or buy homes. Obama, he said, would increase spending and raise taxes to pay for it.

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan and John Whitesides; editing by Patricia Zengerle)