Obama, McCain battle over economy

Nashville, Tennessee: Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama battled over taxes and the best way to help struggling American workers during an occasionally tense presidential debate on Tuesday that highlighted a wide gap in their economic approaches.

With Americans reeling under what Obama called the worst crisis since the Great Depression, the rivals in the November 4 presidential election differed frequently and showed occasional flashes of the resentment that marked their recent rhetoric on the campaign trail.

"Americans are angry, they're upset and they're a little fearful," McCain said in the second of three presidential debates, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. "We don't have trust and confidence in our institutions."

The Arizona senator, criticised for not being responsive on economic issues, was under pressure to turn in a strong performance that would stop his slide in the polls and halt Obama's momentum that has blossomed during the economic crisis.

Obama said McCain and Republicans had supported the deregulation of the financial industry that led to the crisis. He said middle-class workers, not just Wall Street, needed a rescue package that would include tax cuts.

He said, "We are in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and a lot of you, I think, are worried about your jobs, your pensions, your retirement accounts."

Two quick polls taken immediately after the debate, by CBS News and CNN, both judged Obama the winner.