Obama and McCain: two sides of the coin

Obama is calling for government to do more to address the nation's ills; McCain is embracing the traditional GOP faith in free-market solutions. The difference gives voters a stark choice.

It has also set the stage for a robust debate -- not about the kinds of nuances that distinguished candidates in the party primary contests, but over the fundamental balance between government intervention and free-market forces in managing the economy.

"When it comes to the economy, John McCain and I have a fundamentally different vision of where to take the country," Obama said in a major economic speech in North Carolina last week.

McCain echoed that in his own economic speech last week: "We offer very different choices to the American people."

Neither candidate has so far made a name for himself as an economic policy leader. Obama has built his public life in Washington around the cause of reforming a political system riddled with special interests. McCain has said he is not as well versed in economics as he is in national security matters. Until the 2008 campaign, McCain's signature economic cause was fighting pork-barrel spending in Congress.

"Obama's only been in the Senate for not quite four years," said William A. Niskanen, a conservative economist at the Cato Institute. "McCain is picking up ideas and articulating them almost for the first time. He doesn't have that much of a footprint on economic matters."

But both are marshaling economic advisors and advancing policies with dispatch, because public anxiety about increasing gas prices, unemployment and mortgage foreclosures has risen sharply.

In a recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 88% of voters said the economy would be a very important factor in their decision on election day -- more than any other issue, and up from 74% in June 2007.

The two candidates' different tacks was in evidence as the mortgage crisis ballooned. Obama offered a plan that included aggressive regulation of financial institutions, relief for homeowners and a $30-billion economic stimulus package.