Experts said that growing public anxiety could force the candidates to confront more difficult questions about how and whether to regulate the financial services industry, a powerful lobby that gives money to politicians.
Both parties have shown a reluctance to support aggressive regulation.
"The economy being front and center forces candidates to flesh out their vision in more detail than they might have done," said Michael Franc, a policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Even as McCain's top economic advisor said that he was open to some new regulation, the campaign signaled that he planned to adhere to conservative orthodoxy. In a statement, Holtz-Eakin said that "no government program or policy is a substitute for a good job."
Robert D. Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute, said that all of the candidates "really have been Johnny-come-latelies" in focusing on the nation's economic turmoil. "It could be the issue that dominates the first six months of the next president's term in office."
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peter.wallsten@latimes.com
janet.hook@latimes.com
