KWAME HOLMAN: McCain was in Wisconsin this morning, which was carried by Democrat John Kerry in 2004. Republican McCain is behind there according to polls, but he has spent the last two days working to change that.McCain also had a new economic proposal: to suspend a mandate on retirees to sell stock from their retirement accounts.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-Ariz.): Current rules mandate that investors must begin to sell off their IRAs and 401(k)s when they reach age 70-and-a-half. To spare investors from being forced to sell their stocks at just the time when the market is hurting the most, those rules should be suspended.
KWAME HOLMAN: And McCain again took aim at the cost of Obama's various economic proposals.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: Barack Obama will increase government spending by over $860 billion. That's on top of the trillions in debt that we've already burdened our children and grandchildren will -- with.
He claimed in our debate that somehow he'll still end up with a cut in spending. Only Barack Obama could sell an $860 billion federal spending increase as a net reduction in federal spending.
KWAME HOLMAN: Meanwhile, vice presidential nominee Joe Biden remained in the swing state of Missouri for a second day and sounded a familiar theme of the Obama campaign.
SEN. JOE BIDEN (D-Del.): You can't change the lives of the middle class when there're no difference -- none -- between what you would do and what George Bush has been doing.
It's just not going to happen. It literally -- it's not a political stunt. It's a fact. You can't change it.
And so, folks, to paraphrase a good friend of mine and a new senator from my home town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, a guy named Bob Casey -- a great guy, by the way -- Bob Casey said you can't call yourself a maverick when all you've been is a sidekick.
Folks, that's why I would respectfully suggest you're seeing John McCain's campaign become so erratic, relying on political stunts instead of offering sound solutions.
KWAME HOLMAN: For McCain running mate Sarah Palin, it was a day of fundraising in Ohio and Pennsylvania, with time made to cut the ribbon at a community facility in Cleveland.
The McCain campaign says the Alaska governor stands by her actions involving Palin's former brother-in-law, an Alaska state trooper. A bipartisan legislative panel investigated whether Palin took improper actions aimed at getting the trooper fired.
Hondurans Celebrate New President, Hope for Peace
