Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/mccain-obama-respond-to-economic-crisis-attacks Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript During the worst week in Wall Street history, presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama spoke and released ads about the economic crisis while taking jabs at one another. Kwame Holman reports on the latest from the campaign trail. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. KWAME HOLMAN: At the end of a week of financial turmoil, the major presidential nominees crisscrossed the industrial Midwest, where economic hard times are nothing new.Barack Obama began in hotly contested Ohio. In Chillicothe, he unveiled a proposal to have the government extend low-priced loans directly to small businesses in need of capital. SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-Ill.): That's what we did after 9/11. We were able to get low-cost loans out to tens of thousands of small businesses.That's one of the many steps we can, and should, take to help stop job losses and turn this economy around. It's going to start with a nationwide program to provide affordable, fixed-rate loans to small businesses across the country. KWAME HOLMAN: The tone of the presidential campaign became increasingly personal this week. Obama questioned John McCain's temperament, calling his response to the economic crisis "erratic."McCain and his campaign repeatedly focused on Obama's association with a former 1960s radical, William Ayers, with whom Obama served on a charitable foundation board. Obama long ago denounced Ayers' actions and yesterday said he believed Ayers was rehabilitated.Nonetheless, today the McCain campaign said it plans to air this ad. TV COMMERCIAL NARRATOR: Blind ambition, bad judgment. REPUBLICAN RALLY ATTENDEE: I'm mad! I'm really mad! KWAME HOLMAN: At McCain events this week, audience members showed anger toward the Democratic nominee. Obama talked about the angry crowds in Columbus this afternoon. SEN. BARACK OBAMA: I think folks are looking for something different. You know, it's easy to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division, but that's not what we need right now in the United States. The times are too serious; the challenges are too great.