Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/obama-mccain-burn-up-campaign-trail-in-battleground-push Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Sen. John McCain made campaign stops in Wisconsin Thursday, while opponent Sen. Barack Obama spoke to supporters in Ohio as the campaigns continued to reach out to key battleground voters and hit the airwaves with new ads. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. KWAME HOLMAN: Three-and-a-half weeks before Election Day, the major presidential nominees are burning up the campaign trail and lighting up the airwaves, spending unprecedented millions on mostly TV advertising to saturate a handful of toss-up states.Barack Obama was in Ohio today, a state that went for George Bush four years ago. But recent polls there show Obama reversing a September slide, and he's now neck-and-neck with John McCain as the focus of the race has shifted to the economy.SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), Illinois: If you've invested your life savings in the stock market, or if your pension has invested in the stock market, if you've got a 401(k), you've probably watched a good chunk of your savings disappear. It's now a 101(k). It's not a 401(k). It's a 101(k). KWAME HOLMAN: Obama spoke in Dayton this morning, criticizing McCain's new proposal to stem the housing crisis through government buyouts of bad mortgages. SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Senator McCain actually wants the government to pay the full face value of mortgages on the books, even though they're not worth that much anymore. So banks wouldn't take a loss, but taxpayers would take a loss.It's a plan that would guarantee that you, the American taxpayers, would lose by handing over $300 billion to underwrite the kind of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street that got us into this mess. KWAME HOLMAN: Obama also ratcheted up his critique of McCain's temperament and tied it to the Republican nominee's plans to address the housing bust. SEN. BARACK OBAMA: He's ended up with a plan that punishes taxpayers, rewards banks, and won't solve our housing crisis. This is the kind of erratic behavior we've been seeing out of Senator McCain. You remember the first day of this crisis, he came out and said the economy was fundamentally sound. Then, two hours later, he said we were in a crisis. I don't think we can afford that kind of erratic and uncertain leadership in these uncertain times.