Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/obama-mccain-depart-campaign-trail-for-senate-vote Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript New polls suggest the economic crisis has created momentum for Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, especially in battleground states. The Hotline's Amy Walter and Susan Page of USA Today break down the latest campaign news and how Thursday's vice presidential debate might impact the dynamics at play. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: And next tonight, an update on the U.S. presidential campaign with Amy Walter, editor-in-chief of the Hotline, National Journal's political daily, and Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for USA Today.Amy, Susan, relax. I'm not going to ask you any questions about the TED spread, OK? I promise. JIM LEHRER: The presidential candidates, Sens. Obama and McCain, how are they playing this going up to this vote tonight?AMY WALTER, editor-in-chief, The Hotline: Well, they look a lot different — or at least one of them looks a lot different, certainly John McCain, looks a lot different than he did, say, a day ago.Both candidates now taking a much more — basically, a softer tone, talking a lot about bipartisanship, the importance of getting this vote passed.What we saw from John McCain in the immediate aftermath of the collapse on Capitol Hill was to go along with what a lot of the Republican leaders were talking about, which was sort of finger-pointing, blaming this on partisans, blaming this on Democrats.He's sort of taken that back a step. And now you see that his language was much less confrontational today. MARGARET WARNER: Do you agree, Susan? SUSAN PAGE, USA Today: I think they see themselves in the same boat for once. They're both backing this plan, and they both have problems with their base supporters in backing it.We had a poll last night with Gallup, a USA Today-Gallup poll, in which only 20 percent of Americans said they wanted this plan passed; 70 percent wanted it either renegotiated or defeated.That is not — that is a hard thing for each of them going into the final five weeks of the election to do something that is at odds with the sentiment of so many voters.