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The economy was Barack Obama's chosen theme on the stump. The Democratic Presidential candidate was in Toledo Ohio where he unveiled a four-part proposal to address the non-financial problems of the economy at large. All three newscasts assigned a correspondent to his speech--ABC's Jake Tapper, CBS' Dean Reynolds, NBC's Lee Cowan (at the tail of the O'Donnell videostream)--and all three ticked off the talking points: a three-month moratorium on home foreclosures; federal aid to state and municipal governments; incentives to small business to increase hiring; and penalty-free access to retirement savings. "Obama has been criticized for standing on the sidelines while the economy was tanking," Reynolds reflected. "Today he jumped into the fray with his new plan and both feet."
Each of the three newscasts matched its Obama coverage with its correspondent in North Carolina with Republican John McCain. "The fact that McCain was campaigning in Virginia and North Carolina shows just what a tough spot he is in," ABC's Ron Claiborne observed. "These are Republican states that he is having to battle to hold on to." Battle was the operative word, as McCain "shifted his tone," according to NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, scaling back his negative attacks on Obama and casting himself in the role of the scrappy underdog. "I choose to fight," he exclaimed. O'Donnell calculated that "McCain used the word fight 18 times" in his speech. CBS' Chip Reid counted fight or fighter "nearly 20 times."
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