McCain, Obama stepped up pitches

Senator Barack Obama headed to the Senate floor to speak about the bailout. Senator John McCain visited the office of Senator Mitch McConnell before voting. (Lauren Victoria Burke/AP)

WASHINGTON - Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, whose earlier pleas to Congress to pass the $700 billion bailout bill fell short, stepped up their sales pitches to lawmakers and voters yesterday, urging support for a plan they contended was necessary to prevent an economic standstill.

The revised bill included at least one thing both candidates wanted - a provision raising the amount of bank customers' money insured by the federal government.

Seeking to underscore the importance of the bill, McCain and Obama each made campaign trail detours to Washington yesterday to cast their votes for the measure in the Senate, which passed the bill last night on a vote of 74 to 25.

Obama, speaking on the Senate floor before the vote, implored his colleagues to "do what's right for the country."

"We can't afford to take the risk that the economy of the United States of America, and as a consequence the worldwide economy, could be plunged into a very, very deep hole," said Obama, delivering a modified stump speech.

Last night, McCain cast his vote in favor of the bill but opted not to make a speech to the full Senate. Obama and McCain shook hands in the chamber, reflecting their alignment on the need for the legislation.

The decision by McCain and Obama to return to the Senate, where they have rarely set foot over the past 21 months, reflected how integral the economy - and more specifically the bailout - has become to the presidential race. The vote came as new polls showed Obama widening his lead over McCain in critical battleground states.

Campaigning in the Midwest earlier in the day, McCain and Obama offered dire warnings about what would happen if Congress failed to pass the bill, which the candidates deliberately referred to as a rescue, not a bailout.

"We are square in the greatest financial crisis of our lifetimes," McCain told supporters in Independence, Mo. "If the financial rescue bill fails in Congress yet again, the present crisis will turn into a disaster."

McCain, like Obama, cast the risk of defeat in simple terms, saying a credit freeze would leave students unable to get college loans, families unable to get financing to buy a new home, and businesses without the cash to pay employees.

"If we fail to act, the gears of our economy will grind to a halt," he said.

The candidates' sales effort appeared to have gotten a bit easier since Monday's House vote, which helped prompt one of the biggest market selloffs in history. Though the market later partly recovered, more Americans and lawmakers seemed to believe the consequences of inaction that the presidential candidates, leaders in Congress, and President Bush have articulated.

Obama, speaking to more than 15,000 in La Crosse, Wis., said that the bailout package had been "poorly communicated," because many taxpayers do not realize that if the plan is well managed, they would get most or all of their money back once the economy recovers and the value of the government-bought assets increases, he said.

"We might even turn a profit on the government's investment, every penny of which will go directly back to you, the investor," he said.

Obama, invoking Franklin D. Roosevelt's pleas for unity and courage during the Great Depression, asked voters to look past, for now, their anger at Wall Street for getting the country into this mess and Washington politicians for allowing it. What matters now, he said, is swift action.

"If your neighbor's home is burning you might grumble that they were always smoking in bed or leaving the stove on," he said. "But the first thing you want to do is make sure the fire's out so it doesn't spread to your house."

He also reiterated his plan to impose a "financial stability fee" on some financial institutions once the economy has recovered, which he said would go into a fund to help pay for any irresponsible investment decisions they make in the future.

Obama acknowledged that the state of the economy and cost of the bailout might delay some of his campaign proposals, but he did not name any, instead ticking off a list of things - such as middle-class tax cuts - that he said were even more necessary in the current climate.

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.