Trailing in the polls, John McCain appeared with a team of economic advisers at a Cleveland hotel and vowed to quickly take steps to restore confidence in the wilting US stock market, keep people in their homes and create jobs if elected on Nov. 4.

Barack Obama, enjoying a lead in national polls and in many battleground states, said in a speech to be delivered in Canton, Ohio, that it was time to ?turn the page? from policies pushed by the outgoing administration. The two candidates were making their case in Ohio, a state that has been critical to Republican victories in the last two elections.

Obama holds a lead in Ohio and in several other states that President George W. Bush won in 2004, putting Arizona Sen. McCain in a perilous position. Obama held steady with a 5-point lead over McCain among likely US voters nationally in a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby national tracking poll released yesterday.

McCain said electing Obama would leave a ?dangerous threesome? of Democrats in charge of the US government, including House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, who would need to raise taxes to pay for ambitious spending plans.

?This election comes down to how you want your hard-earned money spent. Do you want to keep it and invest it in your future, or have it taken by the most liberal person to ever run for the presidency and the Democratic leaders who have been running Congress for the past two years.?

Fresh from huge rallies in Colorado on Sunday, Illinois Sen. Obama laid blame for the deepening financial crisis on Bush and said McCain?s economic approach would mirror the president?s. He took aim at McCain?s proposal for cuts in corporate tax rates and his opposition to rolling back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans, saying they represented a ?tired, old? approach on the economy.

?In one week, you can turn the page on policies that have put the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street before the hard work and sacrifice of folks on Main Street,? Obama was to say in Canton. The Ohio speech has been billed by the Obama campaign as a ?closing argument? for the candidate and one he will emphasize in a 30-minute prime-time television advertisement tomorrow.

McCain, trying to make a comeback after losing his footing during the financial crisis, attempted to make up lost ground on economic issues. Majorities of Americans say in opinion polls that they trust Obama more to handle the U.S. economy.

McCain said his approach would be to get government spending under control and cut taxes to encourage people to invest in the stock markets or buy a home. Obama?s approach, he said, would increase spending and raise taxes to pay for it. ?This is the fundamental difference between Senator Obama and me.?

IF MCCAIN LOSES, WHAT NEXT FOR CONSERVATIVES?

If Republican John McCain loses the November 4 election as most polls predict, his party may be in for a rough period of soul searching. Analysts and some party activists say losing the White House will highlight the pitfalls of relying too heavily on a narrow foundation of conservative Christians whose support has nonetheless become crucial to Republican electoral success.

But some social conservatives say a victory for Democrat Barack Obama, whom they regard as an ?ultra-liberal? will energize them for the 2010 congressional ?mid-term? races and the 2012 White House battle. The election is still over a week away and a lot can happen. McCain has staged huge comebacks before. But almost every major poll has Obama with a commanding national lead as he benefits from a financial crisis that has shaken America and knocked conservative red-meat issues like abortion and gay marriage off the political stage.

?An Obama victory will galvanize social conservatives for 2010 and 2012 and they will look for a standard bearer they can rally around,? said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention?s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of America?s largest evangelical group. He told Reuters the candidate most likely to ?rally the troops? under an Obama administration looked to be McCain?s running mate Sarah Palin. The Alaska governor has excited the evangelical base but her opposition to abortion rights and other conservative positions have alienated moderate voters.

President George W. Bush took almost 80% of the white evangelical vote and was the favorite of many socially conservative Catholics during the 2004 election. In fact they have played a key role in every Republican victory since Ronald Reagan?s in 1980, which some analysts say the party cannot win without them. Evangelicals account for one in four US adults, giving them serious clout in a country where faith and politics often mix.

But Bush?s 2004 win was narrow, won in part on the use of issues like gay marriage to get the faith vote to the polls. Moderate Republicans say a McCain loss will show the limits of that strategy and demonstrate that the party may not be able to win if it just focuses on pleasing the base without reaching for the center.

?Focusing on social conservatism alienates moderate and mainstream voters and will consign us to 160 House seats in the South and the mid-west,? said Patrick Sammon, president of a group of gay Republicans which stresses social tolerance and fiscal conservatism. ?We need members from across the political spectrum running as Republicans. (We) need to build a party based on the future, not the past.?

That can be a delicate balancing act. ?Republicans must have the support of evangelicals but they can?t pursue them in too crass a way because when they do they alienate moderates,? said David Domke, a professor of communication in Seattle. Some analysts also note that the evangelical movement itself is hardly monolithic as it broadens its agenda to include the fight against climate change and loses its harder edges on some social issues.