McCain Turns Back to Economy After Failing to Win Debate

John McCain narrowed the focus of his campaign yesterday after failing to deliver the game-changing performance he needed in his presidential debate against Barack Obama. With instant polls awarding the debate to Obama, McCain's advisers refocused the campaign on a narrow field of battleground states. That suggests a best-case scenario for the Republican of a very slim victory over Obama.

The McCain camp also signalled an attempt to return to a more issues-based campaign, focused on the economy, only days after announcing a "gloves off" attack on Obama's character and his former associations in Chicago.

Speaking after Tuesday's televised debate in Nashville, Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, set out a narrow strategy that allows little room for manoeuvre. The Republicans' hopes now rest on holding on to the 252 electoral votes that President George Bush won in 2004 and on taking Pennsylvania from the Democrats. The state, with its 21 electoral votes, would push him over the 270 college votes needed to win.

Obama, in contrast, is in a position to expand his playing field, and is buying television advertising and making campaign appearances in traditional Republican states such as Indiana and North Carolina.

At a rally in Indianapolis, the Democrat pushed back hard against McCain's attempt to relaunch his campaign on healthcare and the economy, telling people not to be "bamboozled". He reminded the crowd that McCain had only a day or two earlier been fighting the election on issues of character. "The McCain campaign actually said, and I am quoting, 'if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose'."

McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, headed straight from Nashville for a joint rally in the Pennsylvania steel town of Bethlehem. McCain is to push his plan, unexpectedly announced during the debate, for a $300bn government programme to help homeowners facing the loss of their homes.

The problem for McCain is that polls show that voters in Pennsylvania, as in other states, have shifted to Obama in droves in the past fortnight as a result of the economic crisis. The RealClearPolitics website, which keeps a running tally of polls, put Obama on 51% in Pennsylvania against McCain on 39%.

McCain also faces a financial gap against Obama. After accepting public finance, he is restricted to spending $84m on the election, while Obama, who has broken all previous fundraising records, can raise funds and spend without limit.

Obama so far has spent $6m more a week on TV advertising, according to Ken Goldstein, a University of Wisconsin professor who monitors campaign advertising. The Democrats plan to increase their ad buy by 20% a week.

Obama is outspending McCain in such key battlegrounds as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, as well as traditionally Republican territory such as North Carolina and Indiana.

McCain has one major opportunity left to try to overcome those disadvantages in the last of the three presidential debates, in New York next Wednesday.

In an acknowledgment that McCain's performance on Tuesday night had failed to shift the public focus on the economy, one of his key advisers, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, accused the moderator, Tom Brokaw, of hijacking the debate's format.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll taken immediately after the debate awarded it to Obama by a margin of 54% to 30%, with the rest giving it as a tie.

The age gap between the two men - Obama is 47, McCain 72 - has seldom been as obvious. When asked during the debate how the economic crisis would affect the three top priorities of his administration, McCain appeared unable to remember what they were and jotted down a note.