By Caren Bohan
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (Reuters) - On a day of fresh economic turmoil, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama accused Republican John McCain on Friday of trying to divide Americans and McCain said Obama was dodging legitimate issues.
Campaigning in battleground states key to the November 4 election, both candidates offered proposals to try to ease the strain on Americans from a market meltdown that has cost investment portfolios billions of dollars.
Illinois Sen. Obama, in Ohio, called for a plan to help small businesses hampered by the U.S. credit crunch to get the loans they need for operating expenses and payrolls. And he urged global finance ministers meeting in Washington this week to take coordinated steps to address the financial crisis.
"In this global economy, financial markets have no boundaries. So the current crisis demands a global response," said Obama, who leads McCain in opinion polls with 25 days until the election.
Arizona Sen. McCain, in Wisconsin, called for steps to protect older investors from rules which require them to begin selling off stocks from their IRA and 401(k) retirement portfolios when they reach 70-1/2 years old.
"To spare investors from being forced to sell their stocks at just the time when the markets are hurting the most, those rules should be suspended," McCain said.
Tensions simmered between the two camps.
A day after McCain brought up Obama's ties to former left-wing radical William Ayers, Obama accused the McCain camp of launching "a barrage of nasty insinuations and attacks" and said he expected more in the days ahead.
"It's easy to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division," Obama said. "But that's not what we need right now in the United States. The times are too serious. The challenges are too great. The American people aren't looking for someone who can divide this country -- they're looking for someone who will lead it."
OBAMA LEADS IN OPINION POLLS
The economic crisis is playing to Obama's strengths, as a majority of Americans have told pollsters they trust him more than McCain to handle economic issues.
In the southern Ohio city of Chillicothe, Obama called on Americans to come together to help rebuild the economy, saying "I won't pretend that this will be easy or come without cost."
"We will all need to sacrifice and we will all need to pull our weight because now more than ever, we are all in this together," Obama said.
Obama leads McCain 48 percent to 43 percent among likely U.S. voters in the latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll, up slightly from a 4-point advantage for Obama.
A McCain rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Thursday was noticeable for its angry crowd, but the audience in La Crosse on Friday was much more subdued.
McCain has demanded Obama explain the full extent of his ties with Ayers, a founding member of the Weather Underground group that bombed the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon in the early 1970s to protest the Vietnam War.
Ayers, now a college education professor in Chicago, hosted a meeting at his house in 1995 to introduce Obama to neighbours during Obama's first run for the Illinois Senate. The two men also served on a non-profit anti-poverty board together.
McCain also said Obama was refusing to acknowledge that he never sought to tighten regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the two mortgage giants imploded weeks ago.
"Rather than answer his critics, Sen. Obama will try to distract you from noticing that he never answers the serious and legitimate questions he has been asked," McCain said.
Saying Obama had questioned his truthfulness, McCain added: "I don't need lessons about telling the truth to American people. And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably wouldn't seek advice from a Chicago politician."
As the crowd in La Crosse booed whenever McCain mentioned Obama's name, McCain vowed to keep fighting.
"How many times have the pundits written off my campaign? We're going to fool them again," he said. "We have 25 days until the time of choosing."
(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by David Storey and Chris Wilson)
