Financial crisis has converted some Republicans to Obama

WASHINGTON — For months, Mark Wagner stuck by Sen. John McCain, even as the economy stalled and other Americans came to blame Republican leadership. Then, about three weeks ago, the deepening economic downturn pushed him to reconsider.

Now, the Florida salesman and staunch Republican has abandoned the GOP ticket. Sarah Palin, he thinks, looks underequipped to be vice president. And McCain, he says, displayed an unsteady response to what might be a global economic depression.

The financial crisis has turned the last three weeks into a critical and possibly decisive period in the presidential contest — a time when many Americans have taken a new look at each candidate and then moved toward Democratic Sen. Barack Obama.

Like a wave, the crisis has washed over other factors in a contest that had seemed to be a dead heat, moving enough voters to give Obama a consistent lead in national polls and in key battleground states, including Florida, Virginia and Ohio, where President Bush secured his re-election four years ago.

Republican officials in several states say they fear voters have judged McCain and Palin harshly in how they reacted to the financial downturn. Obama, meanwhile, now looks like an acceptable alternative to many voters who had been hesitant to pull the lever for him, thanks to concerns over his untraditional background and relatively recent appearance in national affairs.

"If you looked at some of the decisions that Obama's made, and the consistency and levelness that he's had in these trying times over the past few weeks, in my opinion he's blown McCain away," said Wagner, 47, of Tampa.

Some Republicans report hearing of similar conversions in Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina, and they fear the change is irreversible. Voters who have been blaming President Bush and Republicans in general for the financial crisis seem to be tying it around McCain's neck, as well.

Rep. Mark Souder, an Indiana Republican, said he is looking at an "Obama tide" in his district and wondering about his own re-election: "Can I withstand a firestorm?"

With 23 days to go in a campaign marked by many surprising twists, there is time for McCain to make up lost ground. Polls show many voters still question Obama's experience, and McCain's message, particularly his questioning of Obama's character and judgment, could take hold among the swing voters who will decide the election.

The credit market could stabilize, calming the public's anxiety and allowing McCain to change the subject.

But polling results clearly show a major shift occurred in mid-September, just as Wall Street started to fall and Congress began debating its $700 billion rescue plan. It was on Sept. 24 that McCain took the surprising step of "suspending" his campaign, returning to Washington, D.C.

That very week, as Obama aides began to cast McCain's actions as erratic and as voters recoiled at the huge price of the bailout, Obama moved ahead in some so-called red states that are must-wins for McCain.

He took a lead in several polls in Florida, Ohio and Virginia, while the race tightened in two other Republican-dominated battlegrounds, Indiana and North Carolina.

Since then, the congressional bailout plan and other rescue measures have failed to ease the credit crisis.

In national opinion surveys, Obama has risen from a statistical tie to a lead, according to an average of polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.com.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.