Washington ? With the deepening U.S. economic crisis rippling around the globe, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain seem to agree the question facing anxious voters is: Whom do you trust?

“All we heard from Senator McCain was more of the same Bush economics that led us into this mess,” Obama said in Indianapolis the day after their second debate.

In Bethlehem, Pa., McCain shot back: “I don’t need lessons about telling the truth to American people.” On taxes, health care and subprime mortgages, McCain said Obama “won’t tell you” his real record.

Each also rolled out new TV commercials suggesting his rival was not telling the truth, and both campaigns launched other character attacks.

Obama leads in key states but has yet to sew up the race; the 47-year-old, first-term Illinois senator is still working to dispel skepticism that he has what it takes to be president. McCain is searching for a way to marshal support as the spreading economic woes cut against many Republicans after President Bush’s eight years in the White House.

In separate statements Wednesday, Obama and McCain applauded the emergency interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve and five other central banks on both sides of the Atlantic. Each planted himself at the side of restive Americans.

McCain promoted his plan, announced at Tuesday’s debate, that would direct the Treasury Department to buy up bad home mortgages by using nearly half the $700 billion from the recent bailout package. He also said he would balance the federal budget by the end of his term, although the Bush administration predicts the deficit and a recession would complicate that task.

Initially, Obama sought to reclaim a piece of McCain’s mortgage proposal. He previously had said the government should consider doing just that, and on Wednesday said the Treasury Department officials “should use the authority they already have to purchase troubled assets, including mortgages.” He also renewed his call for a second economic stimulus package for the middle class.

But later, after McCain released more details of his plan, Obama’s campaign said McCain’s plan would end up rewarding troubled mortgage companies with even more taxpayer dollars and assailed it as “even more costly and out-of-touch” than ever imagined.

McCain’s aides also assailed Obama’s character anew, e-mailing more news releases highlighting the Democrat’s association with former 1960s radical William Ayers.