Sen. John McCain meets with local business leaders at Buckingham Smokehouse Bar-B-Q in Columbia, Mo. (By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)

BELTON, Mo., Oct. 20 -- Battling George W. Bush for the GOP presidential nomination in 2000, John McCain lashed out at the Texas governor, denouncing his proposed tax cuts as a giveaway to the rich.

Eight years later, this time running as the Republican presidential nominee, the senator from Arizona is again criticizing Bush and his financial policies, as he renews his efforts to demonstrate that he would represent a departure from the current administration.

At virtually every campaign stop, McCain is reprising a line he used last Wednesday in his final debate with Sen. Barack Obama: "I am not George Bush." And in a television ad introduced last week, McCain looks into the camera and says, "The last eight years haven't worked very well, have they?"

As he struggles to pull his campaign out from beneath the shadow of a president whose approval ratings have reached historic lows, McCain is offering some of his toughest criticism of the Bush White House. In recent weeks, he has focused his message on the administration's handling of the nation's financial crisis, suggesting that the Treasury Department has been more interested in "bailing out the banks" than helping struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.

"I am so disturbed that this administration has not done what we have to do, and that is to go out and buy up these bad mortgages," McCain told Jewish leaders in a conference call Sunday morning.

The new rhetoric has drawn roars of applause at some campaign stops and represents a tacit acknowledgment that McCain has not distanced himself sufficiently from the administration in his bid. One senior adviser said the campaign had to do something to counteract the Obama operation's decision to spend "tens of millions of dollars pushing" the idea that McCain is a virtual clone of Bush. "The majority of the swing voters don't believe it, but some do, and we have to convince them that we are different from Bush," said this adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss campaign strategy.

Bush is hardly the only problem for McCain as he struggles to close a gap with Obama. Voters perceive Obama as better prepared to handle the economic crisis, the GOP brand has been severely tarnished in recent years, and McCain is at a huge financial disadvantage.

But with the Republican president's approval ratings languishing, the perceived connection with him is a significant drag on the party's nominee. Nearly half of all voters in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll said McCain would mainly carry on Bush's policies, and among those who would consider a McCain presidency as a continuation of the current administration, 90 percent support Obama. And the prized independent voters who link McCain and Bush also overwhelmingly tilt toward the Democrat.

McCain has made progress in distancing himself from the president. Among independents, 54 percent now see the senator as offering a new direction, up from 44 percent before the third presidential debate, where he introduced his new language on Bush.

Among all likely voters, the percentage associating McCain with Bush is less than 50 percent for the first time, albeit barely, at 49 percent. Forty-eight percent said McCain would mainly continue to lead in Bush's footsteps.

A senior Republican close to the campaign said internal GOP polling underscores those findings.

"It's night and day," the source said. "You have somebody whose public approval is in the 20s. There's just not a 'there' there anymore in terms of residual support."

updated 59 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Barack Obama is not a Muslim, and John McCain did not tell the television show "60 Minutes" he was a war criminal who intentionally bombed women and children in Vietnam.

Joe Biden is not planning to step aside in favor of Hillary Clinton as vice president, and Sarah Palin did not order books banned from the library when she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

But if you have spent any time browsing the Internet this year, you may have read rumors to the contrary.

All these stories -- and more -- are being e-mailed to friends and family and posted on blogs.

And they are all false.

Heard that Obama was really born in Kenya and thus not eligible to be president? Wrong.

Heard that Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence Party? Nope, she wasn't.

But these stories are potentially damaging to the presidential campaigns of Obama and McCain, Washington communications expert Ron Bonjean warned, so it is critical to rebut them as firmly as possible.

"Fighting rumors on the Internet takes hypervigilance and a lot of caffeine. Left unchecked, these rumors can get out of control, because perception is fact," he said.

Obama and Palin are the subject of the largest number of e-mails, said Rich Buhler, founder of the fact-checking Web site, truthorfiction.com.

"The last two election cycles, there have been rumors about each of the candidates, but there has been nothing like this election," said Buhler, who has been running his nonpartisan site for 10 years.

"The number of Obama e-rumors has been huge, the stuff claiming that he was a Muslim. There are probably 15 or 20 Obama e-rumors. They have circulated massively," he said.

Buhler attributes the popularity of Obama e-mails to the fact that he is a "phenomenon."

"He is new, he is a threat" to some people, Buhler said. "When McCain named Sarah Palin, she became a phenomenon, so there were immediately a number of rumors about her, and now it's the Obama-Palin hit parade."

That's why both campaigns make pushback a priority.

Obama's Web site has a section called "Fight the Smears," run by the campaign's rapid-response team.

"Here's the general philosophy: vigilance, force, speed, and use the network we have created to spread the truth via every avenue," said Hari Sevugan, a spokesman for Obama's rapid-response effort.

"The idea of having such a large network of supporters is that they can reach an even larger network of friends, family and colleagues, and get the truth out," he said.

"If you look at 'Fight the Smears,' it also has an action center. It's not just facts -- it's making sure those facts get out," he explained.

The campaign does not underestimate the damage unsubstantiated rumors can do, especially ones that come directly from friends or family.

"These things take root if you let them sit too long," Sevugan cautioned.

The Obama rumors have spurred action both for and against the Illinois senator -- including a suit filed in Pennsylvania arguing that he is not eligible to be president because he is not a "natural-born U.S. citizen," and a Web site at isobamamuslim.com that contains a single word: "No."

Philip J. Berg illustrates how hard it is to quash rumors once they spread.

The Philadelphia-area lawyer, who filed the suit against Obama's candidacy, is aware that the Web site FactCheck.org has examined Obama's Hawaii birth certificate and ruled it kosher.

But he doesn't believe it.

"FactCheck.org is owned by Annenberg of Chicago, where Obama sat on the board," the lawyer said, dismissing the Web site's verdict.

FactCheck.org describes itself as a "nonpartisan, nonprofit 'consumer advocate' for voters." It is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

And then there are the rumors that simply cannot be proven or disproved.

One e-mail suggests that McCain behaved obnoxiously at a resort in Fiji before his last run for the presidency in 2000. The University of California-Santa Cruz professor whose name is attached to some versions of the story denies writing it but says she did forward it after a friend sent it to her.

Truthorfiction.com describes it as "unproven," saying research has turned up no evidence to support it.

"So far, we haven't been able to find any substantive information about whether it ever happened and, if so, with whom. We've asked McCain's campaign whether he's ever been to Turtle Island, but they haven't responded," Buhler said.

"There are many e-rumors that are not able to be proven either because the e-rumor does not contain the kinds of facts that can be followed up -- such as name or location -- or because the information in it doesn't pan out," he added.

The McCain campaign does its best to push back against falsehoods about the Arizona Republican senator and his running mate, spokesman Michael Goldfarb said.

"We have set up a Web site, as Gov. Palin has been the victim of a lot of these smears," said Goldfarb, one of the main authors of the campaign's McCain Report blog.

But he said there was only so much a campaign could do to rebut false stories.

"We fight back, but there is a certain segment of the population that is never going to believe that Obama is a Christian, just as there is a certain segment of the population that is never going to believe that Trig Palin is Gov. Palin's son," he lamented.

But his frustration is not primarily with Internet rumors.

"Unfortunately, a lot of the smears against Gov. Palin have been echoed by mainstream media outlets," Goldbfarb said. He cited a September 2 New York Times article saying Palin had been a member of the Alaska Independence Party. The newspaper retracted the story the following day, blaming an AIP official's error.

"It's damaging when it appears on the front page of the New York Times," Goldfarb said.

But Washington public-relations expert Bonjean, for his part, recommended that campaigns try to use the media to help rebut smears.

"The best way to fight Internet rumors is to go straight to the news media and try to get a story published saying 'this is not true,'" he said. "For any site that is promoting this rumor, you want to counter-attack it with the facts."

If the rumor appears on a blog, he said, "flood it with comments from your team, or activate grassroots support. Ask your friends and campaign allies to do it."

Buhler of truthorfiction.com said there is no way to know where most Internet rumors originate.

"Most of these things, you'll never know how they started. They're brush fires," he said.

Bonjean, a former spokesman for House and Senate Republican leaders, said some rumors probably came from "random crazy folks out there who want to perpetuate rumors for the thrill of it."

But some, he suggested, did probably come from "rogue political operatives."

He doubted they were working hand-in-glove with the campaigns, though.

"I would find it highly unlikely they would be taking orders from the campaigns, because if it ever got traced back to headquarters, there would be a lot of trouble."

Both McCain and Obama addressed the burgeoning economic crisis on the Trail yesterday. They'll be returning to that theme for the next 50 days. (Getty Images)

The crisis that has seized Wall Street over the last few days caught the campaigns of both Barack Obama and John McCain flat-footed.

Neither man, as we wrote yesterday, has a demonstrated expertise on the issue and national polling shows that voters aren't sure whether Obama or McCain would do a better job in managing the economy as president.

So, with both campaigns scrambling to win the issue over the next few days, The Fix solicited the opinions of a handful of Republican and Democratic strategists, asking them what specifically they would advise their party's candidate to do in the short term to stake their claim to this critical issue.

We collected and sorted the suggestions -- which ranged from the zany to the downright ingenious. We picked the best five for each candidate and listed them below; some contradict one another but all seem to have solid strategic thinking behind them. The names behind the suggestions have been withheld in order to let the operatives speak their minds without being seen as telling their party's candidates (and his inner circle) what to do or not do.

Agree or disagree? The comments section awaits.

OBAMA

1. Two-Day Ohio Tour: Obama should spend two full days traveling the Buckeye State with stops in cities ranging from the big (Cleveland) to the medium (Dayton) to the small (Zanesville). The suggested theme? "McCain's strong fundamentals" playing off of the Arizona senator's much-disputed statement Monday that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Ohio was the central battleground of the 2004 election and the economic stresses have hammered the state in the intervening four years. Show Ohioans Obama isn't just a gifted speaker; he understand better than McCain the problems faced by average middle class families.

2. Spend a Night At Home: With home foreclosures still a huge problem and many middle class families worried about being able to make their monthly mortgage payments, Obama should spend a night at home with a family facing potential foreclosure -- either in Nevada or Michigan, two of the battlegroundiest (is that a word) states in the country. This idea is along the lines of the Service Employees International Union's "Walk a Day in their Shoes" campaign during the Democratic primaries but has the potential to produce great television images that ooze "empathy."

3. A Series of Speeches: Obama's greatest strength is his oratorical abilities. Use them. Follow the blueprint used to much success by George W. Bush in 2004 when he gave a series of speeches explaining and contextualizing the war in Iraq and the fight against terrorism. Use that framework and sub in the economy; in one speech tackle the pinch the economic crisis is putting on an average middle class family, in another lay out how small business are being impacted, in a third show -- specifically -- how an Obama Administration would handle the economic problems different than has the current president. "Speeches are his wheelhouse and he needs to get back into his comfort zone," said Phil Singer, a former adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. "He's been trying to be someone else which has been cramping his style on the stump."

4. Town Hall Tryout: Obama has largely avoided the sort of town halls that McCain has made his own during this campaign. Pick a series of white working class neighborhoods and set up a series of economic-themed town halls over multiple days. Do more listening than talking. Obama, as The Fix himself has witnessed during a presidential dialogue sponsored by MTV and MySpace in Iowa, tends to shy away a bit from the "I feel your pain" politics of Bill Clinton. Suck it up and wade into the crowd. Console people who are struggling, hug folks having hard times. Be, at least for a few days, the consoler in chief.

5.Sitdown with Lehman Brothers Staff: Don't meet with the bigwigs and suits of the failed investment bank. Convene a roundtable with some of the support staff (administrative assistants etc.) who are impacted by the company veering into bankruptcy. Almost no one feels bad for the executives when these massive companies go through crises, knowing that these well-paid upper management types will survive without a hitch. But, there are also large numbers of employees at Lehman and other companies who are living paycheck to paycheck and will have their lives fundamentally altered by the bankruptcy. Put faces to these statistics and let them speak their minds about what's wrong and how to fix it.

MCCAIN

1. Seek Out Regional Banks: The big banks of the United States are struggling badly. Highlight the idea that great ideas can come from the states by meeting one on one with a as many successful managers of regional banks as the McCain can find. (A side benefit of this idea: it reminds voters that McCain has a governor not a senator as his running mate.) Frame the meetings as a chance for McCain to hear what's wrong with Washington -- and New York City -- from people out in the country. Embrace the cultural divide many people perceive between Washington/New York and the rest of the country.

2. Listening Tour of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania: Like her or hate her, it's hard to argue that Clinton's 2000 listening tour throughout Upstate New York was anything less than a brilliant political tactic. It put her in front of hundreds of voters, allowing her to show an empathetic side and debunk the idea that she had horns and a tail. McCain, hamstrung somewhat by his past comments about the economy, could do the same with a multi-day, multi-state listening tour focused on the Rust Belt where the problems with the economy have cut the deepest.

3. Give a Speech, Name a Treasury Secretary: Pick a hotbed of deep economic thinking -- one Republican operative suggested the University of Chicago -- and lay out the argument for how to reform the economy in a way that is consistent with the principles of the free market. In that speech, name the man (or woman) that would be his pick for treasury secretary while also offering a vote of confidence for Henry Paulson and insisting that he would be a valued adviser (along with other economic big-brains including some Democrats) in a McCain Administration.

4. Palin (Speaking) Power: Palin is a a huge draw these days on the campaign trail. Use that popularity and her populist appeal to speak to middle and lower middle class voters in a swing state somewhere in the Midwest. One Republican strategist suggested a speech by Palin on tax cuts -- strong territory for the GOP -- in Wisconsin, a huge snowmobiling/snowmaching state where she has high name ID and obvious appeal. Use the speech to paint the Obama economic plan as a risk the country just can't afford given the state of the economy.

5. Elevate Economic Gurus: While former Sen. Phil Gramm (he of the "nation of whiners" comment) is probably off the board, McCain has a stable of respected economic voices -- from former CEOs Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina to two-time presidential candidate Steve Forbes and former vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp. McCain needs to flood the zone (with apologies to Howell Raines) with smart voices testifying to his ability to reform the economy and laying out the basic principles of the sort of change -- and, importantly, break from the Bush economic policy -- that he would offer.