Presidential Candidates Explain Their Capacity for Change

McCain and Obama also squared off in front of a gathering of seniors Saturday morning, appearing by satellite at the AARP convention.

Obama told seniors that McCain would abandon them economically, tax health-care benefits and "gamble" with Social Security and their retirement savings.

"Job shipped overseas? Tough luck. Pension disappeared? That's the breaks. No health care? The emergency room will fix it. You're on your own," Obama said Saturday. "John McCain said that the way Social Security works is, and I quote, 'an absolute disgrace.' Wrong. . . . It's the very difference between a comfortable retirement and falling into poverty."

Obama's remarks to AARP prompted a blistering response from McCain's campaign spokesman, who accused the Democrat of employing scare tactics and falsehoods to mislead people about the Republican nominee's positions.

"John McCain has always promised to fiercely protect Social Security benefits, and Barack Obama's willingness to recklessly misinterpret the facts to scare seniors for political points is the divisive type of behavior that has ruined Washington and shows why Obama is the absolute wrong man to fix it," spokesman Tucker Bounds said.

McCain used his appearance before the group to again argue that he would be able to reach out to Democrats on Capitol Hill to tackle tough issues such as health care and the future of Social Security and Medicare.

"We have to sit down together, Republican and Democrat, and reach across the aisle, and I have that record," McCain said. "I ask you to do something and that is to say put aside your partisan rancor. My friends, I have that record and you can count on it."

Their appearances underscored the importance of seniors as the campaigns debate questions of age and experience.

Age is one of the strongest predictors of Election Day turnout, and seniors made up 16 percent of all voters in 2004. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll on the eve of the conventions, seniors made up 21 percent of those who said they were most likely to vote this year.

In that poll, 45 percent of those 65 and older supported McCain, and 41 percent backed Obama. Gallup poll data in the final week of August showed the two presidential hopefuls also running about evenly among seniors. In 2004, these older voters went for President Bush over Sen. John F. Kerry by five percentage points.

Slevin reported from Indiana, and Shear was traveling with the McCain campaign.