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DENVER (AP) -- Barack Obama and John McCain agree on this much: The economy is staggering under the Bush administration, and Americans are hurting. But who's to blame and how best to fix it?

Well, they part ways on that, as they made clear in dueling economic speeches Monday on the issue that has taken center stage in their presidential contest.

Obama said that McCain offers a third term of President Bush's policies.

"John McCain's policies are essentially a repeat, a regurgitation of what we've been hearing from the Republican Party over the last two decades, maybe three," Obama said in St. Louis, where his plane made an unscheduled stop because of mechanical problems that forced him to cancel an appearance in Charlotte, N.C. "It's part of the reason that we're in the situation that we find ourselves in right now."

McCain has been forced into a more defensive crouch because his party has held the White House while jobs, home values, stock prices and consumer confidence have tumbled.

While calling Obama's plans expensive and unwise on Monday, he tried to distance himself from President Bush where he could.

"This Congress and this administration have failed to meet their responsibilities to manage the government," McCain said in Denver. "Government has grown by 60 percent in the last eight years. That is simply inexcusable."

He promised to veto "every single bill with wasteful spending."

McCain has said the economy is not his strong suit, and on Monday he seemed eager to show a deeper understanding of the topic, even as he dismissed experts.

"Some economists don't think much of my gas tax holiday," he said of his plan to temporarily suspend the federal levy on motor fuels. "But the American people like it, and so do small business owners."

Obama calls that plan a gimmick that will not lower gasoline prices.

The Democratic senator favors tax cuts for middle-class workers and tax increases for top earners. He calls for substantial government subsidies for health care, college, retirement and alternative energies.

McCain pledges to cut taxes for all and raise them on none. Government should shrink, not grow, he told his audience in Denver.

From a political standpoint, Obama's selling job would seem easier. McCain has linked himself in many ways to the struggling administration, including his call to continue Bush's first-term tax cuts, which he initially opposed.

A recent poll by Democracy Corps, which is run by Democratic strategists, suggests that voters are very much up for grabs on economic issues.

Asked to react to descriptions of the candidates' economic plans, 50 percent said their views more closely resembled McCain's goal of cutting taxes for the middle class and for businesses, simplifying the tax code, maintaining free trade and eliminating government waste.

Forty five percent said their views more closely resembled Obama's goal of cutting taxes for 95 percent of American families, eliminating special tax breaks for big corporations, renegotiating trade treaties, creating jobs by investing in research and education and in new energy sources.

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