McCain said retooling economic message

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain is revamping his economic message in an effort to find some voter traction, campaign sources say.

McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, struggled to find a consistent economic policy to communicate to voters last week as global credit markets locked up in a disastrous deep freeze and stock indices plunged, the Washington publication Politico reported Sunday.

He and advisers were spending the weekend working on new proposals, sources said, including one that would cuts taxes -- perhaps temporarily -- for capital gains and dividends.

"The market's the focus" of the 30 or so proposals under consideration, an unnamed McCain adviser told Politico. "You want to stop the fleeing," he said, but added further bailouts of the financial industry were off the table.

With polls consistently showing McCain's Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, as being more trusted to tackle economic problems, the McCain campaign is trying to stave off panic, Politico said.