When McCain and Palin took the stage in a Vienna aircraft hangar Tuesday, the candidates focused on two things: the economy and attacking Barack Obama.
McCAIN: Senator Obama is not interested in the politics of hope, he's interested in his political future.
PALIN: Folks here don't quite know what to make of a candidate, like our opponent, who has lavished praise on working people when they're listening, and then talks about, though, how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.
McCAIN: Talk about siding with the people, just before he flew off to Hollywood for a fundraiser with Barbara Streisand and his celebrity friend.
Besides attacking Obama as a self-centered elitist, Palin got applause for warning that Obama plans to raise taxes.
PALIN: He wants to raise income taxes, and he wants to raise payroll taxes, and raise investment income taxes and raise the death tax, and raise business taxes. That's his plan.
Most of those taxes don't apply to average Ohioans, and several non-partisan analyses show Obama's plan would give them more tax relief than McCain's.
The Obama campaign clearly sees an opportunity there, and in the recent turmoil in the financial markets.
On a conference call with reporters, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown said McCain's economic policies are the same as President Bush's.
BROWN: What's happened on Wall St is clearly the culmination of Bush-McCain deregulation policies and the Republican ideology that markets can always run themselves has again shown itself to be bankrupt.
McCain called that political opportunism. For his part, McCain promised to require more openness from financial firms, and accused federal regulators of not doing their jobs. McCain said he wants to reform both Washington and Wall Street.
Such appeals can impress voters, but McCain ally and former Senator Mike DeWine said the election will also be won on personality.
DeWINE: I think it's won on both, frankly. I think voters vote for people they can identify with, people who they think understand them or like them.
As McCain supporters snapped up pins and other memorabilia (nat sound) on the tarmac of Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, many seemed totally unconcerned about specific issues.
This is Nancy Gray from Ashtabula County.
GRAY: I just like the way he presents himself and, uh, and I like the way he was in the war, and I just like him (laughs).
REPORTER: Any specific policies that you like?
GRAY: Not really. I just like him.
And, there was this from Gloria Colson of Ravenna who came to see McCain.
COLSON: Well, I'm a democrat and I'm voting for him.
REPORTER: Why is that?
COLSON: Because I don't like the other candidate.
REPORTER: What don't you like about Obama?
COLSON: I don't know. I just like McCain better.
She said it wasn't any specific position-but just a feeling.
Another Democrat here-Dale Toole of Alliance-praised Palin and said he's not even considering voting for Obama.
REPORTER: What don't you like about him?
TOOLE: I'm not going to say.
REPORTER: Why not?
TOOLE: There's just too many negatives against him.
When I stopped recording, Toole said he had questions about Obama's birth certificate and church.
Gordon Wilbur lives in the area. He said he usually votes Republican, but is on the fence this year. He thinks McCain didn't do enough to help the economy in the past eight years. But he says having Palin on the ticket, with her socially conservative credentials, helps McCain in Democratic Trumbull County.
WILBUR: I mean look at the base here. There's no blacks. There's no people of color to speak of at all. All white. It's the traditional Republican base.
While it might be a tough sell, one voter thinks traditionally Democratic issues might give McCain an advantage here. This is Claudia Kovach from Youngstown.
KOVACH: Our unemployment rate is really bad. And, I think that a lot of people are looking for jobs right now. And I think that will really help him because I think a lot of people are scared about the future.
But she concedes it might all come back to personality.
KOVACH: It's always about personality. I mean, why do you think celebrities are so popular? It's all about personality and persona.
So much for the anti-celebrity campaign.