LAKE WORTH, Fla. — Democrat Barack Obama said yesterday that Republican John McCain is offering little more than "willful ignorance, wishful thinking, outdated ideology" in response to an economy in crisis. The economy is the main issue propelling Obama ahead in the race for the White House.

"While President Bush and Sen. McCain were ready to move heaven and earth to address the crisis on Wall Street, the president has failed so far to address the crisis on Main Street, and Sen. McCain has failed to fully acknowledge it," Obama said at a jobs summit that his campaign held in Florida.

Obama said McCain's response to the limping economy doesn't offer enough to people worried about keeping their jobs, their homes and their lifestyles.

The McCain campaign shot back that Obama's stimulus plan, which includes sending billions to state and local governments to keep projects and health spending afloat, isn't the right recipe.

MCCAIN: I'VE BEEN TESTED IN CRISIS

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Republican John McCain said yesterday he was personally tested by the same kind of crisis that Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden said that Barack Obama could face if elected president.

McCain recalled being ready to launch a bombing run during the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis, which Biden said over the weekend tested a then-new President Kennedy and was the template for the kind of "generated crisis" the 47-year-old Obama could face within six months of taking office.

"I was on board the USS Enterprise," McCain, a former naval aviator, said in Pennsylvania's capital. "I sat in the cockpit, on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, off of Cuba. I had a target. My friends, you know how close we came to a nuclear war."

Biden compared Obama to Kennedy, who was president during the missile crisis, and predicted foes would learn that Obama has "steel in his spine."

OBAMA CAMPAIGN STILL HAS $134M

WASHINGTON — Democrat Barack Obama spent $87.5 million last month and began October with nearly $134 million in the bank.

The numbers illustrate his vast financial advantage over John McCain, his Republican rival, in the final stretch of the contest. McCain ended September with $47 million in the bank.

Obama, who raised a record-shattering $150 million in September, filed his campaign finance report overnight with the Federal Election Commission. The numbers became available on the FEC Web site yesterday morning.

McCain is accepting public financing and cannot raise money. He is limited to $84 million for the two months before election day.

PALIN PUT KIDS' TRAVEL ON STATE TAB

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included expenses for hotel and commercial flights for her three daughters to join Palin to watch their father take part in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old daughter Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.

Alaska law does not specifically address expenses for a governor's children. The law allows for payment of expenses for anyone conducting official state business.

As governor, Palin justified having the state pay for the travel of her daughters — Bristol, 17, Willow, 14, and Piper, 7 — by noting on travel forms that the girls had been invited to attend or participate in events on the governor's schedule.