It was a week in which the economy dominated everything, even the presidential race and Washington's gubernatorial race.

At the beginning of the week, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain insisted "the fundamentals of the economy are strong," a phrase he's used many times in recent months.

But his campaign put out an ad saying the economy was in crisis.

Obama questioned McCain's take on the economy, and his campaign unleashed this ad:

Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin offered this clarification during an interview with Sean Hannity.

In the middle of this debate, Obama seemed to gain ground on McCain in the polls.

Presidential campaigns have short attention spans, however. By weeks end, Congress and President Bush seemed to have brokered a deal to stabilize the financial markets and both campaigns were falling back on some old favorites, with a Obama ad suggesting that McCain would endanger social security, and a McCain ad raising the specter of higher taxes.

In Washington state, the economic forecaster said state government will have less to spend in the upcoming biennium, prompting (what else?) a sharp exchange between Dino Rossi and Chris Gregoire. While every news organization in the state covered this, the report on KOMO-TV supplied Democrats with fodder for an ad to use against Rossi.

For the best video of the week on the candidates and the economy, go inside the blog.

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