(CBS) Painting the Democratic presidential candidate as one whom independents should not trust, Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said that Barack Obama was "masquerading as a centrist."

Graham said that this Wednesday's debate between Barack Obama and John McCain would allow McCain to speak to the differences between how each candidate would address the growing economic crisis, "where John can be able to show the public where he will take this economy that's hurting by keeping your taxes low and not increasing spending, and compare the records of Senator Obama, when it comes to taxing and spending."

Appearing on Face The Nation, Graham said America needed to know that "this candidate, Senator Obama, who's masquerading as a centrist, is anything but a centrist when it comes to taxing, spending and social policy. And at the end of the day, I think we're going to be choosing between two candidates who have a different view of where to take America."

McCain's plan, according to Graham, would be "to lower tax rates for investors, capital gains tax, dividend tax rates, to make sure that we can get the economy jump-started."

Nonetheless, Obama is leading in the polls, including in most of the key battleground states. However, Mayor Douglas Wilder of Richmond, Va., a Democrat, warned Obama's campaign against taking that lead for granted.

"The one caution that the Obama people ought to have today is not to be over-confident, not to believe that anything is won, it is not won," Wilder told host Bob Schieffer.

Wilder also disputed Graham's charges that Obama would raise taxes on the middle class or small businesses. "To the contrary, they will be having some relief," he said,

Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., said that while the economic crisis has hit Florida hard, there is a deep well of support for McCain in the Sunshine State, particular among retired servicemembers.

"Obama has had a good couple of weeks and has opened up a small lead," Putnam said, "but we have a long way to go. And I think John McCain is going to retake that momentum with this upcoming debate. He is going to retake the momentum in Florida because of his specific proposals that will improve the economy, that will support small businesses."

The backing of independent voters (key in any state) is especially important in Colorado, where a Democrat has won the state only once in recent years (Bill Clinton in 1992). Gov. Bill Ritter, D-Colo., said that the election "is going to be decided by independent voters, and independent voters care about the economy."

Ritter said Coloradans have watched McCain "behave erratically where the economy was concerned and where his response was concerned.

Obama on the other hand, has shown just a steady, consistent way of responding. He's thoughtful. He is specific. And I think that's really, not just in Colorado but around the country, where you see these swing states trending for Obama, it's because of the great contrast in their different styles of leadership as they campaign."

But where is the economy headed?

Dr. C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (left), said that the U.S. is almost certainly in a recession," but he did not think today's crisis was any comparison to the 1930s and the Great Depression.

"I don't think we're headed toward a world recession, though were clearly slowing down," Bergsten told Schieffer. "What we are is in the midst of a crisis of confidence. The financial markets are near panic. They need reassuring steps from the governments and the central banks to get them back into a positive mode. The governments and central banks need to take a series of very specific measures to get the credit markets functioning again, to get the banks lending again, to get the economy moving forward again. We need those decisions in the next day or two to get confidence back on track.

“I think there is still bad news ahead, particularly in terms of the economic turndown, but I think the market may be near a bottom. If the governments can be seen now as getting on top of the issue in a comprehensive way, I think we can have a turnaround. In fact, I think we could have an explosive upside rally in the market as we did for most of the day in the stock market here on Friday.”

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Read the full "Face the Nation" transcript here.

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