As November 5th nears, the economy continues to be the top issue in the campaign. After the House of Representatives rejected the $700 billion bailout, the stock market plunged, with the Dow Industrial Average falling a record 778 points that day. An amended version passed the Senate and then the House, with both Senator Obama and McCain's support. However even after the bill was signed into law by President Bush the market fell, partially over fears caused by the jobless rate spiking to 6.1% last month. Obama continues to pull ahead as voters blame President Bush and the Republican Party for the credit crisis. McCain effectively gave up in Michigan, pulling his campaign out of the state, and Obama also enjoyed substantial gains in Minnesota, Colorado and Ohio. Responding to the McCain campaign's increasingly aggressive attacks, Obama said that it "was what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas, and out of time." He had a busy half week of travel, campaigning in Lansing, Michigan, Abington, Pennsylvania and Newport News, Virginia.
The Obama campaign also launched an iPhone app over the weekend, allowing owners of the gadget to contribute on the go.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
I find it amazing with all the negative attacks by McCain, he has yet to revive the Reverend Wright debacle. You would think he would want those sermon videos streaming across as many TVs in America as possible.
Speaking of damaging pasts, anyone by chance see Sean Hannity's Fox News report on Obama titled: "Obama & Friends: A History of Radicalism"?
Good stuff; its impartiality is refreshing. All I could think of when watching was Hannity's "fair and balanced" approach. (However, some of the actual info was pretty amazing. Obama has a colorful past...)
I truly believe that the campaign has, at least for the past few weeks, finally been able to truly be political and not focus so much on unimportant issues. Candidates on both sides have been talking about the economy, about Iraq and about major issues in our country today. Sadly it seems that all that is coming to a close as the campaigns are now both returning to personal attacks. Obviously a person's character has to be judged before they can be placed into leadership, but it is generally recognized that both these candidates are good men and want to do good for their country so in my opinion they should refrain from the attacks and focus on what's really important, the issues.
Dovetailing off of what Kees said, it just struck me this year how exactly the media tilts towards some part of the poli spectrum.
As this is the first year that I've actually paid very close attention to US politics, the fact is that the disparities are not noticable when peeps are fishing for info about Hu and Putin. After all, it seems like all American media outlets don't care about real international news; therefore, they all look the same to a greater extent.
From the perspective of int. news, the big diff is not b/w Fox and CNN, but rather it is b/w Fox+NBC+CBS+ABC+CNN and BBC. Hmmmm.
Although its really a minor point in itself, the ipod application is interesting news because it typifies the Obama campaign's attempt to reach out to younger voters through hip, accessible media, such as texting, facebook, and blogs. At the end of this election, particularly if Obama wins, the way that campaigns target constituencies will have been irrevocably altered. This trend toward computer based media wil only become more pronounced, so candidates of all parties would do well to heed the well documented atmosphere of "change".
I think it is funny how Obama's campaign is launching an iPhone application to, wait for it, "donate cash on-the-go?" (just in case you feel the immediate urge to give away money and cannot possibly wait until you get home) Admittedly it is very savvy idea and very attractive to younger voters. Obama (and his campaign designers) have an uncanny ability to raise money, and lots of it, from willing doners. I have never learned a considerable amount about how previous presidential candidates managed to raise campaign money, but I believe that Obama tops the rest with the resourceful knack to raise funding. But how does it affect his campaign, and does it make him a regular, wealthy politician and an elitist?
look at
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/finance/candidates/barack-obama/
it shows details about his campaign budget.
I love how both McCain and Obama skirted around the qs of picking a Secretary of the Treasury... All in all, both failed.
As the most powerful cabinet member, I'd expect the SofTres to be the first person on these guys' minds.
At least McCain mentioned Buffet and Whitman, and Obama mentioned Buffet...However, Whitman is a horrible pick. In an era where the inherent complexities of the financial system are in question, a financial person is needed...not a techie.
Okay, perhaps if they want someone who also keeps American values safe, Buffet is fine, as the fella invests in "core American" companies. However, choosing Whitman is nearly as bad as choosing Ghosn to run the Pentagon...hmmmm
My words to both guys: Think up, buttercup...start using your brain before the Americans are maimed
In response to Samir's comment about the candidates' answers to the debate question on their choices for Secretary of the Treasury: I don't believe that you can fault either candidate for sidestepping the question because it is borderline unreasonable to expect them to have had the proper amount of time to brainstorm and reflect on a potential choice. In addition, as the economy has a chance to respond to the bailout before the new president's inauguration, it may become apparent that a certain area of expertise is needed. Overall, the question was a bad one in my opinion, and one which the candidates should have no straight answer to.
Perhaps Ben is right to some extent. Yes, all of this has occurred rather quickly. I disagree with him about two points. 1) Considering that there are about $60 trillion dollars worth of volatile Credit Default Swaps, I doubt that a $700 bandaid will remedy the situation to a noticeable degree within the next three months. 2) Even if the economy does shift a tad bit, or rather, even if the crisis takes on a slightly different form, Meg Whitman and Silicon Valley are diametrically opposite to anything even slightly related to finance. Perhaps Matt's comment on another blog about a titan of core American corporations taking on the job is more appropriate. In that case, both did okay, in that they mentioned Warren Buffet.
Also, Kees, I take back my suggestion at school about Phil Gramm. His record with wiping out the Glass-Steagal act is rather controversial...even though the effects both helped and hurt the crisis.
Hurt: Deregulation...self-explanatory
Helped: Deregulation...BofA was able to take up Meryll.
Post a Comment