Issue #1, the Economy

This week has been filled with coverage of the economic crisis that our country is going through. The government has been spending billions maybe even trillions of dollars on bailing out failing corporations. This week the stock market fell then rose then fell again until Thursday when the market rose again, ending the week with a 2 day rally that was the greatest rally since March 2000. The rally was due to new plans for the government to help with the financial crisis and possible bail out more banks. By the end of the 2-day rally (Thursday and Friday) the Dow Jones added 780 points or 7.4% in the two day period, the S&P added 3.4%, and the Nasdaq added 3.4%. While all of this might just seem like useless numbers it has everything to do with the presidential election. In 1992 President Bush lost the election to Clinton because the economy was in such a mess and this year the economy is the number one issue for Americans. Clinton attacked Bush on the economy and won, and now Obama is doing the same against McCain. If the economy doesn't improve between now and election day Obama has a much greater chance of winning the election. Americans blame the current administration for the economic crisis, even though much of it isn't their fault. Americans need someone to blame and the President usually is their first. Personally I blame greedy Americans and businesses. I blame it on the people who went out and got loans for 100,000's of dollars and even million dollar loans to buy a house when they weren't even making nearly that much. They applied for the interest only loans hoping they could pay the interest for a couple years then flip it and make a huge profit. Well that didn't happen, the housing market started to fall and interest rates began to rise, meaning that those house payments went up. So people started to default on their loans and the bank foreclosed on their house. So the banks were left with 1,000's of houses that they didn't know what do to with. So now we are left with banks owning 100,000's of houses and no one to buy them. With all those extra houses the banks lose money and then they start to go under. Now the government has a choice to let them fail or bail them out. If the economy continues to get worse Obama has a much greater advantage over McCain, than if the economy was good and foreign policy was the issue then McCain would have the advantage. In order to over come this disadvantage McCain must come out with a sound economic policy, one that puts the workers first and not give into the corporate pressures of Wall Street. McCain needs to attack Obama for his proposed tax increases in times of an economic crisis which will only make thins worse. He needs to attack Biden for his "paying taxes is patriotic" comment. If this doesn't begin to happen with in the next few day and weeks I would say is bye bye to McCain.