The Numbers

I keep asking, where can I participate in these polls? Until the time that I can see the true source of these ephemeral numbers is the actual American public, I will give them no credibility.

While Bush is certainly a catalyst for a lot of these problems, it is not just him or the government. These firms have made bad decisions, as have many of us who have overspent and looked at finances in a "pollyanna best-case" way (and I am guilty of that, as well). Hopefully, we will be able to avert a depression - I think of my parents who live off the interest from their investments and whom have been hit hard by this - but in any event, we need to pull together and stop this partisan fighting. The article says this could hurt McCain, but I believe this turn of events only more strongly illustrate how much we need someone of McCain's experience at reaching across the aisle and his strength of character. As much as we all want and need change, we don't need to place our futures - and, more importantly, our children's futures - in the hands of a man (Obama) who has only shown that he will do anything and step over anyone to get elected. We need McCain and Palin to help steer our country through these tough economic times.

McCain WINS - that will be the end to this nightmare campaign. Obama is just not qualified - If Obama was in touch with America he would have selected Hilary like her or not. The American people in large numbers wanted her as President.

Obama has no chance at all - never had -the American people are not stupid like Hollywood and the left who only want someone who says what they want to hear.
Qualified are not. Again Not -

The big question is will the Democrats wake up and make the changes our country needs are will they block everything that brings change?

My guess is that they will continue to do nothing with losers like ried and palosi who promote nothing but hate. They are so un-American or just stupid.

McCain will be our Truman

if we elect mccain the economy will continue to slide further in the ditch buhs put us in. we have to stop giveing to the rich so they can send jobs overseas and manage companies bad so we the workingclass have to bail them out. obama has a fantastic tax plan it will make the rich pay there fair share and lower how much us poor working class ahve to pay. also obama will help get insurance for 47,000,000 that dont have it and wont get it under mccain.

Good job a citizen! Reid and Pelosi are both. They are un-American as well as stupid. Just look at the gas situation this week end, and those two morans don't want to pump. Can't wait till November!!

MCSAME signed a document in Viet Nam agreeing that his is a war criminal. He even said he was broken by the guards who were merely detaining him. He could have left but he was didn't want to fight any more so sat the war out. He cannot be trusted as commander-in-chief. He is also deep in the pockets of lobbyists. He is merely a puppet. He has been on The Hill for a quarter of a century. He is the problem and needs to be voted out of office immediately.

What do you expect, Cheney said "deficits don't matter" now look at the economy. If your currency is worthless so are your companies, real estate etc...soon Saudi and China will own the US.

One of the first things Governor Sarah Palin did upon taking office was to have a TANNING BED installed in the Governor's Mansion for her use.

“The governor did have a tanning bed put in the Governor’s Mansion,” Roger Wetherell, chief communications officer of Alaska’s Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, confirmed to this newspaper. “It was done shortly after she took office [in early 2007] and moved into the mansion.”

Good to know where Sarah Palin's priorities are. I wonder where that money for the tanning bed came from... They cost between $10,000 - $35,000.

See the full story on Narco.

McCain has offered no solutions only criticisms and distortions of Senator Obama's ideas. I look forward to the debates mostly so we can focus again on the issues, which are of huge importance in this election.

I hope people watch the debates to decide whether they agree with policies of the candidates. Voting from information spread by the forwarded e-mails of well meaning relatives is not in our best interest as a country.

come on people the drill baby drill thing is just a ploy it will not lower gas prices it will only make the oil companies alot of money. dont be sheep dont follow. lead and stand up for teh working class and the poor. vote all democrat if you care for america if you dont care for america vote republican.

Guys, the fact is tax-cuts will increase deficit and dollar value will decrease significantly. Note India increased tax in their budget, and that is the reason their economy is very strong, so does China. Bush Tax cut policy lead to this economic diaster.
McCain wants to follow the same tax cut policy. While McCain want their men and women in Uniform to do ultimate sacrifice of giving life, he is not willing for big oil companies to give a meagre increase of taxes. Tax-cut is a very dangerous thing, but very tempting for people to fall into this populistic appeal. If Americans use their minimum 101 Economics, they will find Obama alone has sound economic policy. If you still don't believe, please consult the biggest CEOs personally without a TV interview.

It would be nice if SOMEBODY could say specifically how McCain's economic policy would differ from that of George W. Bush. We have had eight years of Bush/Republican economic policies and can see the results.

When Bush took office, he inherited a huge surplus from Clinton. We are now have a trillion dollar deficit. I can remember when Republicans were fiscally conservative. That is no longer the case.

What--EXACTLY--would McCain do to put the nation and its citizens back in the black?

For these past 8 years the Republican Bush administration every single December blamed the failing economy on the consumer lowering their spending during the holliday season. Yet the Republicans would pat themselves on the back every late spring and early summer with claims that the country will do better due to their bolstering of the economy. Yet it was the same every single year with the rollercoaster economy. In September 2007 Republican Feds had messed with the interest rate making things worse. By February 2008 Republican Feds helped cause such a flux in the economy that they had to mess with the interest rate yet again. And the Republicans did it a few more times. Each time the Republican Feds just dug the hole deeper. One year after September 2007 when they first "MESSED WITH THE INTEREST RATE", the Republican Feds dug the hole so deep for the USA economy it is hard to see that small dimming light up above.

Hey tom, do you also believe Harry Potter is a real person. You seem to live in a fantasy world. What NoBama proposes is one step away from socialism, wake up, "THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH" You claim to be a member of the working class like I am, well tom, the more I worked the more I got and you can't have any of mine, just because fantasy man say's you can!!

Perhaps Democratic Representatives Charlie Rangel and Nancy Pelosi have advice for us. Rep. Rangel got an interest-free $75,000 loan from a developer on his home in the Dominican Republic. Rangel, chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee - which writes the tax laws, failed pay taxes on the gift and failed to disclose it. Democractic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says he should still remain chair of the House Ways & Means Committee in spite of this corruption or incompetence (you make the call). For details, go here:

This crisis is during the Republican Big Plan for America and McCain wants the same as Bush (as he's stated) so what the heck is he going to do to make it better? Not a darn thing, he has no plan and people will be starving and the rich will be hiring slaves that are the product of the past Republican fiasco. NO MCCAIN, we have to change things with Obama and a Democratic Congress so we can get back to reality instead of this Bush nightmare.

bombem---keep up with the lies you learn from rush limburger.. guess what capitalism is broken and corupt and so greedy that it has failed and until we clean out all the rich republicans that have did thsi to our once great nation we need a little socialism to get us thru this rough time.i work a full time job 40 hours a week one part time job 15 hours a week and one part time job 10 hours a week, and i can hardly pay my bills were as ten years ago under clinton i only had my full time job and i lived good. that is what you get under a republican bad economy and bad ideas.

bombem---also every year my health insurance goes up 20% and covers 15% less. there is 47,000,000 with out insurance. my brother-in-law works for the loacl hospital they write off 15,000,000 a year on taxes for non-payments from people with no insurance. taht is one small hospital so guess what you are already paying for everybody else that doesnt have insurance i would rather pay it up front then let these rich hospitals control what they write off.

Crash Baby Crash....Burn Baby Burn !

The money changers are having a bad day ? That breaks my heart. LOL

When will Bush/McCain come to realize that this country is in a economic meltdown...How many more financial institutions need to go belly-up before they admit America is in trouble...

bombem---no it is capitalism taht has alot of cancer. i am not saying do away with it we teh working class and the poor need help until we eliminate the evil taht has corrupted our capitalistic rich and super rich adn from big business. if we dont stop the slide of teh middle class into poverty this nation will crumble just like rome did when they lost there working class. in rome before it collapsed it was rich and poor and that is what america is becoming.

Bush should resign immediately & that imbecile McCain who bragged about voting with Bush over 90% of the time should withdraw immediately. Both of these morons are saying that the economy is sound while America plunges into the abyss from their deregulation policies & endless war policies.

bombem---there is good rich people taht pay good wages and offer good benefits and i will guarantee that those owners are not republicans. republicans would love to have it be like old england the kings dukes and the servants and serfs.

No less an authority than Alan Greenspan has dismissed McCain's tax cuts (which essentially is his entire economic plan) as irresponsible and unaffordable. On that alone, Obama wins the contest to establish which candidate will be better for the economy.

People have to get out of the mindset that because a few factory and call center jobs have been shipped overseas, that there are no jobs. Here are a few facts that dispel that myth - we are in the midst of a nursing crisis. Hospitals around the country do not have enough nurses (and other staff) and as the population grows and the baby boomers continue to age, the crisis is expected to get worse. High tech companies continue to import thousands of workers (through worker visas) to work in the high tech jobs that Americans don't want to retrain for. Border Patrol can't hire enough people and like other law enforcement, have been aggressively recruiting for years. Folks, the jobs are there - politicians are just trying to scare you into voting for them by telling you that there are no jobs. What this country needs is a public-private training program to ensure that these jobs are filled by Americans because pretty soon, we'll be like England and importing most of our talent from other countries while Americans sit on their butts, collect welfare and complain.

Why don't people get that the only reason Clinton was able to balance the budget was riding the dot com boom; enjoying the benefits of no war gong on, not even a cold war; and, of course, the Republican congress! Look who's really had the reigns of power--the Democrat congress, and you see how completely out of touch and ineffective they are!

I like Obama, but the fact is his actual voting record indicates anything but a bipartisan approach. Maybe McCain offer 10% change, but Obama offers 0%--nothing but the failed liberal policies of the past. Bigger Government isn't going to fix it--looks at how incredibly inefficient it is.

Bush can not be blamed for everything going on now. His hands are tied. It's up to congress to do something.

Bombem,

You should look up the word "socialism". Apparently you do not know what it actually means. Of course, any time a democrat propose a plan that will BENEFIT 85% of the population - the rubes buy into GOP rhetoic and call it "socialist".

Obama proposes a government that will benefit the MAJORITY of people in our nation versus the McCain idea of SUPPORTING THE WEALTHIEST 10%.

Obama offers TAX CUTS to 85% of the nation (those who make under $250,000 per year.) McCain proposes TAX CUTS for ONLY THE RICHEST PEOPLE.

The GOP "fiscal responsibility" arguement is complete BS. Which party proposed the highest budget deficit in American history? Which party has created the largest national debt in American history. Which party gives tax cuts to the rich and then BORROWS more international money than any party in history to cover their expenses - i.e their useless war? Which party has killed economic growth, killed our domestic markets, and reduced the quality of life of the majority of Americans while in control?

If you don't know, I'll give you a hint...it's wasn't the Democrats!

Say no to McCain and Palin. Even Carl Rove says they are lying to you! CARL ROVE!

Again people Sarah Palin was put as a distraction to hide mccains fail policies. She is corrupt and an extremist...who is power hungry.... and as we all saw from Charlies' interview last week, she does not know any thing about foreign policies or national securities. She is not qualified and it is not because she is a woman, it is because she is just not qualified. Period. I can't wait for the debates so Biden can eat her alive. I hope people don't go running andcalling "sexists" because any time Sarah gets tough questions, they call sexists, the woman is running for the 2nd highest job in the land, of course she should be question thoroughly, obvisously Mccain did not do his job.

I agree with Americans needing to retrain and re educate and have a strong education system from the schools up.This is a can do country ,sitting to wait for welfare checks or complaining about globalization is not going to change anything at all.Let us instead of sniping on message boards talk about solutions.

traci,

Get real! The problem is "BAD ECONOMIC POLICY!" McCain advocates for the same totally deregulated Bush economic decisions that allowed Lehman, Merril, Bear, etc to own Mortgages in the first place! It is time for "Regulation" to return! Not, Bush-McCain's more tax cuts for the wealthy! And Palin does not even have the beginnings of a clue about the real economy! I doubt she ever took an economic class in 6 years and 6 colleges that she needed to get a communications degree!

We need someone who is intellectually gifted now! Someone who was Editor of the Harvard Law Review, not someone who graduated nearly last from the Naval Academy!!!

Obama is going to lose this election, not because he is inexperienced bcos he could have all the qualifications and experience in this world but the truth is he is BLACK and for some people that is all that counts. Look at the state of the US economy it is beyond disgraceful unemployment is high and ppl are loosing thier home yet the race is a dead heat? Please spare me all the excuses of McCain being experienced if Obama were white this election would be a no brainer. The news media keeps asking why it is a dead heat have they forgotten that this is the first time a black person is running for president? If you would rather let your children and thier children suffer the burden of paying for an unnecessary war whilst big oil companies continue to make all the profits than go ahead be my guest and vote McSame. As for Palin dont even get me started on that tanning bed, the lies about going to iraq and charging per dm for leaving at home change indeed.

Hey Mark S. Check out the Community Reinvestment Act. Was passed in 1977, updated in 1995 and 2005. It forced the banks to give loans they would normally not have. Please don't convince yourself the regulation is the answer as the are the meat of the problem.

Well all know Obama will win so what's the big deal now so what if he is black he is human not some alien from Mars, I just hope he can fix the mess left behind from the both parties or the people all behind this mess on Wall Street, eat what you made come to realty you all created this mess. You failed to hire me so it's your loss now.

MCCAIN-PALIN 2008!
Obama will tax the heck out of American people. His tax policy will "kill the goose that lays the golden eggs." Why? Because in his tax proposal, he will tax heavily on people that makes the high income. These are people who owns corporation and give jobs to people. The majority of these people would stop their business operation because of high taxation, should Obama wins. Which means, lots of people will loose their jobs, too..and perhaps end up receiving unemployment. Again, Obama's tax will sink our economy even deeper.

How can we trust a man who broke under pressure and signed documents admitting to war crimes to the VietCong?

Alexy,

nice analysis....except it doesn't work? Are you a big corporation? If not, have they been passing all those profits down to you? Or are you just buying into the arguments fed to you by those who ARE profiting and want to make sure they continue to do so whether at your expense or not? Stick up for yourself, not them.

I'm worried that McCain/Palin will get us into nuclear war with Russia with all of their tough "talk" and her astounding lack of understanding of foreign policy

Big corporations only pass their tax cuts on to the CEO's etc ...if this policy was good it would have worked ages ago and not lead to this state of the economy pls know your facts . The only people the money is trickling down toare the FAT cats and their immediate family who spend a majority of it outside the US.

wow, I have been overseans for the past four weeks...come back today and see that the country has clearly, once again started drinking the Republican kool-aid....is anyone actually watching and understanding what is happening to this country? How can we do what Einstein said is"insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result"...good lord people wake up....! we need total change .....way to go Obama, pulling a Kerry/Dukakis...just handing it to them without a fight.....as they lie, and lie and tell more lies. This is a disgusting state of the nation. When is the Obama campaign going to fight back!?

alexy---back when georeg bush sr was president he was smart enough to realize taht for the economy to get better he needed to taise taxes. as much as i want to give all the credit of our great economy to bill clinton bush sr started us on the path to recovery.

In simplest term, why majority of the respondents would prefer jJohn McCain to handle the major crisis, the reason is, all because John and Sarah have the political will, stupid!

Barack and Biden are all blah,blah,blah!

Vote for McCain and the Empty Suit!!! Rah! Rah! Rah! Four more years!!! Four more years!!! Yeah!!! Yeah!!! Yeah!!! Lehman, Iraq, Freddie, Fannie, Bear Sterns, Merrill, mortgage crisis, unemployment skyrocketing, Afghanistan, budget crisis, Paulson pointing fingers, Wall Street crisis. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! We want more of the Same!!! Vote for John McCain!!! But one point for sure: there won't be any more Bush Doctrine. Why? The Empty Suit forgot what it was! Rah!

Many of the problems we are having with the investment banking industry would never had happened if Phil Gramm, Charlie Schumer and Chris Dodd hadn't been in the pockets of the banking industry and pushed for changes in the deregulation and oversight of the banking industry. They pushed for the changes in the Glass-Steadall Act and for the negation of oversight of the banking industry in the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Their greed - and the greed of the banking industry - has led to the upheaval with sub prime mortgages and the downfall of the banking giants.
Unfortunately, it's the American taxpayer who will paying for their greed by coughing up the money for the shore-ups and the losses that come from the stock market losing its butt. (I know my 401K is taking hits and I'm not happy at all about it...that's my money they are screwing with.)

This isn't just a "Republican" debacle. There's plenty of culpability to go around to both parties. Anyone who thinks that trillions of dollars in national debt can be paid off while introducing tax cuts and rebates is kidding him/herself.

Neither Obama or McCain have a viable idea what to do to end this, or to pay off the enormous debt that Bush's wars and handouts in the forms of tax rebates and banking shore-ups have incurred.

You can bet, however, in the end, the American taxpayer will get it in the shorts.

Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that "some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in pubic premises before the snow flies." It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list. - Robert J. Kennedy, Jr. 9/15/08

Wall Street is run like the mafia. You have CEOs (bosses) and the soldiers (brokers) - they tell the brokers what to sell, and if you don't sell it, you're out. No matter what happens, they take their cut. Also, Wall Street is a country by itself. It's self governed, answers to no one, avoids all contact with the outside, only to take their checks. You could have mickey mouse as president, it wouldn't matter.
Obama will be run by the billionaires who are paying for his candidacy. John McCain will stand up to these criminals - no one pushes him around.

I don't see how anyone can say McCain get's it. Gramm his lobbyist friend and wrote his economy package is the one that re-wrote the banking and Housing marktets laws that helped to lead to the down fall. The GOP ideology is McCain's way of things.

Okay people, someone has to pay for all of this. Who is picking up the tab under the Republican plan,,,,,Santa Claus? The debt is so huge that all of that Pork John and Sara want to find will barely touch the interest on our National Debt. Wake Up.

McCain's new cloak of credibility has as many holes as a sponge, and doesn't hold water. His attempts to re-assure the public that he knows how to fix it are laughable. He actually may know about economic issues, but not from our side of the street. Greed caused the housing meltdown and big financial institutions did not exercise due diligence. They were all too drunk from power and easy money. Much the same with the Bush administration. NOBODY has been minding the store for average joe. Now that average joe is broke, somebody better come up with a believable idea to fix it, because it's average joe who really has the power in this country right now. I personally, will not give one iota (or vote) of my power to the Republicans.

Make no mistake, what you are watching on Wall Street is your retirement funds going down the drain.
Let's hear it for the Republicans...

wake up people evertime republicans control things for 8 years this is what you get.. we must vote out all republicans or this nation will go teh way of the roman empire.

SHAME On & WOE To them All...

The sins (PRIDE & GREED)

of the fathers,

Visited Upon the children (Us)

Coupled with a Lot of 'SELF' Exalting

& DECEPTIVE practices

= our Present financial, RED/Black HOLE...

This week started off with Black Monday, where the stock market dropped over 500 points and investors lost $500-billion in equity. And this just wasn't one isolated day here. The market's been tanking for a while now, and economist after economist says we're either in recession or about to enter one...and a major one at that. But that didn't stop McCain from repeating his duplicitous and/or delusional mantra that "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." It's a phrase Grandpa John apparently loves, as he's said it about 22 times this year including:

11/27/07: "I think the fundamentals are strong"

1/10: "I think the fundamentals of this economy are strong"

1/17: "Our economic fundamentals are strong"

3/11: "The fundamentals of our economy are strong"

5/5: "The fundamentals of our economy are strong"

6/5: "The fundamentals of our economy are very strong"

McCain's insistence that the economy is strong should be the nail in his political coffin for anyone still doubting just how out-of-touch he is with the financial anxieties of average Americans, let alone his grasp of the dire straits the nation is in.

Since George Bush took office in 2000, the "fundamentals of the economy" are horrendous:

-Unemployment 6.1% vs 4.2%

-Budget deficit of $357-billion vs $281-billion budget surplus

-National debt at $9.7-trillion vs $5.8-trillion

-Gas $4/gallon vs $1.27

-Inflation at 5.37% from 2.74%

-Real Wages down 2%

-Consumer Confidence Index .57 vs historical high of 145

Add to this grim picture the crisis over 400,000 U.S. home foreclosures, a mortgage meltdown, and multiple Wall Street bankruptcies. Seriously, I'd like a bowl of some of that crack McCain's been smoking if he truly thinks the "fundamentals are strong."

It didn't take long for McCrusty to realize what a colossal mistake he made and, in a back-peddle that would make a circus clown proud, he did his disingenuous best to spin a great tale.

Wow! We have come a long way. Russia and China have embraced the free market and the USA has nationalised the country's biggest financial institutions! I thought the collapse of the Berlin Wall was big news!

McGreed/Stupidity 08

Yeah! I got a call from a close friend yesterday she says wow the rich are getting bailed out easy 700 billion, so easy that get the sap and they stay on top whats amazing more than that and we get left behind maybe I should write a few hundred books on this and that on the economy of Wall street buzz??

One word N O B A M A !