Wall Street Hands Voters A Reality Check

The optimism of November 4 has been replaced by the simple reality of life. 

After plunging almost 500 points today,  having it’s 12th largest loss in history,  and being the worst plunge on the day after an election ever,  the stock market brought reality back to Americans.  Investors, a category anyone with a 401k falls into, were rightly skeptical of what an Obama Presidency will bring in terms of economic change.  Anyone who read his policy statements, there are only three of us, are not surprised by this drop.  Why invest money to make more money when you were told outright that the more you make the more you will have taken away from you by candidate Obama? 

Obama has already prepared the nation for his failures and his next run for the White House.  Forever the politician, Obama, in his acceptance speech last night, stated that it may take longer than 1 year or even 1 term to fix the “problems” in America.  Not quite the optimism his supporters wanted but as usual they were not listening to the words only the cadence with which he spoke.  But looking at the stock market today, Wall Street heard him and acted accordingingly. 

Reality is a bitter pill.

41% of Americans made Thomas Jefferson Proud

Congrats to Barack Obama.

Unfortunately for him his dreams of change and hope now must meet reality.  When he ascends to his media given throne in January the realities he faces will be much harder than he could imagine and thus he will be a one term President.  I guarantee that based on his proposals during the campaign and the stunning lack of knowledge most voters had about this man. 

As I say this don’t think it is sour grapes on my part.  While I do not support Obama and his “teach the world to sing in perfect harmony” view of the world,  I can admire, at least, his place in history.  I still believe in America and as John McCain stated repeatedly throughout the campaign, It will always be COUNTRY first. 

The most troubling thing about this election, however, was not the tit for tat attacks both campaigns had but what little information voters actually tried to find out about the candidates.  I can only assume Democrats once again love exit polls today as they were used by every network last night, and really throughout the campaign, to decide the winner.  Based on these exit polls, voters apparently showed up to vote yesterday for reasons other than issues.  A stunning 59% of voters, more than half for those who don’t know math either, cast a ballot based on something other than issues.  This includes Republicans as well as Democrats but mostly Democrats, since they filled out 64% of the exit polls to 34% for Republicans. 

What does this mean?

Probably for the first time in our history the voters elected a man based on nothing more than personality and rhetoric.  Never before, in recent history,  has a President been elected when the pundits were at a loss to describe what his agenda might be for the nation.  Voters seemed to not care about the what and why issue but rather solely focused on the who.  To me that is the scariest part of this election. 

Additionally, I read a report from CNN that stated race had nothing to do with this election.  This was the paragraph after they stated that 96% of black voters sided with Obama.  No not a factor at all!  Yes, some of the 59% who voted based on something other than issues were the ignorant among us who still harbor racist tendencies but let’s be honest, race was a factor but not in the way the pundits predicted.   But this is not to say that Obama should not be judged by the content of his character as Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted.  Obama attracted a wide range of support because of his life story, even if that story still raises significant questions. 

Thomas Jefferson spoke and wrote at length aboout an educated elecorate.  In his musings he advocated educating every citizen in America.  He stated that if we were ever at a crossroads in our history where the citizens were not enlightened enough to exercise their rights responsibly the remedy would not be to take those rights away but rather to focus on education as a cure.  After 59% of the people voted for something other than the candidates stands on issues, I would say that we are now at a crossroad in our history. 

http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1350.htm

Voting in Ohio–Step One:Sit on A Park Bench. Congratulations! You Now Live Here

A Federal judge in Ohio ruled on Tuesday that park benches and other locations that were not buildings could be used as addresses for homeless people so that they could vote next Tuesday. 

U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus allowed the listing of park benches as addresses for homeless people in the settlement of a suit involving the Secretary of State for Ohio, Jennifer Bruner and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (Ne.O.C.H.?).  While there is little detail about how the judge came to this decision, I can only imagine his notes were filled with doodles that say I (Heart) Obama,  Obama and Sargus-TLA, and stuffed inside the docket was a folded up note that read “Barack, Harry, Nancy and Barney, meet me outside the courthouse during lunch! I can’t wait!”.  The floodgates are now open for more voter fraud in Ohio than ever before.  Buses are probably already being rented by the Obamats to take up “residency” in Ohio on election day. 

But enough of the negatives.  The upside of this ruling is that since these people are no longer homeless and “own” a piece of “property”, they must pay income tax on the assessed value of their “property”.  Tax bases across Ohio should swell as “locationally disabled” people take up residence in parks across Ohio.  Rules will obviously have to be followed, first street rules then from the legislative branches of government, on how one acquires these pieces of property and how they will in turn be able to sell them.  I’m thinking squatters rights apply initially, at least until after Nov 4.  In addition to this the housing market should see a significant upswing in the state in the months of October and November as residency is established at “Public Bench 1929″ thus providing Wall Street with the much needed good news to sustain positive numbers for an entire week.  By the way, what are the taxes on a 6x4x2 bench in the middle of Cleveland?

This ruling is BOGUS!!!!  Park benches,sidewalks and heating grates are not viable locations to take up a residence.  As sad as the homeless situation may be Barack Obama has yet to take one ” locationally disabled” person into his home and Joe Biden only gave .2% ($398) of his salary to charity last year.  So how much do they care about these people? 

This is about votes and the Democrats feeling that they are OWED an election because of 2000.  But where was the popular vote argument in their primary?  This is about votes and the Democrats feeling that they must be the first party to put a black man in the White House to make their party platforms of inclusion viable again. 

Well, all I can say is–see you in Ohio on election day.  I’ll be the “homeless man” on the bench at the mall.

Taking issue with the Founding Fathers. “Just Words” Obama says about the Constitution.

“You know if you look at the victories and the failures of the Civil Rights movement and its litigation strategy in the Court, I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples so that I would now have the right to vote, I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order as long as I could pay for it I would be okay. But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society. And to that extent as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical, it didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as its been interpreted and the Warren Court interpreted it in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf and that hasn’t shifted. And one of the I think the tragedies of the Civil Rights movement was because the Civil Rights movement became so court focused I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change and in some ways we still suffer from that.” – Barack Obama, 2001 radio interview with Chicago Public Radio 

Why does this quote made in 2001 from Obama have the campaign worried?  How is this redistribution of wealth phrase different than Joe the Plumber’s answer?  There are a few reasons. 

1)  Barack Obama says in the opening sentence that the civil rights movement did not go far enough to correct past injustices.  In Obama’s view the Civil Rights movement allowed him to eat at his local Denny’s without being kicked out or forced to eat in another section.  It also utilized the courts more than it should have to affect change. 

2) Obama told Joe the Plumber he wanted to redistribute the wealth and in this quote we see that his agenda for change has always included that idea.  However, he again criticizes the Supreme Court for not venturing into economic inequalities that existed, and as he sees it still exist, in the 1960’s.  With two openings on the Supreme Court coming, this statement clearly shows what kind of Justices he would seek to place in the highest court. 

3) Most disturbing is Obama’s idea of “the Constitution as a charter of negative liberties”.  Thanks to a quick review of Wikipedia, a negative liberty is essentially a personal liberty that people have to pursue their interests whether they be economic or otherwise.  A positive liberty is a liberty that is collective or communal in nature and is used by leaders to promote programs for the good of the citizenry.  In other words,  if you make too much money those under you suffer so for the good of the people a leader will “tax” your money to give it to someone else.  Or anither way would be to say that guns kill people so for the good of the people their ownership should be curtailed.  Essentially Obama is laying out his plan to rewrite the fundamentals of the Constitution either through legislative or judicial means. 

4) Finally, Obama admits in 2001 that ACORN and other community groups would be used to advance his agendas when he states that community organizations were left behind by the civil rights movement and their influence should have been utilized more. 

Presumably Obama was not running for the Presidency in 2001 and thus these comments are his true feelings.  While some may find the redistribution theory alarming in Obama’s answer, what should be more disturbing is Obama’s willingness to call the Constitution flawed becasue it does not say what the government MUST do for the citizens.  This statement from 2001 is the clearest example yet of Obama’s theory on government and what he means by CHANGE. 

It’s like getting on a Merry-Go-Round and asking Obama to Push

In two weeks America will have a new President elect.   On November 5th, either Barack Obama or John McCain will be waiting in the on deck circle, preparing to step up to the plate on January 21 ( let’s face it the 20th is ceremonial).  But how will they get from here to there?  If you are Barack Obama and the media, it will be because they confused voters enough to make them dizzy through their endless spin cycle. 

It started two weeks ago with “joe the Plumber”.  Joe was a normalguy asking a question of a Presidential hopeful, Barack Obama.  To his credit, Obama gave the only answer to the only tough question he has ever been asked and stated that Joe would have to “spread the wealth” if he bought a business that makes $250,000 or more a year.  Since then “Joe” has become a villain to the media.  ABC,CBS,CNN, etc have cast doubt on this plumber from Ohio by questioning his income tax returns, his divorce, his job, and even his legitimate right to vote in Ohio.  ALL BECAUSE HE ASKED A QUESTION!!!!!!

What did Senators Obama and Biden do in the wake of “Joe” asking a question and then being attacked by the media?  The Senators continued, and still continue, the attack on this plumber.  In stump speeches across America, Obama and Biden have attacked Joe saying that they don;t know of any “plumber” making $250,000 a year.  They have attcked his work ethic saying that the real “Joe the Plumber” would actually be helped under an Obama plan because he would not be a plumber who makes that much.  In other words the real “Joes” of America would never aspire to owning more than their fair share of the market.  Senator Biden might even call the plumber from Ohio “unpatriotic” because he would refuse to pay higher taxes as a small business owner. 

AHHHH the spin!!

Then Colin Powell comes out and says that he is endorsing Obama.  Immediately the surrogates and pundits rush the airwaves and say that Colin Powell is a man whose judgement is sought and respected by all leaders.  Yes, Powell is a well respected member of the Armed Forces as well as several Presidential Administrations.  But only 4 years ago Powell was the demon child who forced America into a war in Iraq, a war Obama “voted” against in the Illinois Senate(?). 

With Powell’s endorsement the surrogates and Democratic pundits had to come up with a back story that supported Powell and Obama that did not factor in race.  Ah ha! Now we have Colin Powell, the well respected, smart, and totally unbiased General was duped by the Bush administration and sold totally false information that he was forced to pass on to the U.N.  I still respect Colin Powell and do not believe that race was the deciding factor in his endorsement but I can not believe that this man who was smart enough to rise to prominance in the military and politics was “duped” by the same President liberals criticize as uneducated or stupid. 

AHHHHH the spin!!!!!!

John Murtha.  Beloved Congressman from PA.  Democrat.  Supporter of Barack Obama.  The same Obama who said us hicks in PA cling to our guns and religion and hated immigrants.  It was John  Murtha, in defense of this Barack Obama and the latest poll,  stated that PA, at least the western half, may not go to Obama because PA is full of racist people who vote on color alone.  Wait!! This week he apologized and said that PA was not racist it was just a redneck state.  How do you spin that?

If you are a Democratic pundit you simply say that what he said was “years ago” or “what he meant was simply” and all is forgiven.  What about this comment and Obama’s “clinging” comment being taken together to set a pattern?  Irrelevant! Let’s move on!

AHHHH the spin!!!!!!

But move on we shall, to Joe Biden.  Good old Scranton Joe! (It’s Thursday, his day to be from Scranton.)  Just when he though the recording devices were off and no one was listening he says “mark my words”, “if you don’t remember anything else I say in this whole campaign”,  if Senator Obama is elected he WILL be tested by the world in a “GENERATED” crisis created by other countries around the world.  Then he even says that he doesn’t know if  Obama will make the right decision initially but asked his supporters to stand with him anyway until he figured it out.  Don’t worry Joe, we won’t forget this one just like we haven’t forgotten what you said in the primary. 

The pundits and surrogates are on the move again!  See what he meant was every President is tested and Obama will be no exception, they say.  “Look at Reagan or Kennedy” they squawk!  And as they don’t mention that Obamahas a wait and see foreign policy coupled witha new age “let’s talk about it” negotiating style,  they leave out the fact that Reagan and Kennedy responded to their respective crisis with overwhelming force.  Furthermore, the pundits yell,  Obamaknows how to surround himself with people who know stuff, like Joe Biden and Colin Powell while John McCain has only lived through or legislated past crisis. 

AHHHH the spin!!!!!!!

Finally, if the clothes make the man what is wrong with the woman getting some nice clothes too.  While Barack Obama spends hundreds of dollars on each suit from Burberry or whoever the latest designer is, the RNC shelled out $150,000 for new clothes for the seven, that is 7, members of the Palin family. Roughly $21,000 per person.   The RNC, a private organization that receives donations from people like me, bought clothes out of contributions, not tax money,  for the VP candidate.   And the clothes are going to be given to charity after the election.  What is wrong with that? 

According to the pundits and commentators,  it just shows Sarah Palin’s inexperience.(?)  Joy Blowhard from the view apparently has a real issue with this saying that Palin usually shoots her clothes but that style would not work on the campaign trail.  ABC, et al,  raises the question to voters that if Sarah Palin can afford a new wardrobe costing $150,000 from Neiman Marcus ” does she really share the same values as”, yep you guessed it, “Joe the Plumber”?  I assume Brian Ross and Wolf Blitzerwill do in depth stories about boxers or briefs next. 

AHHH the spin!!!!!!!

Be careful waht you listen to or see on the news.  Even Fox News.  Today the new AP poll came out and showed a dead heat in the race for President.  A trend that has been seen in other long time polls.  Yet today on ABC’s Good Morning America, George Stephanoplois did not even mention the AP poll numbers, something he regularly does.  Instead he quoted the Quinipiac Poll numbers and showed state by state polls done by other polling organizations.  Why?  bias.  And as if they are finally seeing the light,  this week a CNN reporter even admitted to their bias in reporting! 

The spin won’t slow down in the next two weeks.  In fact it will only get faster.  Look for the top news story being about Barack Obama’s compassionas he deals withhis “Grandmother who raised him”  and her broken hip.  I’m sure this story will become one about health care and the state of the economy in Hawaii.  But voters beware! It’s all spin.  In the last two weeks look beyond the spin and read the issues and listen to words and form your own opinion.  Otherwise it’s like getting on a merry-go-round and asking Obama to push.  Faster! and Faster! you cry until you don’t know up from down, right from left.   

AHHHH the spin!!!!!!!!!!

Biden’s Kitchen Table Looks Good in Palin’s House

Joe Biden’s America revolves around the kitchen table.  It is a metaphor I can relate to having a large family.  Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, brothers, nephews, nieces and in-laws are all part of my life.  When we get together the discussions are always centered at the kitchen table.  They might be serious or benign but they happen while indulging in a variety of comfort foods and drinks.  It is something I think of as unique despite it’s relative commonness. After tonight’s debate, however, I think Joe needs a new metaphor.

In tonight’s VP debate, Sarah Palin took over the issue of the “kitchen table”.   In a classic move that few will herald,  Palin looked through the camera to Americans everywhere and told them why she should be Vice President.  She became, once again and without editing, the candidate we all can relate to in our homes.  When she talked about not having health insurance or being a member of the proverbial middle class or even when she talked about her own family, Palin was talking about the last decade, slightly more.  Palin was able to connect over that kitchen table with America.  She was able to show through her own experience that as VP she would understand, in  a way Joe Biden never could, what Americans are going through. 

Joe Biden filled our ears with memories of a time in Scranton, a place he needs a GPS to find yet claims kinship with.  He told the yarn about his dad’s lack of work in Scranton.  He touched us all briefly with the story about his wife’s death but that is as close as he got to getting to the kitchen table.  His experience with the proverbial middle class is experience he internalized when he observed his dad losing his job or  encounters with blue collar Americans while on the campaign trail.  Biden, and Obama, filled their kitchen table with promises for America but lack the personal insight to fulfill these promises in a meaningful way. 

I know that I will be seeing my family soon enough and I will once again gather with them at the kitchen table when that time comes.  I don’t know when Biden and Palin will once again have time to sit around their kitchen tables and discuss family matters.  But I do know that when Biden hits the campaign trail again tomorrow, his bus will be a little bit lighter.  Palin’s performance tonight gave her a clear victory and I can’t help but wonder if she put his kitchen table next to the lipstick she stole from Obama.

Pointing Fingers-An Old Game Repackaged

Why did this bailout bill fail?  Here are a few suggestions:

1. Senator Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Chris Dodd’s complete lack of leadership.  The Democrats control both houses of Congress yet they can not muster enough votes to pass what they see as an extremely important piece of legislation.  Senator McCain brought in over 60 Republicans on this issue when he was in Congress over the weekend.  Senator Obama called in his support but made little effort to support this legislation, instead relying on his Monday morning quarterbacking skills to praise or denounce the bailout vote, whichever was needed politically.  Chris Dodd, Speaker Pelosi and Barney Fife, I mean Frank, could not even get their members to agree on this bill, choosing instead to blame others for its failure.
2. Politics. I don’t mean Presidential here either.  The Democrats wanted to be able to blame the Republicans for passing this bill.  13 of 19 Democrats who are in tight races across the country voted against this bill AFTER they saw the Republicans voting against it.  If it passed with Republicans putting it over the top, the Democrats would run stories and ads about how they didn’t really want the bill.
3. Wall Street.  When the bill’s passage seemed certain stocks looked good.  However oil prices shot through the roof on speculation that consumers would have a lifeline to borrow from this winter to pay for oil.  As the bill failed stocks fell.  And now faced with the possibility that consumers could not afford to pay for oil this winter, oil prices fell to under $100 a barrel.  Wall street traders and speculators were once again left to find their own solutions and face the fact that they may lose money this year.
4. The American People.  Finally enough of us woke up and said ENOUGH!, let Wall Street fail, we’ll cut back, we don’t need all this credit.  Unfortunately, there is little we can do to prevent eventual passage and we will have to swallow a $700 billion dollar pill in order to save a couple bucks, and I do mead about $2, in our 401K accounts.
5. World Markets.  They need this just as much as our market.  They hold many of these bad debts and don’t want to lose money on them either.  Yes, Asian and European markets will get some of this $700 billion.  But as they begged for us to pass a bailout to save their economies, the people of these countries continued to rally against America and it’s trade policies.  Perhaps some of our Representatives finally realized that not all of $700 billion will go to Americans.
6. Stupid Partisan Speeches.  Only one party to blame here and it is the Democrats.  When Speaker Pelosi stood up and said that Bush and his “right wing ideology of anything goes, no supervision, no discipline, no regulation” was to blame for this bailout, she effectively killed the legislation and allowed Republicans to not only make a stand but also push for more insurance on deposits and other provisions they wanted in the bill.
7. Lastly, the Media.  America is at the beginning of a recession.  However so far it is the mildest recession in our nation’s history.  Today my newspaper reported a jobless rate of 6.1%.  When I moved back here 10 years ago the jobless rate was hovering between 8-10%.  Wages have gone up steadily until recently and it was only after the minimum wage bill passed in PA (now 7.25/hr)  and the Congress that unemployment stated to rise because small employers could not afford the increase.  By the way out of their laundry list of promises they made when they were regaining control of Congress, the minimum wage adjustment is the only one that has passed.  All of the others (think Iraq) have failed or not even been discussed out of committee.  Yet the media continues to prey on the fears of all of us and attaches stories about the Great Depression to discussions on the bailout.  Perhaps they played their monster in the closet card one too many times this week. 

In the end the result of the bill was the same- Republicans are to blame for the economy, according to Democrats.  If it passed it would have been a Republican President and Congressional Republicans who forced it on every one of us.  The news article in my issue of the Time Leader would have read ” Rather than repudiating their President for this mess, Republicans chose to support their President’s failed economic policies.”.  When it failed it was the Republicans who killed it because they did not support their President.  As the Times Leader paraphrased Barney Fife, oops again, Frank today  “Rather than a repudiation of Democrats…Republican’s refusal of the bailout was a rejection of their President.”  

I still hold to the fact that all Americans are to blame for this situation and not any one party.  Certainly rules were relaxed and it started when Clinton was in office and continued through Bush, but Americans did not have to accept money we could not pay back.  Case in point.  When I bought my house I was approved for a mortgage up to $150,000.  After laughing my ass off because I knew that the mortgage company had been drinking while doing these numbers, I chose to go with a mortgage I knew I could afford.  There are many others who took the full amount, thinking they could or would be able to afford it and are facing foreclosure because of that decision.  That’s not the fault of your leaders.

Cancer Survivors Need Not Apply!

In case you missed it, Brave New Films released a new ad against John McCain.  This ad questions John McCain’s health as a survivor of cancer.  Showing the scarred face of McCain, the ad actually questions if he is able to lead the nation because he had several bouts with melanoma.  What’s more is that this ad has some loose ties to Howard Dean, the chairman of the DNC.  

And they say McCain’s tactics are politics as usual!  As usual the media fails to talk about the underhanded tactics being used against McCain. 

http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/09/29/does-mccain-med-records-ad-go-too-far/?icid=200100397x1210712718x1200650301

Obama Plants ACORN Seed, Leaves Town and Forgets to Tell Pelosi To Water It!

The ACORN provision in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Bill of 2008 looks to be dead along with several other provisions that would have clouded the bill.  As it stands now, the bill may have a chance of passing both houses of Congress relatively clean.  If no amendments are sought this bill could pass by Tuesday or Wednesday.  If either house seeks more, it could delay a vote until later in the week. 

As I mentioned earlier, the bill does have a provision that John McCain sought in his economic plan for America.  The HOPE for homeowners provision found in Section 110 of the bill (page 26 of 110), and Section 124 ( pg 69) provides for the opportunity to refinance principal or interest rates on mortgages, thus slowing the rate of foreclosures and giving homeowners time, if they want, to find an alternative to foreclosure.  Provisions were made for more oversight which Senator McCain has been calling for since 2006 (see comments of May 25,2006 in previous post).  Additionally,  executive compensation was also curtailed in the bill, a provision both candidates sought. 

Absent from the bill is a mandate Senator Obama wanted that would have given trial judges the right to adjust mortgages during hearings.  This provison would have allowed trial lawyers to bulk up their briefcases with new cases to protect the ‘innocent’ from the big corporations.  Also absent is the provision that unions would have had access to corporate board meetings, a dangerous and unsettling proposition that would have given unions even more influence in politics and business.  Also to the dismay of Senator Obama, the bill lacks even one mention of the words ‘middle class’.  Perhaps Senator Obama could have fought for these provisoons harder had he been in Washington this weekend instead of “calling in” his support. 

Pelosi,Reid, Dodd and Frank all stood up to take credit for this bill and divert blame to Bush even before the ink was dry on this bill.  Obama didn’t even wait for ink to be on the bill before he took credit (see previous post).  But it House Republicans who stood up and killed many of the provisions that would have delayed the bill.  Provisions like the one that funded ACORN and other groups would have made this bill worthless. 

No matter who claims ultimate victory on this bill, I still say the real loser is personal responsibility.  Because for those of us who struggle,  yet continue,  to pay a mortgage and bills on time and who seek personal solutions to economic challenges, this bill will do little.  But for those who failed to act or were unwilling to act when they saw trouble ahead, this bill will probably buy them more time to consider their mistakes before either acting responsibly or repeating them.  If the former is true for these people than the bill will have been a good risk.  If the latter turns out to be true however, I hope our leaders will have the sense to say ENOUGH! and allow them to fall as far and as hard as they must. 

http://financialservices.house.gov/essa/ayo08c04_xml.pdf

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/28/bailout-deal-reached/

Everbody’s Working For the Weekend (Well, Almost)

“Throughout the entire debate, he didn’t say the words “middle class.” Not once.”——Barack Obama talking about John McCain while praising himself for Friday night. 

I can’t say it enough.  Unfortunately for Senator Obama, actions speak louder than words.  John McCain was in Washington, not as part of a campaign stop but as a member of the 110th Congress, since last Friday working on what has become known as the “Emergeny Economic Stabilization Act of 2008”.   Senators Obama and Biden chose to disregard their duties as members of this Congress and continue their campaign stops. 

It is ironic that McCain can be/will be labeled ‘out of touch’ even though he is the only member of Congress currently running for President who could speak to the provisions BEFORE it hit the Internet.  It is also ironic that if Pres. Bush signs and Senator McCain votes for this bill, Senator McCain’s support  will be portrayed as ‘voting with Bush’ by the Obama campaign despite the presumed need for the bill by both parties. 

It’s 3am. America is facing an economic crisis.  The phone rings. Who do you want on the other end?  John McCain who is already working on a solution?  Or Barack Obama who gave specific instructions to his advisors to call only if he was needed?  On November 4, you decide!