Current Event #2: The Candidates and the Economic Crisis

For almost two weeks now, the Wall Street financial crisis and the bailout has been making headlines all over the media. Politics and the presidential race, especially, are beginning to view this financial crisis as a way to boost the presidential candidates. Senator Barack Obama has certainly gained more battleground and the chance to get a solid lead in the race. On the other hand, Senator John McCain must find a way to divert this new focus on the economy and its effects or else face the danger of severely hurting his campaign.

Friday’s debate in Oxford, Mississippi had the candidates neck-to-neck. Overnight polls showed that Obama had won the debate and was in the lead. Republican nominee, McCain, will definitely have difficulty trying to turn around this lead; his best hopes are for Wall Street to finally calm down. In the meantime, McCain will argue that Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, is not in any state to be commander-in-chief and Obama will raise taxes and spending in economic crisis, making matters worse. Obama pointed out that McCain had much to say about him, but he not once mentioned the working, middle-class public, which Obama believes is the core of the nation.

In the upcoming three debates, John McCain and his VP nominee, Sarah Palin, are very likely to have to discuss issues like the economy especially once again. Obama has launched TV ads claiming that “McCain doesn’t get it,” that he wouldn’t understand what the middle-class people have to cope with. According the Republican aides, McCain is no where to be seen because he is occupied with getting the financial rescue package ready for a vote (and they say that the package would be a complete failure without McCain). Headlines today state that the bailout has failed in the House, triggering a huge drop in DOW by about 778 points (which is about $1.2 trillion dollars lost on Wall Street). McCain is already taking the heat for the failure of the bailout bill. The debaters should be ready to tackle unfavorable events such as this (and the Republicans aren’t looking too sharp).