The deteriorating economy took center stage in the presidential election Thursday as Democrat Barack Obama called for tighter regulation of financial markets and rival Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed more retraining for displaced workers, creating a sharp contrast with Republican John McCain over how much the government should intervene.
The economy has been the No. 1 issue for voters for months, but the candidates have embraced the issue more slowly. This week, however, all three gave major addresses that added significant detail to their prescriptions for the ailing economy.
Obama called Thursday for an overhaul of the nation's regulatory system, immediate relief for homeowners caught in the sub-prime mortgage crisis and a $30-billion economic stimulus package. Clinton, who had proposed a $30-billion fund to help prevent foreclosures a week ago, offered a new proposal to spend $12.5 billion on job-training programs.
McCain emphasized Thursday that he thought any federal aid should be limited to "deserving American families" who were "in danger of not realizing the American dream."
"What is not necessary is a multibillion-dollar bailout for big banks and speculators, as Sens. Clinton and Obama have proposed," he said in a statement released by his campaign. "There is a tendency for liberals to seek big government programs that sock it to American taxpayers while failing to solve the very real problems we face."
The economy has not been an easy topic for any of the candidates. None of them has business experience, and all three are more comfortable talking about their well-established views on the Iraq war -- a topic they had once assumed would drive the election.
But they have stepped up their efforts to refine and expand their proposals to deal with an economic slowdown recently underscored by the sudden collapse of a venerable Wall Street brokerage firm. On Thursday, as the candidates campaigned in three different states, the federal government confirmed that the economy all but stalled out in the final quarter of last year, with the gross domestic product posting a scant 0.6% increase.
--
For a new system
Obama, speaking to a Wall Street audience at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, cited the Federal Reserve's extraordinary intervention to save Bear Stearns Cos. from bankruptcy to bolster his call for more help for homeowners.
