Presidential candidates seize on Wall Street turmoil
McCain says only a reformer can fix the mess. Obama blames the chaos on Bush policies he says his rival would continue.
WASHINGTON — For Democrat Barack Obama, the Wall Street meltdown is a testament to failed Bush administration policies that his Republican rival would continue. For John McCain, the turmoil is the product of cozy relationships and corruption in Washington that can be cleaned up only by reformers like him and running mate Sarah Palin.
The two presidential candidates have battled for weeks over which one offers the most dramatic change from the current, unpopular administration. On Monday, they seized on the financial chaos to make their cases anew but offered no new proposals.
The McCain campaign quickly released a television advertisement after the disclosure that one financial giant, Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc., had filed for bankruptcy and another, Merrill Lynch & Co., had been bought out. "Our economy in crisis. Only proven reformers John McCain and Sarah Palin can fix it," the ad said.
On the campaign trail in Florida, however, McCain sounded a slightly different note when he said the fundamentals of the economy remained "strong." The Obama campaign immediately pounced on that as evidence that McCain is out of touch with ordinary people.
Speaking in St. Clair Shores, Mich., Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, said: "I could walk from here to Lansing and I wouldn't run into a single person who thought our economy was doing well -- unless I ran into John McCain."
The growing sense of urgency about instability in the housing and financial sectors may pressure both McCain and Obama to flesh out economic policies that have been vague or overshadowed by a blizzard of character attacks and negative campaigning. The last week, for example, has included bickering over the McCain campaign's charge that Obama was making a sexist reference to Palin in talking about "putting lipstick on a pig."
For months, Obama has been calling for increased regulation and accountability for financial institutions. On Monday, he issued a statement that blamed the Bush administration for the problems and implied again that as president he would push for new regulation of the financial services sector.
"Eight years of policies that have shredded consumer protections, loosened oversight and regulation, and encouraged outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans have brought us to the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression," Obama's statement said.
- Barack Obama, John McCain square off on economy Aug 21, 2008
- Obama and McCain's glass houses Aug 23, 2008
- McCain, Obama keep economy in campaign forefront Jul 29, 2008
