Obama Eyes Economy

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright September 6, 2008
All Rights Reserved.                    

               Keeping his eye on the ball, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) refused to let GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) divert attention from the economy.  McCain’s lackluster acceptance speech mentioned almost nothing about the economy, preferring to detail his tortured path as a Vietnam War POW.  No one really knows what happened at the end of McCain’s speech, where a well-rehearsed rhetorical flurry sent the 72-year-old, four-term U.S. senator into an emotional frenzy, screaming at voters to “fight” for everything but the kitchen sink.  While it played well in the convention hall, McCain’s pleas for support seem to fall on deaf ears.  As soon as the subject turned to the economy, the audience was dumbfounded figuring out how McCain’s new call for change would do anything other than repeat President George W. Bush’s last eight years.

            Now that the balloons and confetti dropped, McCain and his VP pick Alaska’s 44-year-old Gov. Sarah. Palin must make the sale.  Her brief time in the Alaska statehouse gives her more economic expertise than McCain’s senate career.  “These are tough times,” McCain told 12,000-strong economically depressed audience in a Milwaukee suburb.  While Barack currently leads in Wisconsin, McCain remains within striking distance.  McCaim walks a fine line distancing himself for the incumbent president he lauded last night at the convention.  He has a tough sell asking voters to believe that things would change under a McCain administration.  Like Bush, McCain is committed to spending $12-16 billion a month on Iraq, giving no timetables when the nation—and the economy—can recover.  Obama has promised to end the Iraq War within 16 months of taking office.

            Now the convention glitz is over, McCain must divert attention from the economy to national security, reminding voters that the country hasn’t been hit since Sept. 11—a stunning success for the White House.  McCain must explain how he intends to fund his ambitious economic program when he’s committed to Bush’s war plans.  “The American people can’t afford a Barack Obama presidency,” said McCain, without giving any details.  Barack has promised to cut taxes for 90% of middle-low class workers, currently struggling to pay their bills.  McCain paints Obama as a “tax-and-spend” liberal, failing to acknowledge the Iraq War’s catastrophic drain on the federal treasury.  With Iraq Commander Gen. David Petreus saying U.S. troops must stay, Bush or McCain won’t consider an exit strategy.  Without ending the Iraq War, there’s no relief in sight for the U.S. economy.

            Keeping the focus on the economy helps Obama remind voters to vote the economy, not extraneous issues.  “You would think George Bush and his potential Republican successor John McCain would be spending al lot of time worrying about the economy, all these jobs that are being lose on their watch,” Barack told workers at a lens manufacturer in Duryea, Pennsylvania.  With oil surpluses piling up in Iraq, you’d think the Iraqis could, like the Kuwaitees, finance U.S. military operations.  Expecting the U.S. budget deficit to hit a record $550 billion, you’d think McCain—if he insists on staying in Iraq—would hammer the Iraqis to pay the freight.  Losing soldiers every month is bad enough but tanking the U.S. economy is inexcusable.  “He just doesn’t get it,” said Obama, calling McCain oblivious to the plight of working families, betrayed by the weak economy.

            Watching the stock market slip into a bear market, foreclosures at record numbers and the country’s biggest financial institutions teetering on insolvency, you’d think that Bush and McCain would figure out what went wrong.  Nobel laureate Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz laid out a black-and-white case that the Iraq War broke the U.S. economy.  McCain can’t continue to make more excuses about the continued need for U.S. troops, stubbornly resisting an exit strategy.  If he really believes Iraq will fall to al-Qaida and the whole Middle East will erupt if the U.S. pulls out, then he needs to pound the Iraqis to pay the freight.  Whatever the prospects of another terrorist attack, it doesn’t excuse Iraq’s catastrophic drain on the U.S. treasury.  When both candidates talk about fixing the economy, they’d better figure out a way to stop the hemorrhage in Iraq.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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