[Ðiego]

Lehman Brothers is dead. Bear Stearns is dead. Merrill Lynch is dead. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

How's your economy? How's John McCain's? What do the advisors he has wrapped himself in, insulating him from the troubles of the nation, think?

Fir we were a 'nation of whiners' who were engaged in a 'mental recession'. Now this:

Quit Doling Out That Bad-Economy Line

By Donald Luskin
Sunday, September 14, 2008; Page B01

"It was the worst of times, and it was the worst of times."

I imagine that's what Charles Dickens would conclude about the current condition of the U.S. economy, based on the relentless drumbeat of pessimism in the media and on the campaign trail. In the past two months, this newspaper alone has written no fewer than nine times, in news stories, columns and op-eds, that key elements of the economy are the worst they've been "since the Great Depression." That diagnosis has been applied twice to the housing "slump" and once to the housing "crisis," to the "severe" decline in home prices, to the "spike" in mortgage foreclosures, to the "change" in the mortgage market and the "turmoil" in debt markets, and to the "crisis" or "meltdown" in financial markets.

It's a virus -- and it's spreading. Do a Google News search for "since the Great Depression," and you come up with more than 4,500 examples of the phrase's use in just the past month.

But that doesn't make any of it true. Things today just aren't that bad. Sure, there are trouble spots in the economy, as the government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and jitters about Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers, amply demonstrate. And unemployment figures are up a bit, too. None of this, however, is cause for depression -- or exaggerated Depression comparisons.

And who does he blame for us 'thinking' we're worse off than we were 8 years ago? I'll give you three guesses and not even count the first two:

Patient zero in this epidemic is the Democratic candidate for president. As it would be for any challenger, it's in his interest to portray the incumbent party's economic performance in the grimmest possible terms.

So, banks and mortgage lenders are failing and we're facing tougher economic times because Obama realizes it and has for some time? What a loon! How out of touch can one campaign be?

Obama's hyperbole about our terrible economy

Odd though how he never mentions that he's editor and columnist for the National Review and a McCain campaign economic adviser.

Sweet. maybe his next book will be, 'Think Yourself To A Better Economic Future!'. Feckin' clueless twat.

Obama has been highlighting the problem for 6 YEARS! 6 FUCKING YEARS!

McCain has said on a number of occasions:

"The issue of economics is something that I've really never understood as well as I should."

And so what did he say he'd be looking for in a Vice Presidential running mate?

"I've never been involved in Wall Street, I've never been involved in the financial stuff, the financial workings of the country, so I'd like to have somebody intimately familiar with it," he said of a potential vice president.

"All of us bring strengths and weaknesses to an office and you want to compliment your weaknesses," he said. "That's not an admission of failure, it's just the best way to govern."

Country first? Really? And didn't you also promise someone strong on foreign policy? Didn't you? Well, didn't you? HELLO?!

Obama has it right, and you should open yourself to the possibility that he has a clue and look past the politics of the past.

I certainly don’t fault Senator McCain for these problems, but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to. It’s a philosophy we’ve had for the last eight years – one that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. It’s a philosophy that says even common-sense regulations are unnecessary and unwise, and one that says we should just stick our heads in the sand and ignore economic problems until they spiral into crises.

Well now, instead of prosperity trickling down, the pain has trickled up – from the struggles of hardworking Americans on Main Street to the largest firms of Wall Street.

Ð