A CONTRAST IN APPROACHES ...

Now this is what I'm talking about ...

Barack Obama is proposing that we immediately give citizens penalty-free access to retirement savings to help them through the downturn, is calling for a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures, and encouraging the federal government to lend money to cash-strapped local and state governments. This is just the beginning (especially since these proposals are really suggestions for President "Deer-in-the-Headlight" Bush).

Conversely, three weeks after declaring the fundamentals of the economy "strong," John McCain is doing his level best to prove that he was wrong then, and erratic now. He's on the campaign trail playing Chicken Little:

These are hard times, my friend. Our economy is in crisis. Financial markets are collapsing. Credit is drying up. Your savings are in danger and your retirement is at risk. Jobs are disappearing. The cost of health care, your children’s college, gasoline and groceries are rising all the time, with no end in sight, while your most important asset — your home — is losing value every day.

Great. The Dow busts back on news of a coordinated European bailout and McCain rains on the parade. These guys are tone deaf. He should be discussing how strong action can create good results.

To his credit, McCain tried to distance his campaign from President Bush by painting him in a Hooveresque fashion: "We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change." Unfortunately, it took McCain 8 years to realize what we've known all along. That's not leadership. That's political opportunism.

The truly incredible thing was when McCain had the temerity to say "The next president won’t have time to get used to the office ..." with Sarah Palin at his side.

And the Maverick goes down the drain ...

- Mark