US Presidential elections - Cunning stunts by Obama are rattling Obama - by Anne Summers
According to the men charged with supervising the US economy, the country (and, hence, the world) faces financial armageddon unless the US taxpayer bails out Wall Street's beleaguered banks. For a sum that exceeds what the US spent on World War II, the future of the country is to be mortgaged to cushion the economy from the follies (if not crimes) of financial cowboys who rewarded themselves handsomely for their creativity in turning bad debt into tradeable product.
It is against this background that the performance of the two presidential candidates, Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama, needs to be assessed. McCain's political stocks had plunged along with the market after his comments last week that the fundamentals of the economy were sound. He sought to remedy this by recasting himself as a fiscal lone ranger, dramatically suspending his campaign, rushing off to Washington and attempting to cancel the foreign policy presidential debate which was scheduled for Friday night.
These are dangerous times for Obama. He risks being once again outmanoeuvred by a rival who has no qualms about dumbing down the political process (a la Palin) or disregarding established conventions. Sen. Barack Obama sharply criticized Sen. John McCain's judgment on the war in Iraq, repeatedly telling his presidential rival ''you were wrong'' to rush the nation into battle, directly challenging the Republican nominee on foreign policy as the two met in their first debate of the general-election season. McCain aggressively pushed back, accusing Obama of failing to understand that a new approach employed by Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq would lead to victory and mocking him as naive for his willingness to meet with some of the world's most brutal leaders. With 40 days remaining before Election Day and the U.S. economy teetering, the two clashed on taxes, energy policy, and the threat posed by Iran. Neither made a serious mistake in an encounter that capped one of the most chaotic weeks of the campaign, nor was either able to claim a decisive victory.
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