What are the fundamentals?

Accessed at 11:30pm on Tuesday September 16

NY Times states that John McCain made a big mistake when he said that the fundamentals of the economy are very strong. At first glance, this statement is absolutely ridiculous, and the Democratic party ran with it. This comes only days (hours) after news about Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. The campaign had three choices: do nothing, attack the other side, or fix it. Fix it they did when only hours later he backpedaled. What are the fundamentals of the economy? For McCain, he meant that the fundamentals are the workers themselves. On Tuesday morning he stated that workers are paying a heavy price while the CEOs of big businesses are left with 'golden parachute' packages of millions of dollars. He did state that the economy was in big problems, and that the Republican party and those in Washington were to blame.

I agree that McCain cannot afford to stumble on this topic, but he did. The campaign did a very good job at saving the potential problem. In class tonight (Election 2008 with Dr. Rupp), we discussed the differences between conservatives, liberals, libertarians, and populists, among many other things. The fact that McCain is sticking up for the workers of America and stating that the big business and big government is the problem with the economy strikes a populist tone. This is a very smart idea. McCain is going to have to reach towards the populists in order to win the election.