With the general election creeping up, the nation's primary concern has been our tanking economy. According to NPR, the DOW opened below 8,600 points this morning. The DOW hasn't fallen below 8,600 since 2003. So what does that mean for people like you and me? With another Great Depression on the horizon, voting in the general election is the next crucial step.
Voters need to go beyond party lines and really see the economic status of our country as the most imperative. This is not to say that other issues such as abortion, off-shore drilling, health care, or others are secondary. But as the Economist said, "Deprive a person of oxygen and he will turn blue, collapse and eventually die. Deprive economies of credit and a similar process kicks in. There's no doubt that the American economy is in a recession and the rest of the world is sure to follow. In the IMF's "World Economic Outlook," which was published this past Wednesday, the world is "entering a major downturn."
Senator John McCain has made it clear that Senator Barack Obama is inexperienced and couldn't possibly be fit for presidency. Yet McCain must realize that President George W. Bush and his party inherited a $2 trillion surplus to protect Social Security and pay down the nation's debt according to a Bush for President, Inc. "Surplus," 30 second TV spot run in New Hampshire back in late January of 2000. Now Bush will leave his successor a $438 billion dollar deficit!
So thanks to the sound judgment of politicians like Senator John McCain, my generation and our children will be shouldering the burden of enormous debt. My friends, we shouldn't have to vote for someone who had to be cleared of impropriety. We don't have to vote for someone who was criticized for exercising poor judgment.
Noam N. Levy of the Los Angeles Times explains Senator McCain's involvement with a savings and loan scandal back in the 1980s:
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McCain's ties to a convicted S&L owner
The issue: Probably the biggest political embarrassment of John McCain's career emanated from his close ties to Charles H. Keating Jr., the high-flying owner of Lincoln Savings & Loan who later went to federal prison.
Lincoln's failure would ultimately cost taxpayers $3.4 billion, the most expensive rescue of the S&L crisis in the late 1980s.
Two years before Lincoln went under, McCain and four other senators, at Keating's request, pressured bank regulators at two meetings to ease up their investigation of the thrift. A subsequent Senate Ethics Committee investigation of the meetings concluded that McCain had been guilty of only "poor judgment." He did not do as much for Keating as other senators, the panel found.
But of the five senators, McCain was closest to Keating, a Phoenix businessman. In addition to accepting more than $150,000 in campaign contributions from Keating and his associates, McCain and his wife had vacationed at Keating's Bahamas retreat and repeatedly flown on his jet. (McCain subsequently repaid the cost of the travel.) Cindy McCain and her family were also investors with Keating in a shopping mall developed by one of Keating's companies.
And in the years preceding the meetings, McCain had fought against tougher regulation of the S&L banking sector, a key priority of Keating's.
Why the Obama campaign says it matters: McCain's position against regulation on behalf of a political donor is relevant to assessing how he might handle the current financial crisis.
Why the McCain campaign says it doesn't: McCain, who subsequently said he regretted his behavior, was never found to have violated any laws or Senate rules.
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Our nation shouldn't have to endure another four years of economic irresponsibility. We need someone in the White House who sides with the American people, not with Wall Street. Will Senator McCain put the people before Wall Street? Who really wants to find out? Please make sure to vote November 4.
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