McCain and the Zigzag Express

From Johnathan Alter's "McCain and the Zigzag Express" from Newsweek:

John McCain's whole campaign is based on the idea that Barack Obama is risky, untested and can't be trusted to protect the nation in a crisis. But this week it was McCain who seemed unpresidential, as his Zigzag Express swerved back and forth across the median strip. His approach to the greatest financial crisis since 1933 was erratic and off-key. Would his presidency be any different?

McCain's first reaction to the climactic events of Sunday, Sept. 14, when Lehman Brothers fell, Merrill Lynch was sold and AIG began to totter, was to repeat his longstanding sound bite that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." When Obama predictably leapt on this clueless comment with a TV ad, McCain quickly backtracked by saying that he was merely talking about the strength of "the American worker" and anyone who disagreed obviously had a problem understanding the importance of working people. He told the morning shows that he was a Republican in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt, though his true views on free-market economics are more in tune with Herbert Hoover.

Read the entire Newsweek article, "McCain and the Zinzag Express" by Johnathan Alter here.

McCain: "I know a lot less about economics. I still need to be Educated"

WASHINGTON (AP) — A powerful service workers union backing Democrat Barack Obama started a $2.1 million ad campaign Sunday that attacks Republican John McCain on the economy.

The Service Employees International Union is running a TV commercial in six states that could be competitive in the presidential election: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Iowa. The union's efforts are independent of Obama's presidential campaign, but

the ad strikes many of the same themes.

"Our effort with this ad is to put (the campaign) back on the economic issues," Anna Burger, the union's secretary-treasurer, said in a conference call with reporters. "When you talk to voters about what they care about, they care about the economy."

The ad was released on the same day the Obama campaign started running a commercial saying a McCain administration would be run by lobbyists, part of a long-running debate about which campaign has closer ties to lobbyists.

The union ad shows a family talking about how they have been hurt by the nation's struggling economy, followed by abbreviated versions of two oft-cited quotes from McCain, the Republican nominee for president.

"John McCain said, 'I know a lot less about economics. I still need to be educated,' " an announcer says in the ad. "No wonder he said we're better off than we were eight years ago. It's time for change."

Read article here.