ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist&reg;.com: Putin Punishes Georgia</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style2 { font-size: large; font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial; } .style3 { font-size: large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="133" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="7" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="482" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="1" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="300" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="24"> <td width="624" height="24" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#149; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#149; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#149; <a href="teflon.html">THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#149; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">REACTIONS</a> &#149; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="2"> <td width="133" height="2">&nbsp;</td> <td width="489" height="2576" colspan="3" rowspan="2" align="left" xpos="133" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <p class="style2">Obama Eyes Economy</p> <p><b><font face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica">by John M. Curtis</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b><a href="books.html"><br> </a></b></font><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>(310) 204-8700</b></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright September 6, 2008<br>All Rights Reserved. </i></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="style3">K</span>eeping his eye on the ball, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) refused to let GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) divert attention from the economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain s lackluster acceptance speech mentioned almost nothing about the economy, preferring to detail his tortured path as a Vietnam War POW.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> No one really knows what happened at the end of McCain s speech, where a well-rehearsed rhetorical flurry sent the 72-year-old, four-term U.S. senator into an emotional frenzy, screaming at voters to  fight for everything but the kitchen sink.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While it played well in the convention hall, McCain s pleas for support seem to fall on deaf ears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>As soon as the subject turned to the economy, the audience was dumbfounded figuring out how McCain s new call for change would do anything other than repeat President George W. Bush s last eight years.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Now that the balloons and confetti dropped, McCain and his VP pick Alaska s 44-year-old Gov. Sarah. Palin must make the sale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Her brief time in the Alaska statehouse gives her more economic expertise than McCain s senate career.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> These are tough times, McCain told 12,000-strong economically depressed audience in a Milwaukee suburb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While Barack currently leads in Wisconsin, McCain remains within striking distance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCaim walks a fine line distancing himself for the incumbent president he lauded last night at the convention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>He has a tough sell asking voters to believe that things would change under a McCain administration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Like Bush, McCain is committed to spending $12-16 billion a month on Iraq, giving no timetables when the nation and the economy can recover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Obama has promised to end the Iraq War within 16 months of taking office.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Now the convention glitz is over, McCain must divert attention from the economy to national security, reminding voters that the country hasn t been hit since Sept. 11 a stunning success for the White House.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain must explain how he intends to fund his ambitious economic program when he s committed to Bush s war plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> The American people can t afford a Barack Obama presidency, said McCain, without giving any details.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Barack has promised to cut taxes for 90% of middle-low class workers, currently struggling to pay their bills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain paints Obama as a  tax-and-spend liberal, failing to acknowledge the Iraq War s catastrophic drain on the federal treasury.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>With Iraq Commander Gen. David Petreus saying U.S. troops must stay, Bush or McCain won t consider an exit strategy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Without ending the Iraq War, there s no relief in sight for the U.S. economy.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Keeping the focus on the economy helps Obama remind voters to vote the economy, not extraneous issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>  You would think George Bush and his potential Republican successor John McCain would be spending al lot of time worrying about the economy, all these jobs that are being lose on their watch, Barack told workers at a lens manufacturer in Duryea, Pennsylvania.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>With oil surpluses piling up in Iraq, you d think the Iraqis could, like the Kuwaitees, finance U.S. military operations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Expecting the U.S. budget deficit to hit a record $550 billion, you d think McCain if he insists on staying in Iraq would hammer the Iraqis to pay the freight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Losing soldiers every month is bad enough but tanking the U.S. economy is inexcusable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> He just doesn t get it, said Obama, calling McCain oblivious to the plight of working families, betrayed by the weak economy.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Watching the stock market slip into a bear market, foreclosures at record numbers and the country s biggest financial institutions teetering on insolvency, you d think that Bush and McCain would figure out what went wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Nobel laureate Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz laid out a black-and-white case that the Iraq War broke the U.S. economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain can t continue to make more excuses about the continued need for U.S. troops, stubbornly resisting an exit strategy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>If he really believes Iraq will fall to al-Qaida and the whole Middle East will erupt if the U.S. pulls out, then he needs to pound the Iraqis to pay the freight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Whatever the prospects of another terrorist attack, it doesn t excuse Iraq s catastrophic drain on the U.S. treasury.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When both candidates talk about fixing the economy, they d better figure out a way to stop the hemorrhage in Iraq. </p> <p><b><u>About the Author</u></b><br> </p> <p><b>John M. Curtis </b>writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He&#x2019;s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet</a> and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma</a>.<br> </p> <p></p> </td> <td width="1" height="2576" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="2"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2"></td> </tr> <tr height="2574"> <td width="133" height="2574" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="1" height="2574"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2574"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="133" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="133" height="1"></td> <td width="7" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="7" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="300" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="300" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2005 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>