With the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros. and the Bank of America takeover of Merrill Lynch roiling Wall Street, Sen. John McCain attempted to reassure voters about
“„“Today of all days, John McCain’s stubborn insistence that the ‘fundamentals of the economy are strong’ shows that he is disturbingly out of touch with what’s going in the lives of ordinary Americans. Even as his own ads try to convince him that the economy is in crisis, apparently his 26 years in Washington have left him incapable of understanding that the policies he supports have created an historic economic crisis,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
“„“John McCain has confessed, and I quote – I want to make sure I get it right – he said, ‘It’s easy for me to be in Washington and frankly be somewhat divorced from the day-to-day challenges people have.’ Well, he’s right. He’s right. If all you do is walk the halls of power, all you’ll hear is the wants of the powerful.
“„Ladies and gentleman, I believe that’s why John McCain could say with a straight face as recently as this morning, and this is a quote, ‘the fundamentals of the economy are strong.’ That’s what John said. He says that we’ve made great progress economically, in the Bush years. Ladies and gentlemen, I could walk from here to Lansing, and I wouldn’t run into a single person who thought our economy was doing well, unless I ran into John McCain.”
“„“My opponents may disagree, but those fundamentals — the American worker, the innovation, the entrepreneurship, small business — those are the fundamentals of America, and I think they’re strong.”