Hot Docs: Who to Blame for the Economic Crisis, Confusion About Obama, McCain's Views

Who's to Blame for the Economy? Recent political ads pointing fingers for the current economic crisis are "partisan caricatures" that are "far wide of the mark" of truth, says FactCheck.org. The watchdog group looks at recent ads from John McCain's campaign and from the liberal group MoveOn.org. FactCheck calls the MoveOn ad "bunk" for blaming McCain adviser Phil Gramm for the crisis. Meanwhile, the McCain ad says that Obama was "silent" on a bill that actually never came up for a vote in the Senate. The report sums up by listing 11 different groups that have drawn criticism for their role in the crisis (from Wall Street to the Clinton and Bush administrations). "The U.S. economy is enormously complicated," the report concludes, "screwing it up takes a great deal of cooperation."

Public Needs a Crash Course on the Candidates: American voters "have much to learn" about what candidates Barack Obama and John McCain stand for, suggests the National Annenberg Election Survey. The poll, conducted in September, asked voters questions about the presidential hopefuls' views on trade, healthcare, and the economy. Responses varied widely. Most answered correctly when asked about support for the Iraq war, health insurance, and tax cuts. But more than a third mistakenly credited Obama for McCain's proposal to give individuals and families money to help them buy their own health insurance. Knowledge may improve in the coming weeks, however, as Annenberg's studies of previous elections have shown that "voters of all educational levels learn from watching debates."

Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq: "Political, security, economic, and diplomatic trends in Iraq" are "positive" but still "fragile, reversible, and uneven," the Department of Defense says in its most recent report to Congress. While praising a drop in violence to "early 2004" levels, the Pentagon warns that progress needs to be made in local infrastructure and law enforcement. The report particularly blames "malign Iranian influence" for contributing to insurgent groups that destabilize the country.

Economy Down, Medicaid Up: Most states expanded their Medicaid programs in 2008, but these programs may be in danger as the economy continues to slow. The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured has released its annual survey of Medicaid directors in 50 states and the District of Columbia. With the slowing U.S. economy, most Medicaid directors anticipate increased enrollment in their states, amounting to a projected 3.6 percent increase nationwide. Many are worried about paying for this—two thirds of state Medicaid chiefs put the odds of a budget shortfall at "at least 50-50." Many also cite the "strained federal-state relationship" between agencies as a particular difficulty. The report warns that these circumstances "are likely to hinder state efforts."

Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan: Despite the fact that private contractors have been working in Afghanistan and Iraq since the beginning of U.S. military operations in those two countries, government agencies are unable to provide "complete and reliable data" on those workers, a Government Accountability Office study has found. Over the period of the 18-month study, the GAO found that government agencies spent at least $33.9 billion on 57,000 contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The study found that "complete and reliable data were not available for us to determine the total number of contractor personnel" and that government agencies were "unable to provide complete or specific information on the number of contractor personnel who had been killed or wounded."