The Wreckage of Wall Street and Barack Obama's Big Opportunity

Various and sundry authors have taken various and sundry positions on whether the Wall Street wreckage of this week benefits the Obama or McCain camp more. My opinion is: We don't know yet. We won't even have much of a serious clue until the three-day rolling presidential tracking polls have several days of history behind them.

The stereotypical view is that since Obama has spent more time blaring his "change" theme and certainly more time and energy bashing today's obviously weak economy, while McCain has talked about the economy's apparently now nonexistent "strong fundamentals," Americans would buy more heavily into the Obama Zeitgeist than into the McCain mantra.Today's Rasmussen robo-poll does show McCain slipping a mite, now leading, 48 to 47. Today's Gallup presidential tracking poll shows McCain steady at 47 percent, but Obama up an inconsequential point to 46 percent.

But I'd like to point you to an article on Politico.com posted an absolutely ancient 24 hours ago that tried to explain McCain's surge in recent polls. The article cites "5 reasons why McCain has pulled ahead" (kind of like those annoying women's magazines articles that list "7 ways to ditch your loser boyfriend" or "10 ways to lose 10 pounds.") One of the reasons is that Obama is losing his edge with voters as the preferred candidate to right the economy.

As the article notes: "When Democracy Corps asked voters last week which candidate would 'do a better job' with the economy,' Obama had a 50 to 44 percent advantage—down from a 16-point edge in mid-August."

Well, all I can say is, if after a reeling 500-point drop in the stock market, Obama can't turn that sucker into a home run, he better pack up and go home.