It's the Economy, Stupid:

In his bid to become President of the United States, somehow John McCain forgot that he needed to distance himself from the Bush Administration. Indeed, McCain apparently felt that Bush was doing a GOOD job. How else account for his earlier, public statements that he had voted with President Bush "90% of the time," and that the "fundamentals of the economy were strong?"

But that was before the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1929 hit the nation-the threat of financial institutions failing, enmasse, but for the government's multi-BILLION dollar bailout.

Now McCain has changed his tune. Never mind the record jobless rate. Never mind the spiraling gas prices. Never mind the spike in prices for everything everywhere. It took a history making, Great Depression II, type crisis to get him to change his tune.

But it's too late.

History has shown that, when the economy goes South, so does the incumbent President. It happened to Herbert Hoover, who had the misfortune of becoming President right before the Great Depression hit. It happened to Jimmy Carter, who seemed unequipped to deal with an energy crisis combined with an economic crisis. It happened to George Bush, Sr., who seemed "out-of-touch" with us average folks, totally unaware that we were financially sinking.

It IS happening with John McCain.

Sure, John McCain isn't the incumbent President. Our incumbent President cannot run for reelection this time. But McCain is guilty by association. After all, he is a Republican who, by his own admission, "voted with President Bush 90 % of the time." Worse, he is a Republican who STILL thinks, I am sure, that the "fundamentals of the economy" is strong.

By contrast, Obama is running on a platform of "Change," and there is precedent for the success of the mantra, particularly in dire economic times. It worked so well for Bill Clinton that he beat George Bush, Sr., in a landslide, to become President in 1993.

Obama must have studied Clinton's "rules of winning the Presidency against a clueless Republican candidate," because he is using his message of "change" against McCain to good effect. Every time McCain and his charmin,' "you betcha" running mate claim that they are Mavericks, for instance, Obama hits him with his record of voting with Bush much more often than he has ever voted AGAINST him. Further, Obama's campaign ads then bolster these charges with evidence from McCain's OWN mouth-ouch for McCain. It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic. You would think that McCain, being a Senator for decades, would have discovered the power of a good, BAD sound bite, especially one that proves that he is more LIKE one of the most unpopular incumbent American Presidents in history, than he is UNLIKE him-

Wouldn't you?