|
RENO, Nevada: The financial crisis convulsing
Congress, Wall Street and the economy at large is a dramatic
real-time test of presidential caliber—and Barack Obama appears to
be besting John McCain.
As the House of Representatives
threw out an enormous bailout bill Tuesday, the latest polls showed
the Democrat Obama building a dominant lead over his Republican
rival in the November 4 election.
“Pretty clearly if the question
[for voters] is the economy, the answer is Obama,” argued William
Galston, a former White House adviser who analyzes presidential
politics at Washington’s Brookings Institution.
“Every day spent talking about
any aspect of the economy is a good day for Senator Obama, and a bad
day for Senator McCain,” he said.
From the campaign trail, the two
rivals scrambled to respond after the government’s $700-billion
economic intervention was shot down by rebel Republicans and a
smaller number of Democrats.
Minutes after the House vote,
Obama told voters in Colorado: “There’s going to be some bumps,
and trials and tribulations, and ups and downs, before we get this
rescue package done.”
Aides to both White House
candidates said they would return to Washington, D.C. when and if
the Senate takes up the bill.
But uncertainty about the way
forward sparked a bloodbath on global bourses, with an astonishing
$1.2 trillion wiped off New York’s market value alone. (See
related stories on front page and B2.)
“One of my messages I have to
Congress is, get this done. Democrats, Republicans, step up to the
plate and get it done,” Obama said.
No time for blame
While the Democrat appealed for
calm from panicked investors, McCain a couple of hours later also
urged Congress to get back to work on the bailout.
“Senator Obama and his allies
in Congress infused unnecessary partisanship into the process,” he
told reporters, before adding: “Now is not the time to fix the
blame. It’s time to fix the problem.”
Thus played out the rivals’
signature approaches of the past fortnight—Obama attempting to
exude a level-headed tone of calm under fire, McCain mixing it up
with an action-man style befitting the “maverick” former Navy
pilot.
Obama aides now routinely use the
word “erratic” to describe the 72-year-old McCain’s handling
of the financial crisis.
At first the Republican said the
economy was fundamentally “strong,” but within days was
announcing that he was suspending his campaign to rush back to
Washington to help fix the crisis.
Former Massachusetts Governor
Mitt Romney went on NBC early Monday to declare that without
McCain’s leadership, no deal would have emerged. But two-thirds of
House Republicans went on to ignore his appeals to pass the bill.
No drama approach
Obama, 47, believes meanwhile
that his “no drama” approach will resonate with voters hungering
for a more considered mode of leadership after eight years of
President George W. Bush.
The contrast was stark at
Friday’s first presidential debate, with McCain on nonstop attack
as he battled to overcome his polling deficit, and Obama trying to
engage with his opponent.
Latest surveys
New polls Monday took account of
McCain’s campaign suspension, which Democrats said never actually
happened, the frantic negotiations in Congress and the first debate
in Mississippi.
Gallup’s latest tracking poll
had Obama on 50 percent to 42 percent for McCain. Rasmussen also had
Obama on 50 percent, but McCain doing better on 45 percent.
In its own new poll, the Los
Angeles Times said “Obama has made strides in convincing Americans
that he can handle the toughest challenges facing the country,
including the financial meltdown and international crises.”
For many commentators, McCain’s
surprise dash to Washington, D.C. last week was an impetuous action
whose risks are now evident after the emergency bill failed in the
House of Representatives.
“If he ends up losing the
election, this will be remembered as a colossal blunder. The fact
that it blew up in his face doesn’t look good,” said Linda
Fowler, professor of government at Dartmouth College.
“It wasn’t necessarily an act
of desperation, but I think it will remind people that his
shoot-from-the-hip, Navy-fighter style isn’t always a good
thing,” she said.
Obama wins debate
The LA Times also said the debate
appears to have helped Obama slightly widen a lead over his
Republican opponent as a post-debate LA Times/Bloomberg survey
shows.
Registered voters who watched the
debate preferred Obama, 49 percent to 44 percent, according to the
poll taken over three days after the showdown in Oxford,
Mississippi. The same survey also said 46 percent of debate-watchers
believed the Democrat was more “presidential,” compared with 33
percent for the Republican.
The USA Today said the first
debate helped Obama slightly expand his support as a USA
Today/Gallup poll taken on September 27 picked Obama over McCain
when asked which candidate offered the best proposals to solve the
country’s problems, 52 percent to 35 percent.
But in a countervailing view, the
Washington Post thought Obama “may have won the polls after
Friday’s debate here at the University of Mississippi, but the
McCain team won the spin war.”
--AFP With Xinhua
|
