Posted on 09/21/2008 4:47:53 PM PDT by Vision Thing
(CBS) Both presidential candidates agree the nation is in a recession. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain, appearing in separate interviews for a special 40th anniversary edition of 60 Minutes, say the economic term applies to the current troubles and lay out their plans to solve the situation if they are elected.
Their interviews will be broadcast this Sunday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
"Oh, I think there's no doubt that…when the numbers come out, that we are officially in recession," Obama tells Steve Kroft. "I think, for a lot of people, they've been feeling like we've been in a recession for years now. When their wages and incomes don't go up, and the cost of gas and groceries and home heating oil and prescription drugs are all going up, that feels awfully like a recession to them," says Obama.
Scott Pelley asks McCain whether he thinks the country is in a recession. "Sure. [but] technically, I don't know…Americans today don't care about what the, quote, 'technical term' is," says McCain. "Unemployment is up. Wages are down. Home foreclosures are incredibly high, the worst in many, many, many years. All of the indicators that affect the American family, unemployment being up - those people, they don't care whether technically we're in a recession or not. Fact is they're hurting and they are hurting very, very badly," he says.
The candidates were interviewed within a 24 hour period, Obama in Nevada this past Wednesday, and McCain in Wisconsin on Thursday afternoon . Their interviews will fill the entire broadcast Sunday, providing viewers a revealing side-by-side look at the candidates and their positions before their first debate on Friday, Sept. 26.
Naturally the weakened dollar has proven to be a plus for US manufacturing.
While perhaps a blank check for $700 bil to the Treasury to buy up crap paper isn’t the greatest idea, the Fed at some level will need to make sure enough liquidity remains in the banking system such that credit doesn’t dry up and take the economy with it. That’s the danger here and why the Fed and Treasury are spazzing out.
McCain has to walk a fine line between showing enough concern for the economy while at the same time calming people and policy makers down. McCain has to be the adult while Obama runs around like a headless Chicken Little. This is not 1931 nor 1921, etc. The Fed has been doing its job as it relates to making sure banks can still operate, unlike the clueless Fed during the Hoover administration.
But this bailout needs to be modified because the last thing we need is an Obama taking office with a Democrat Congress and a $700 billion blank check.
Yup, when obama was saying that this bailout is a blank check, you can damn well be sure he wants to be the one to sign that check.
McCain is beginning to irk me.
I thought Mac looked quite young.
But the definition of lying hasn’t.
It’s too bad they don’t want to really share with the voter.
When asked where he’s lived, McCain named off all these navy towns: San Diego, Norfolk, DC, a submarine town in Connecticut. When asked where he lived the longest, he chuckled and said, Hanoi.
Shame on McCain. Words have meaning. Yes, the actual technical meaning of recession DOES matter. There is no recession.
McCain isn’t talking to us.
He’s trying to talk to the 5% of undecided Dems and Ind. he needs to win.
At least McCain says that it may not be a technical recession while Obama says it’s “official”...it’s not and he is an idiot (as is Kraft for not questioning him on it) Does it feel like a recession to some?? Yes,but it also doesn’t fit the real definition AND there are many sections of the country that are doing well or at least okay.
Obama is an idiot, but it was a gotcha question to McCain who, if he answered truthfully, would be portrayed as uncaring, blah blah blah
Sorry, but when he talked about firing Chris Cox and putting Andrew Cuomo in at SEC I was more than a little disappointed. He was more than eager to list Bush’s faults, some of which I agree with like spending.
When he listed the treatment of prisoners (presumably Gitmo) as one area where he has grievance, I can only think of the left and their eagerness to give these terrorists their “rights”. Very enervating.
Yup, McCain has a luxury that The Unabama does not have, and that is to chase after the centrists, independents, and undecideds. McCain has already thrown the biggest bone of all to us conservatives, and that is a future, which is in the form of Sarah Palin, so he can be the centrist that we all know he is.
obama cannot chase the middle because of his money mismanagement. He must remain a leftist and talk like a leftist to keep bringing in the money from his leftist money people.
That number will be revised way downward in six months - just like the others. It came from the same people who are bringing you all of these one-time bailouts.
Fraudulent statistics aside, the existence of a recession can only be denied by a fool or Larry Kudlow...but I repeat myself. ;)
Blah.....
I missed The Simpsons in order to watch the hatchet job that Steve Kroft just had — COMPLETELY IGNORING anything that had to do with Obama’s upbringing and education, GPAs, SAT & LSAT scores, etc. — yet Scott Pelley went into details with McCain as it relates to his 4 years at the Naval Academy and being in the bottom five of his class....
HOGWASH!
I agree it is not his job to defend W. But you also heard McCain say if he is elected he will move the political office out of the WH and to the RNC. You think W was weak - just wait till you see this. All this new tone garbage.
I am glad you’re upset. I am too. And I am a little too tired of Republican leaders going out of their way to be nice to liberals. Palin has been fantastic from Day 1, but people vote for the top of the ticket. McCain has to close the deal and he hasn’t done it yet. It’s right there waiting for him to claim it bu he has to take it.
Meanwhile, most reputable economists agree that we are not in a recession.
We clearly appear headed towards a recession, especially with both Obama and McCain talking down the economy. But unless the generally accepted definition of a "recession" has changed, we aren't in one until the gross national product has declined for two consecutive quarters.
Yeah, Kroft and the 60 Minutes editors were wussies, especially when they showed Obama leaving Kroft to chase after someone yelling at him in a crowd. Then they showed Obama confronting the person, who turned out to be a black senior citizen woman. Kroft mentioned that she just lost her husband, and The Unabama hugged her. BARF!!!!!
But, I liked how Kroft pressed obama for what makes him qualified to be president, especially since he has never run anything. Nonetheless, I’m sure Kroft and 60 Minutes told obama in advance that they were going to ask this of him.
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