With this bailout fiasco, I think McCain's statement at the begining of last week that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong" is going to hang around his neck like a dead albatros for the rest of the campaign.

Fanny and Freddie had been bailed out the week before for $200 billion, Lehman Brothers had gone bankrupt, Bear Stearns sold to Wells at firesale prices, and AIG was in trouble. McCain said, the "fundamentals of the economy are strong." Within a day or two we are bailing out AIG for $85 billion. And by the end of the week the treasury secretary is saying we need $700 billion more or the whole economy will collapse!

McCain is even more oblivious than Bush if he thinks the fundamentals of the economy are strong when we are BORROWING A TRILLION DOLLARS in two weeks to keep our economy from a complete meltdown!

What an ass!

Later he said he meant the "American Worker" is strong and workers are the fundamentals of the economy. He's a boob. That's is not what the term "fundamentals" means when you are talking about the "fundamentals of the economy." The "fundamentals of the economy" are measurable yardsticks by which you measure the economy --- things like growth in GDP, strength of the dollar versus other currencies, inflation and things that drive it like energy costs, interests rates, consumer confidence, unemployment rates, job creation rates, durable goods orders, etc. It's not some vague thing like "the American Worker."

If McCain doen't even understand what these terms mean, he has no business even talking about it. Almost all of these true "fundamentals of the economy" are trending down. We have some serious problems. It's either incompetence or a lie to look at those numbers in the same week we are having a true economic crisis and say the "fundamentals of the economy are strong."

McCain either truly has no idea at all what he is talking about, or he is lying to our faces.