Maybe This Election Isn't About Issues

"This election is not about issues," said Rick Davis, McCain campaign manager.

It's a quote that got Davis in some trouble during this presidential campaign, but listening to the candidates now, I'm not sure if that criticism was warranted.

The financial meltdown continues on this Thursday morning, but I'm just not hearing much from Senator Barack Obama or Senator John McCain on how to really deal with it.

"If you make less than a quarter of a million dollars a year," said Obama on the campaign trail Wednesday, "you will not see a single dime of your taxes go up. If you make $200,000 a year or less, your taxes will go down."

McCain says on his website that he "will keep the top tax rate at 35 percent, maintain the 15 percent rates on dividends and capital gains, and phase-out the Alternative Minimum Tax."

I'm still trying to figure out how we can commit 700 billion dollars to the economic rescue package and give more federal reserve loan money to AIG and hear Nancy Pelosi talk about a $150 billion stimulus after the election and consider nationalizing some banks in the U.S. and the way we appear to sign off on ten billion dollars here, 25 billion more there and cut taxes.

I used to say we're spending money that hasn't been printed yet. Now, I think we're spending money where the trees - that will provide the paper for the money to be printed on - haven't been planted yet.

So how to we cut through all the back and forth with the candidates and their claims and counter-claims?

Why we turn to the fastest growing industry in the United States: the factchecker.

CBS News reported the Tax Policy Center says Obama will deficit spend by $473 billion over four years, and that was an estimate made before the bailout. McCain scored worse, however, with a projected four year deficit of $988 billion.

Then again, CBS News also reported the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says Obama hikes the deficit by $281 billion in four years. McCain's plans would put us in the red by $215 billion.

(Gee, with those two non-partisan estimates differing by nearly $200 billion for Obama and over $770 billion for McCain, who is checking the fact-checkers?)

I don't really blame Obama and McCain.

I think they're just like me; they really don't know what to make of this financial meltdown. They both voted for the rescue package and are otherwise just sticking to their standard playbook, stump speech and talking points.

No one appears to have a clue on how bad things will/could get as we try to recover.

That's a key point, since no one appeared to know this financial crisis was coming a few weeks ago.