Candidates quick with accusations
Tuesday September 16, 2008
By: Michael Mccord
From: Portsmouth Herald

With voters saying that concern about the economy is their top concern, it's no surprise that candidates for office in Washington were keeping a close eye on the developments taking place on Wall Street.

On both the presidential campaign trail and in the closely-fought U.S. Senate contest in New Hampshire, campaigns responded quickly with statements, attacks on opponents and ads as the stock market took a major drop and concern about the financial health of some the country's largest financial and insurance companies dominated the headlines.

Republican Sen. John Sununu, a member of the Senate Finance Committee and former member of Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement that, "Almost every aspect of our economy has been affected by the current housing and credit crisis, but under no circumstance should taxpayers bail out the shareholders or executives at Lehman Brothers."

The first-term senator also urged Congress to keep its focus on protecting taxpayers.

"(The things) we're seeing in the marketplace are very significant, but in many ways they serve to underscore how important it is for Congress to always place taxpayers' interests first," he said.

Democratic contender and former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen touted her focus on the economy in Portsmouth on Monday during a tour of the warm mix asphalt facility of Pike Industries. "The deepening crisis in financial markets underscores the need for more transparency, oversight and accountability on Wall Street," Shaheen said in a statement, about the Lehamn brothers bankruptcy and the sale of Merrill Lynch. "To protect average Americans' life savings and to maintain the United States' leadership in the global economy, we need reform on Wall Street and in Washington."

The campaign of Republican presidential contender John McCain released a television ad early Monday called "Crisis" — which called for "tougher rules on Wall Street to protect your life savings. No special interest giveaways. Lower taxes to create new jobs. Offshore drilling to reduce gas prices." The ad also claimed that McCain and running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin were the only "proven reformers" who could fix an economy in crisis.

On the campaign trail in Jacksonville, Fla., McCain, who was in New Hampshire for campaign stops on Sunday, said that "people are frightened by these events" but he still felt "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."

The campaign of McCain's top White House rival, Democratic contender Sen. Barack Obama, criticized McCain for being "disturbingly out of touch with what's going in the lives of ordinary Americans."

Obama, who made campaign stops in New Hampshire Friday and Saturday, faulted McCain for embracing a failed economic "philosophy" that ignored fundamental problems in Washington and New York.

"It's a philosophy that says even common-sense regulations are unnecessary and unwise, and one that says we should just stick our heads in the sand and ignore economic problems until they spiral into crises," Obama said. "Well now, instead of prosperity trickling down, the pain has trickled up — from the struggles of hardworking Americans on Main Street to the largest firms of Wall Street."

What this will mean for the general election on Nov. 4 will depend, according to one local economic analyst, on the depth of voter economic confidence in the state and the country.

Ross Gittell, a professor at the University of new Hampshire's Whittemore School of Business, said the steady beat of tough economic news "was wearing people out," but that days like Monday were necessary to get to a point when small- and large-scale economic stabilization can take hold.

"If voters believe things are improving by Nov. 4," he said, it could have a major impact on the course of the election.