Biden was an excellent choice, in that it'll make a McCain landslide even more likely.

LOL>>> My gosh, if we had to post all of scrub Bush's verbal gaffs, CAD would need another server!! LOL>>

I think the person that will loose it for Obama, is Hillary. Her and her "upset" followers. They will now "show" everyone they were right by "switching sides" and handing the election to McCain. What a bunch of spoiled whiny little brats.

Whoever is elected, I do feel sorry for them, scrub Bush and his gang have left this country in very poor shape. The new President will have the impossible task of trying clean up the mess. He will have to make some very difficult and painful decisions to keep the country afloat. He will not be popular, and serve only 1 term.

Then for the next 4-8 years, or as long as he lasts anyway, every time anyone criticizes him he'll pull out his 5 1/2 years "without a kitchen table." Yeah, I can't wait.

I hope we all remember that it isn't just the President who is responsible for all of our current economic woes. You need to remember how things really work in Washington DC. It is CONGRESS who controls the purse strings. The president cannot fund anything without the approval of congress. I get tired of congress constantly blaming the president for the excessive spending. Congress will attach all their little pet programs, paid for compliments of OUR tax dollars, to bills in order to get them funded. It is easy for both parties to blame the other when it comes to balancing the budget. Some have credited Clinton and the democrats for having a balanced budget when he was in office. In reality, it was fuzzy math that balanced the budget. We haven't had a balanced budget in many years. Until the American public decides to hold their representatives accountable and stop demanding all the FREEBIES, things are not likely to change. We need to demand that congress have a balanced budget and not be able to attach non related amendments or bills to another. That is one reason they continue to get away with blowing our money.

Much of the problem lies in congress and our government doing so many things that is not called for or allowed by our Constitution. We used to have a balanced budget in this country. Things changed when we started to elect career politicians and they started buying our votes with our tax dollars. Now all they have to do is hand out a little money to the constituents and they are reelected. Let's get rid of the lawyers and find average citizens to send to Washington DC and our state capitols. We would have a much more honest and responsible government.

GMAN has it right. CONGRESS does spend the money. And is also responsible for the current budget mess. But the President also has the power of a VETO. Remember "he is the decider." Unfortunately scrub Bush did NOT veto 1 single spending bill. I always figured the White House made a deal with Congress, the Congress can spend all the money as irresponsably as they wish, even if it bankrupts the country, as long as Congress (1) keeps fully funding and quits asking questions about Iraq. (2) will not open possible contempt of Congress or impeachment investigations against certain members of the administration.
A few things I have not heard from either candidate: (1) return of the Balanced budget amendment. (2) Line item veto (3) immigration reform
(4) ethics reform. And you will NOT either. Neither candidate has any intention of stopping the Congressional giveaways to the special interests that now own our government.

Off the subject: What does everyone here think of the "Consumption tax" or a "national sales tax" replacing our current tax system?

News item just in @CNNmoney. The FDIC now is looking to "borrow" money from the US Treasury (tax payers) to shore up the failing banking system.