Obama Gains in Polls as Financial Crisis Shifts Focus

[cal04]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=alGTsxRdiLsU&refer=home

As global investors lost more than $3 trillion in market value this week, Barack Obama saw his own stock gaining among American voters.

The crisis rocking financial markets has upended the U.S. presidential campaign, taking the focus off Republican presidential nominee John McCain and moving the debate to Obama's turf: the economy. The Democrat blamed both McCain and President George W. Bush for the turmoil, calling for more regulation and casting himself as the agent of change.

McCain escalated his own rhetoric, vowing to oust the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission and attacking Wall Street and ``an outdated patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight.'' Still, national polls this week showed Obama rising.

``Clearly, Obama is gaining,'' said Jim Pinkerton, a Republican strategist. McCain has to distance himself from the Bush administration to avoid being pinned to the crisis, Pinkerton said. ``When consumer confidence falls, it's not good for the perceived incumbent.''

[EV_Ares]

1. So, how do you distance yourself from someone you agreed with over 90% of the time and you

have been in DC for over 26 years and during that time you pushed for deregulation of the banking and financial industries. About the only way I can think of is lie, lie lie.