The LuLac Edition #612, Oct. 23rd, 2008

PHOTO INDEX: ELECTION TOP 40 LOGO.

ELECTION TOP 40

NOT BUSH #9

McCAIN

McCain has finally broke with the Bush White House criticizing the President's leadership. The Dems have been trying to tag McCain with a "third term" of President Bush and in some cases, McCain has given them some firepower. But today, in an interview with the Washington Times, McCain attacked Bush and fellow Republicans on a variety of policies the Arizona senator said he would have handled differently. “We just let things get completely out of hand,” McCain said. McCain listed a number of disagreements with the Bush administration, including, “spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government, larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America, owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously.” The Arizona senator was especially harsh on Bush’s Medicare prescription drug bill. McCain might be making this break a little too late for it to have an impact but distancing himself from the President is a good thing politically.

OBAMA

Back in March, I had a conversation with long time area political strategist Bob Caruso. And Caruso pointed out that Obama, rather than Senator Clinton is the "anti-Bush". Caruso felt that factor was a driving part of the Obama phenomena against the New York Senator. Now, no one can ever mistake Obama for the President in demeanor, appearance, policy and attitude. And in 2008 with Bush's popularity lower than any recent President's, that is a good thing for the Democrat.