He said, She said

I'm glad FOX's coverage of the election this week entailed a two-sided, balanced angle: McCain slashed Obama with a "lack of leadership" while Obama casted McCain as a "free-market gambler." And the news? The economy is in pretty bad shape. (Insert: flair of sarcasm)

Nonetheless, I'm sure this kind of coverage wouldn't resonate well with Obama's campaign  much more than it did last week. Obama's message has repeatedly stressed the unimportance of petty attacks that have nothing to do with the voters or "how we get America back on track" as he made clear in his two minute "Plan for Change" ad released Sept. 17 (See below) . 

That man doesn't parallel the Obama FOX projected - one that ridiculed McCain for his party's lack of economic grip and who called the 72 yr. old Republican candidate a "great deregulator." Not to mention Obama's use of "scare tactics," according to McCain's campaign. 

According to FOX, McCain offered more "specific guidelines" than did Obama for handling the Wall Street crisis and FOX News contributor Fred Barnes said in an article that trade around the world is key to building a strong economy, a point of view Obama doesn't share. FOX did not cease to mention several times how Obama declined to offer a plan. McCain, on the other hand, was reported to have created a plan to end the crisis. However, the "plan" as it was reported consisted of mere suggestions of what's to be done; however, we must stay tuned for McCain's call for a bipartisan oversight board for overseeing the government's "$700 bailout plan." Yea, FOX accidentally forgot to include whether that number referred to hundred, thousand, million, trillion or billion. At this point, the number may be so exponentially high that FOX may be conspiring an optical illusion to ease its viewers.  

Perhaps there's some truth to Barne's statement, but while Obama may not preach about international trade, he has other plans for strengthening a suffering economy, most of which focus on creating jobs on our home turf. A couple of his ideas: Create 5 million green jobs, create jobs through fair trade and address predatory credit card practices. 

And while Obama wants to address the "real issues," FOX is predicting that the Illinois senator's objective in the first upcoming debate will be to attack McCain by linking him with President Bush's foreign policy. This could be positive coverage for the Obama campaign because it puts that much more pressure on McCain to overcome his "more of the same" reputation built by Obama campaign strategists. 

Even FOX reported the importance of strategy for McCain. One of McCain's closest advisers said that he will have to prove to skeptical voters that policy difference between his vision and the Bush administration's is real and that his solution to economic crisis will help America become more competitive in the international scene. 

I guess we'll have to wait until Friday at 9 p.m. to see how the first live debate unfolds and evaluate whether or not the predictions were accurate. See everyone in front of the tube!