I'm curious to know how many of you truly believe that a new president, be it McCain or OBama, will have a positive impact on the struggling economy? If so, how and what will the new president do to achieve this result?

While government can damage the economy it cannot help the economy. Generally speaking the most "help" they can provide is by not damaging it too much.

Just as it was after the Depression, it will take years to recover from our current financial mess. The one bright side I see is that we won't be able to continue to afford our foriegn agression on muptiple fronts.

Unless either guy can personally pay off our individual credit card debts and mortgages, then no. It is OUR responsibility to become more fiscally responsible. We borrow from banks and credit companies to buy things that were made by companies that borrowed to pay for said items; both ends of those transactions borrow from other entities, who eventually borrow from other entities, who eventually bo...so on and so forth. I'm beginning to wonder if there is any REAL money out floating around the market, of if its all just credit. Either way, no policies can make the drastic changes we need. Whats most important is that the governemtn take the lead and stop borrowing themselves. If they can't pay for it, it doesn't get done. That should become the new presidents mantra.

The question is *should* a new President be able to "fix the economy." I think the President should *fix* it by taking government hands off of the rudder.

McCain has promised he'll freeze some spending for one year and put his foot down on new spending. He will make the very HARD deicisons that will undoubtedly need to be made by the next president.

Obama has or has had as his Economic Advisors, Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson....former CEO's of Fannie Mae, who were forced to resign over irregularities and who are now under FBI investigation. Raines, in addition to his salary, he walked away with $240 million in benefits. Johnson received a Golden Parachute of $28 million. They are the VERY people who helped create this mess. So, that gives one a pretty good idea of how Obama will treat economics. Not to mention, he has all these programs he's promised and promises to raise taxes; all of which would be further disaster for our economy.

BTW, do NOT claim that Obama didn't know about these guys when he put them on his campaign. As I said they were BOTH forced to step down at Fannie and are under investigation. He knew all that; he was just hoping that you didn't. He knew about their manipulation for their own benefit. And yet he asked for their advice anyway!!!