Obama had a good first lick, and hit the middle-class meme hard, but give the first question of the debate to McCain for addressing the foundation of the financial crisis: the decline in home values. McCain's proposal to renegotiate mortgages that are threatening to foreclose on homeowners is needed, and, as he noted, expensive. The bailout bill offers some authority for the Treasury to do this, but if McCain is serious about his proposal, he's going to have to put some serious money for it. I doubt anyone else in the GOP would propose such a massive investment in helping people who defaulted on loans -- indeed, one of the reasons that it wasn't included in the bailout bill was because it polled so poorly.
--Tim Fernholz
