The Monster Eating Texas

From space, NASA satellites capture the massive hurricane, Ike, churning into the Gulf of Mexico like the missing piece of a puzzle. On the ground, despite warnings they face "certain death" some coastal residents did not evacuate from the area around Galveston, Texas, where the storm will make landfall overnight.



We're around the midpoint of the hurricane season, and it's already been a busy one. Even just a few hours before it slashes into Texas, nobody has any idea how much damage Ike will cause. This is also the major oil refinery center for the United States, so there may be serious economic damages beyond the human and property tolls.

With Lehman Brothers, the largest independent brokerage on Wall Street, poised on the verge of collapse, and several other financial institutions teetering as well, the country's economy is causing a lot of people a lot of pain this election season.

Bill Clinton's advice to Barack Obama yesterday reportedly was to ignore Sarah Palin and her jabbing, goading mannerisms, and focus exclusively on the economy. It was Clinton's adviser, James Carville, who came up with the phrase, "It's the economy, stupid!"

That was in 1992, the year Clinton defeated an incumbent President named Bush.

Obama's suggestion to John McCain that they appear together at Ground Zero yesterday and refrain from political attacks was a nice gesture that illustrates Obama's consistent attempts to keep his campaign on the high ground. Democrats are divided by this approach, because they feel the Republicans will lie, cheat, distort and "swift-boat" their way into the White House, just as they have the past two cycles.

McCain once pledged to stay on the high ground, but he has violated that pledge, which is a shame, because the country is not getting any kind of debate about the economy -- a debate that is badly needed. I've written very little about any issue but the economy myself, because I believe that's what we all should be concentrating on.

Instead, our politics once again has become mired in the small town, name-calling distractions that only a campaign empty of ideas would resort to. There's still time for the country, however, if not for those facing certain death in Texas tonight.

UPDATE: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve Bank of New York held an emergency meeting on Friday evening with top financial market representatives to discuss recent market developments, a Fed official said.

-30-