An election ‘game changer’ from Wall Street? USA

Never has a financial crisis of this magnitude hit so close to a presidential election.

So, as people ponder the latest poll numbers — and the numbers in their 401(k) accounts — the question is whether this will change the contest between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain.

Many are wondering how the wizardry of Wall Street financial engineering created such a mess. Even those who don't understand the mechanics of a “credit default swap” could still see frightening turmoil in the stock and bond markets Monday.

Democratic presidential candidates have successfully run against Wall Street in the past. In 1948, fighting for his job, President Harry Truman railed against “bloodsuckers who have offices on Wall Street.”

Taking his oath in 1933, Franklin Roosevelt criticized “the unscrupulous money changers” who “have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization.”

Time for Truman-FDR rhetoric?
Does the financial meltdown of Lehman Brothers make it more or less likely that Obama will follow his Democratic predecessors, sounding a similar, anti-Wall Street horn?

Or can Obama safely do without the populist rhetoric because voters have already concluded that the financial meltdown was a result of a too business-friendly Republican administration?

One important slice of the electorate will be those who have prospered handsomely in the past eight years, but who are undecided on the best person to manage an array of national security and economic threats.

In the 2004 election, nearly one-fifth of the electorate made $100,000 or more. Bush won 58 percent of such voters, and a second term.

To win on Nov. 4, Obama may need to expand the Democratic share of such upper-income voters — or greatly expand the number of lower-income voters, or do some of both. Raw populism might alienate those in the upper brackets.

In one sense, both candidates' campaign funds have benefited from the Wall Street’s prosperity — which has produced many people earning more than $250,000.