As the national conventions wrapped up in early September, popular thought was that national security and continuing America’s prosperity would be the dominant campaign issues. Two topics which Americans tend to feel more comfortable with Republicans at the helm. Senator John McCain still holds a lead in polls on national security on the eve of the election. Furthermore, Americans felt that less government interference with the economy, the better businesses could operate in a fluid international market. Senator Obama’s message of ‘Change’ looked like it was becoming a harder sell to voters.

The election dramatically changed barely two weeks later following McCain’s acceptance speech in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As the bankruptcy filing of investment stalwart, Lehman Brothers, set off a steady chain reaction of market sell-offs that shocked the American economy and the American consumer. The events that surround that date, the spectacular claim that insurance giant AIG could no longer cover its risks, the near failure of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bankruptcy and buyouts of major baking institutions and the subsequent enormous government bailouts ripped the mask off the credit based economy and exposed a hideously under-regulated and fragile economy that was on the verge of collapse. Republicans, long the party of deregulation and historically seen as more pro-business, were irrevocably tethered to this quickly sinking boulder. Obama and fellow Democrats were seen as the caped crusaders that could wrestle control of the American economy away from greedy Wall Street barons and return some stability and safety to the financial markets.

Polls from mid-September onward have demonstrated the shift in the focus of the electorate and with it, the faith they put in Democrats to fix the economy. Cultural issues and national security issues have fallen far behind in the political discourse and look to be the driving message to the White House.

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"We don't contribute to the American presidency, but we are certainly part of it."  Piero Gastaldo's opening remarks at an event co-sponsored by GMF and the Compagnia di San Paolo in Turin, Italy, reflected the mood seen at each stop on the German Marshall Fund's second European speakers tour on the 2008 U.S. presidential elections.  The tour brought three political-insiders from Washington, DC, to Turin, Munich, and Stockholm for a series of events on the November elections. Read More...