I thought McCain would have been a poor president especially tempermentally. However, I thought Obama would be worse especially on policy and judges--worse enough to make voting worth while.
McCain would have been bad on economics but certainly more fiscally responsible and hesitant about massively increasing gov't debt. He also could have surrounded himself with better economic advisers than Obama and probably would have although the Paulson and the Bush Treasury was bad at the end. I'm sure he'd have signed some stupid things to look as though he were "doing something" to help.
I'm fairly certain, however, that McCain would have expended some political capital to fight the Democrats' stimulus package. I think he would've been way better on that. McCain voted against the stimulus, and I think he would not have thrown away nearly a trillion dollars, and would have put any stimulus to better use if only marginally. Then again he could've caved to an opposition Congress on something slightly less egregious, but I have my doubts. There was or at least could have been enough public opinion against outrageous spending especially with an administration making the argument.
I am hesitant to say it, because I'm not anti-Fed like you, Slaps. But the Federal Reserve has been part of the problem by putting so much emphasis on banks getting cash to lend. And McCain might not have fought the Fed. I understand that the availability of credit is important in our economy, but seeing as how much of our current situation came about because of easy credit, the government's policy should be for tightening credit a bit or a least letting the tightening that the market reaction to the crisis would have brought about happpen. Obama even said our economy can't be too reliant on consumer (over)spending with the necessary (unspoken) corrollary that consumers were carrying too much debt. Obama's policy has been, however, to try and spend spend spend and encourage consumer spending and taking on more debt! Re-inflate the bubble rather than letting it burst and understanding that the plunge in the market was to some extent a reflection that stocks/property/etc. were overvalued. The policy should be to allow the market to adjust to more accurate valuation and not pretend like the government can or should try and ensure the DOW never loses value.
