My trip begins today as I fly to Washington DC. It won't be in a beautiful plane like this but a standard issue 747. This plane hangs in the British Science Museum, and one of the things I was reading at the airport was a survey of the positions of Barack Obama and John McCain on science, education and innovation. The New York Times has a good summary of the candidates' stances on the science issues, but you can get the full monty at Science Debate 2008.
Of course, the big news this morning is the US government bailout of insurance giant AIG. It's really difficult to get a sense how this turmoil on Wall Street will impact Main Street, but CNN has an overview of how the crisis at AIG impacts insurance policy holders and others in the broader economy. It all goes back to the sub-prime crisis.
"In the past nine months, AIG has reported net losses of more than $18 billion, largely due to its exposure to bad mortgages."
John McCain has been ... ahem ... 'recalibrating' his economic message.
The post-convention bounces have settled out with John McCain having a slight advantage, but the race is still very close. But election analyst Charlie Cook sees the economic turmoil as giving Obama a bit of a space to change the momentum:
"While managing the economy is not exactly Obama's strong suit, it does pull the focus even further away from national security, McCain's strength. It would seem a better bet that this jump ball would be more likely go toward the team that hasn't been in power, and the edge would go to Obama."
Well, gotta dash, and I'm in the air for the next seven hours. What comes next? Which candidate do you see as showing more leadership in this crisis that will be an early test of a McCain or Obama presidency? While I'm traveling, you can always follow updates via Twitter at GuardianUS08.
