Playing Frisbee on a Precipice

America's political class lacks the seriousness this moment demands.

They send their candidates out to speak such thin gruel, such spat-out porridge, that we are struck dumb, and left daydreaming about the fact that Mr. Obama's suits are always slate gray and never seem to wrinkle, and Mr. McCain tonight seems like a rabbity forest creature darting amid the hedgerows.

As to what they will do about the crisis, Mr. Obama will raise taxes on the rich and help us weatherize our homes, while Mr. McCain favors "energy independence" and buying up mortgages.

The candidates are vacuous on the biggest economic crisis in our times. It is unlikely that either will admit or address the fact that politicians, not Wall Street, have created the problem.