On Wednesday, both the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, and his Republican opponent, John McCain, cast their votes in the US Senate for the Wall Street bailout, giving Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson nearly unlimited authority to supply at least $700 billion in federal funds to banks and other financial institutions by buying their worthless mortgage-backed securities. The bill which Obama and McCain supported also includes an additional $150 billion in tax cuts, mainly to business and the wealthy.

The bill was passed in the face of massive popular opposition, which Obama and the Democratic leadership of Congress, in particular, treated with open indifference in their rush to bail out their allies on Wall Street.

On Thursday, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Senator Joseph Biden, used the debate with McCains running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, to espouse an even more aggressive foreign policy than the Republicans. While making a spurious pledge that Obama would end the war in Iraq, to appease antiwar sentiment, Biden called for increased US military intervention in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a more aggressive pro-Israeli policy than that conducted by Bush. He also defended past US military interventions in the Balkans, and suggested a new US military role in Sudan.

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