Newsweek seems to think there isn’t any excuse. We have one. John McCain has no clue what he’s talking about when it comes to the economy. He’s run this race as a war hero, and now we’re finding out that, as one voter said on TV a while back, it’s great that you’re a war hero but how does that help me get a job? A war hero who is clueless about the economy is of little use to America during an economic crisis.

More from Newsweek:

The question remains: Are the fundamentals sound? Was McCain right, or hopelessly rosy-eyed? It depends on which fundamentals you want to emphasize. There are times when all the fundamentals are unsound, as was the case in 1931. And there are times when all the fundamentals appear to be sound, as was the case in the mid- to late 1990s. The rest of the time, the fundamentals reside somewhere between the two poles (the left pole signifying we’re totally screwed and the right pole signifying that happy days are here again). Today, we’re closer to being totally screwed.

Consider. The U.S. needs to create about 150,000 jobs per month just to keep pace with growing population. When payroll jobs fall for eight straight months and the unemployment rate spikes, and when new weekly unemployment claims remain above 400,000, the economy may not be fundamentally sound.

When inflation in the past 12 months has run at 5.4 percent, well over the twice the level with which central bankers are comfortable, the economy may not be fundamentally sound.

When foreclosures are running at record rates and housing prices fall by nearly 16 percent year over year, the economy may not be fundamentally sound.

When the two largest financial institutions in the nation, which guarantee about half of the mortgages, fail and have to be taken over by the government, when the fourth-largest investment bank files for Chapter 11, and when the Federal Reserve effectively nationalizes a massive insurance firm that is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the economy may not be fundamentally sound.

In an economy where consumption constitutes 70 percent of activity, retail sales falling two months in a row may indicate that the economy may not be fundamentally sound.

When industrial production decreases, the economy may not be fundamentally sound.

When the nation’s three major automakers, some of the largest remaining manufacturing entities, report sales declines of over 20 percent and beg the taxpayers for loans, the economy may not be fundamentally sound.