Critics of Barack Obama are throwing EVERYTHING at the wall right now, as polls show his lead holding steady with just over a week to go. These down days don't help McCain at all, in part because he's tied to the current President, but also because every day where this story dominates the news is a day he can't slam Obama on Taxes, Bill Ayers, ACORN or whatever charge he and his supporters are trying to fling.

There's another tactic though to try breaking through on days like this: tell voters that the market decline is related to Obama. USNews' James Pethokoukis spells out some of the arguments:

The decline HAS to be related to Obama, because investors couldn't just be waking up to recession possibilities now, and so severely.

Obama would raise capital gains

Markets are freaking out not about Obama, per se, but Dems in control of Presidency and Congress.

Obama will raise taxes and we'll see a repeat of 1929

The WSJ is the latest to pound on this drum just this morning: "Credit markets have started to thaw, yet stocks and the larger economy keep sliding. What's going on? Among the problems are the reality of recession and the uncertainty over Barack Obama's policies."

But would the market really feel better of McCain were leading in the polls. He's been scapegoating Wall Sreet throughout the campaign, and generally, he doesn't seem to have much love for business. And bey all accounts, Wall Street has turned on McCain, telling him they're sick of his rhetoric.

In the end, we'll go with our trusty Occam's Razor. We've got AIG sucking billions of dollar into it, and a massive amount of uncertainty with the CDS market et. al. Until we've got more of a resolution on that stuff, it seems like we've got plenty to explain the market crash.

Then again, we're talking politics. The time to talk rationally about the economic issues facing the country is after the election.

See also:

AIG: Are Taxpayer Losses Potentially Infinite?

Wall Street to McCain: Shut Up Already!