OPINION: McCain, Obama Talk Wall Street Reform

The failed attempts on Wall Street over the weekend to save Lehman Brothers (LEH Quote) from bankruptcy and the surprise acquisition of Merrill Lynch (MER Quote) by Bank of America (BAC Quote), a merger deal that came at the behest of government officials, sent the U.S. stock market into a tailspin Monday.

Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) offered distinct reactions to crisis, offering insight into how each might handle a financial crisis as president.

Neither campaign said much last week about the crisis gripping Wall Street - not after the Treasury's weekend bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM Quote) and Freddie Mac (FRE Quote) nor after financial bellwethers like Lehman and AIG (AIG Quote) got hammered heading into the weekend.

The two political campaigns finally awoke to the crisis Monday morning. McCain's campaign issued a press release recognizing the condition of the financial markets:

"The crisis in our financial markets has taken an enormous toll on our economy and the American people -- first the decline of our housing markets followed by the collapse of Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and now Lehman Brothers."

However, while campaigning in Florida, he said definitively: "The fundamentals of our economy are strong."

McCain echoed the statements made by President Bush. Bush said Monday: "I am confident that our capital markets are flexible and resilient and can deal with these adjustments."

So, the question is What McCain would do to resolve the crisis? In the aforementioned statement, the campaign says:

"The McCain-Palin Administration will replace the outdated and ineffective patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight in Washington and bring transparency and accountability to Wall Street. We will rebuild confidence in our markets and restore our leadership in the financial world."

Basically, McCain has called for greater transparency in the financial markets. He has vowed to reform Wall Street by bringing greater accountability and simplifying the regulatory structure presently responsible for serving as watchdog of financial markets.

His rhetoric on reform hits the right tone. However, his campaign Web site has no specific plan outlined for reform nor did his campaign respond to email requests for more detail.