A U.S. soldier patrols outside a Forward Operating Base near the Pakistani border in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, on Monday, Oct. 27, 2008. (AP)

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War — in Iraq and Afghanistan — was supposed to be the defining issue of the 2008 campaign. Instead, Americans are riveted by Wall Street’s meltdown and global financial collapse. The economy ate the wars.

But the wars go on. Just today, news of fierce Iraqi turf battles. The White House maybe ready to talk with the Taliban. Spillover American strikes into Syria and Pakistan. High costs. No resolution.

John McCain and Barack Obama talk different games on the wars. Either would be seriously challenged by them.

This hour, On Point: With one week to Election Day, a basic, brutal issue: the wars.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

From Washington, we’re joined by Tom Bowman, Pentagon reporter for National Public Radio. He recently reported on the U.S. search for a new strategy in Afghanistan.

Joining us in our studio is Joseph Nye, professor of international relations at Harvard University. He served as Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Clinton. He is the author of several books, including “Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics” (2004) and, most recently, “The Powers to Lead.”

And from McClean, Virginia, we’re joined by Robert Kagan, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, columnist for The Washington Post, and contributor to The Weekly Standard. He is an informal adviser to John McCain, and he served in the State Department under President Reagan. His new book is “The Return of History and the End of Dreams.”

More links:

Barack Obama’s campaign website spells out his positions on Iraq and defense; John McCain’s website explains his positions on Iraq and national security.

For differing views on the candidates’ foreign policy positions, see David Sanger’s recent New York Times article “Rivals Split on U.S. Power, But Ideas Defy Labels,” Nicholas Lemann’s New Yorker feature “World’s Apart,” and Robert Kaiser’s Washington Post article, “Iraq Aside, Nominees Have Like Views on Use of Force.”

Supporters of Sen. John McCain, dressed as Joe the Plumber, near a rally for Sen. Barack Obama in Roanoke, Va.., Oct. 17, 2008. (AP)

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First it was the economy, meltdown, and bail-out, and now the hot talk on the campaign trail is all about how to survive the meltdown and pay for a comeback. About taxes and spending.

Suddenly, Joe the Plumber is a star and McCain is calling Obama’s plans “socialist.” That after a Republican White House nationalized American banks.

One thing is true: Barack Obama and John McCain have very different plans on tax policy. And neither, say the experts, would really balance the budget.

Today, we’ll make their plans as clear as we can, so you understand what they could mean for your bottom line. And also for America’s soaring federal deficit.

This hour, On Point: Big issue — taxes, spending and your money under McCain or Obama.

You can join the conversation. Who’s singing your song on taxes and spending? McCain or Obama? Who’s got the edge, the answer, for our challenges now? Tell us what you think.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is William Gale. He is vice president and director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution and co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, which has analyzed both candidates’ tax plans.

Also from Washington, we’re joined by Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan research group that has looked at the budget implications of the candidates’ plans.

More links:

The Washington Post has published a chart comparing the candidates’ tax plans.

And you can read the candidates’ tax policies at the official Obama and McCain campaign websites.

Large windmills and solar panels are seen Monday, Oct. 6, 2008, in Atlantic City, N.J. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

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The economy and Wall Street crisis are like the whale that has surfaced to swallow the presidential campaign season. We saw it again in the debate last night.

But the bigger leviathan, the deeper monster waiting to bite, may still be energy and the environment.

John McCain and Barack Obama each have big plans on nukes, clean coal, and global warming. But their tag lines are very different: “Drill, baby, drill!” versus wind, solar, innovate.

Can we still afford either? Do we have a choice? We’ll ask their top advisers.

This hour, On Point: energy, the environment, and the choice on election day.

You can join the conversation. Who do you trust to lead the country toward a cleaner, safer energy future? And will economic crisis speed the move? Or slow it down?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

From San Francisco, we’re joined by James Woolsey, energy adviser to the McCain campaign, director of the CIA from 1993 to 1995, now a VantagePoint Ventures partner and Annenberg Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is a founding member of the Set America Free Coalition, which advocates for energy independence. To find out more about McCain’s ideas, see his energy plan.

From Washington, we’re joined by Elgie Holstein, senior energy policy adviser to the Obama campaign. Under President Clinton, he was chief of staff at the Energy Department and Assistant Secretary of Commerce for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. To find out more about Obama’s ideas, see his energy plan.

Also from Washington is Keith Johnson, energy reporter for The Wall Street Journal and writer of its “Environmental Capital” blog.

People walk to work on Wall Street last week. (AP)

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Whatever the candidates planned to run on to win the presidency, there’s One Big Issue that has galloped past the Iraq war, terrorism and everything else. You know it, we know it, they know it: It’s the economy.

It’s how do we get out of this mess, and then, what will the new rules of the road be? That’s our issue.

Barack Obama and John McCain come at America’s suddenly-raging economic challenge with different instincts, different records, different plans, and different parties behind them. What would they do as president?

This hour, On Point: We’re talking with the top economic advisors to candidates McCain and Obama on how they would put the United States back on the path to prosperity.

You can join the conversation. What’s your question, your advice, for the men who have the ear of Obama and McCain on the economy? Who do you trust to change the course that brought us to crisis? Do you want to change?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Greg Ip, U.S. economics editor for The Economist. He led the magazine’s recent survey of 142 economists for their views of the two candidates’ economic policies.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, senior policy adviser to John McCain. He served as chief economist on George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers in 2001-2002 and as director of the Congressional Budget Office from 2003-2005. Most recently, he was a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Austan Goolsbee, senior economic adviser to Barack Obama. He is an economist at The University of Chicago and the Progressive Policy Institute, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and former editor of the Journal of Law and Economics.

UPDATE:

Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic points to the exchange during this show between Holtz-Eakin and Goolsbee over the Treasury Secretary Paulson’s proposal to recapitalize banks, which Holtz-Eakin called “disturbing” and “not the way things should be done in the United States.” We’ve posted a transcript of the exchange here.

Security guards stand on the steps of the Supreme Court. (AP)

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While the U.S. financial crisis marches on, the country marches toward November 4th and a presidential election with consequences way beyond a buck — even seven hundred billion bucks.

High on the list: the make-up of the U.S. Supreme Court. The next President of the United States might name three new justices to the high court. Depending who does the naming, that could transform assumptions about life and death in this country.

After four years, or eight — or maybe a President Palin — the path of a McCain court could look very different from an Obama court’s. On abortion. On habeas corpus. On presidential powers. Clean air and water. Food and drug safety. Church and state. This could be a different country.

This hour, On Point: Imagining what a “McCain court” or “Obama court” would mean for America.

You can join the conversation. Who do you want putting new judges on that bench? The highest bench? And why? Share your thoughts.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Jan Crawford Greenburg, legal affairs correspondent for ABC News and author of “Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court.”

Laurence Tribe, professor at Harvard Law School. His new book is “The Invisible Constitution.” He has argued before the Supreme Court 35 times.

Richard Garnett, professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School. He contributes to the “Bench Memos” blog at National Review Online. He clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Senators Obama and McCain on the campaign trail. (Photos: AP)

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We were having a campaign for the White House here, and a financial crisis fell on it. Meltdown, panic, and bailout plans big enough to swamp a whole lot of campaign proposals.

But the issues on the campaign trail are titanic, too — and none bigger than the health care challenge facing this country. Costs out of control, and tens of millions of Americans with no health care coverage. None. Zero.

John McCain and Barack Obama have very different ideas for what to do.

This hour, On Point: Financial crisis and a stark choice on health care.

You can join the conversation. Will the health care issue decide your vote? Is government the solution, or the market, or both? Can the country afford to fix health care now, with a financial meltdown and huge deficits? We want to hear your thoughts.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington for an update on the bailout package is Gail Chaddock, congressional reporter for the Christian Science Monitor.

Also from Washington, we’re joined by Julie Rovner, health policy correspondent for NPR and author of “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z.”

Joining us in our studio is David Cutler, a professor of economics at Harvard University and chief health care advisor to Barack Obama. You can read Obama’s health care policies here.

And joining us from Washington is Gail Wilensky. An economist and senior fellow at Project HOPE, an international health education foundation, she’s an adviser to John McCain’s campaign and a contributor to the McCain health care plan. You can read the McCain plan here. She is a commissioner on the World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, and was an adviser to President George H.W. Bush on health and welfare policy.

More links:

The journal Health Affairs published a critique of the Obama and McCain plans last week. See an overview and links to media analysis of the critique on the Health Affairs blog.

The Kaiser Family Foundation’s election site, health08.org, offers this side-by-side summary of the two candidates’ health care proposals.

A street sign for Wall Street is shown Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

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What a time — all-out financial crisis in the neck-and-neck homestretch of an historic presidential campaign, all in a handful of weeks.

Economic turmoil has the country, the world, by the throat. And it really will fall to John McCain or Barack Obama — and soon — to clean it up, or try to.

When they pick up the phone for economic advice, who do they call? Today, we’ll hear from two of those economists: McCain advisor John Taylor of Stanford, a high-ranking Treasury official under George W. Bush. And Obama advisor Lawrence Summers of Harvard, former Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton.

This hour, On Point: The hottest issue on earth — McCain, Obama, and the economy in crisis.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he’s traveling with John McCain, is John Taylor, advisor to the McCain campaign and former Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He is a professor of economics at Stanford University and a senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He also served on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors during the Ford and George H.W. Bush administrations.

Joining us from Washington is Lawrence Summers. He’s an economic advisor to Barack Obama and former Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He served as chief economist at the World Bank from 1991-1993 and was president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006.

This Sept. 4, 2007 photo shows children unloading off the bus at Eugene Field Elementary School in Silverton, Ore. (AP Photo/Statesman Journal, Lori Cain)

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Crisis in the financial markets on a scale not seen since the Great Depression. And Americans awakening to challenges that go to the bedrock of the nation’s strength.

Nothing is ultimately more bedrock than the education of our children — the readiness of our citizens and coming generations to compete and lead in a global economy. To carry the responsibilities of democracy.

Where do McCain and Obama stand? This hour, we’ll ask their top advisers where McCain and Obama would lead on a basic issue for America — education.

You can join the conversation. Can we dig out of the economic mess and win without better schools? Who do you want steering federal policy on education? McCain or Obama? And why?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Florissant, Missouri, is Jay Mathews, education columnist at The Washington Post and a guiding light among reporters on the education beat. His forthcoming book is, “Work Hard, Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers Created America’s Best Schools.”

Joining us from Washington is Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of education at Stanford University and a member of Barack Obama’s education advisory team. She was the founding executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, the blue-ribbon panel which produced the 1996 report “What Matters Most: Teaching for America’s Future” (pdf).

Also from Washington, we’re joined by Lisa Graham Keegan. She is the senior policy advisor to the McCain 2008 campaign on education issues. At the National Republican Convention earlier this month, she was vice chair of the GOP political platform committee and was instrumental in developing the party’s education policy.

More links:

You can read Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s education policies, as spelled out on their official campaign sites.