Tutorial Your Business

Author: Peter Nisbet

Article marketing is so important today that article services are becoming more significant to your online success than even a high Google listing. The reason for that is very simple, although before going into why I say that, I should stress that I have written a highly regarded ebook on search engine optimization
(SEO) and how to use it to get almost immediate and high listings on Google and the other search engines. This is therefore contradictory to my own products.

What that means is that not too long ago I regarded search engine marketing as being the best and most profitable way of promoting and advertising your website and products or service. That, however, has all changed. While SEO is still important, it is not on web pages that you should focus your efforts, but on your writing. If that puzzles you, then read on and learn how article marketing and article writing services can make you money without any expenditure.

By writing articles you can promote your products in many different ways. You can use articles to promote your website much more effectively that spending a lot of time or money on search engine optimization. Although SEO is a very important aspect of most online marketing campaigns, have you ever stopped to think, and checked up on what is actually being listed on Google above you - assuming you can even find your own web pages on Google, or any other search engine?

Probably not, but if you did then you are as likely to find articles published on article directory pages as you are regular website pages. These days, search engine listings are just as likely to be article directory pages, and for free advertising you should write and submit articles that relate to your website or product. Article services sites can do it for you if you can't write your own, and the article directories have SEO professionals to give your article the best chance of being listed above any website covering your niche. Article marketing is the new way to the top!

Article marketing is taking over from regular SEO and website marketing very rapidly, but most people are going to miss out because they make use of neither online article services, nor the article marketing advice that is available to them. They will spend $97 on ebooks about tag an ping and the inane writings of one rich jerk or another, and miss the bigger picture.

In fact you have no need even for a website if you are having your articles listed on the search engines. You can sell products, and make a lot of money, only by writing articles. That is literal fact and it can be proved. However, this is not the place to do that. What is important is that you don't get your head turned too much by the traditional SEO sharks offering you a Page #1 position for anything from 100 to 1000 bucks!

What would they do if 11 customers asked for a Page #1 listing for the same keywords: the whole thing is ludicrous. Unless their page is on Page #1, who are they to do it for you if they can't do it for themselves? Article services sites can do a lot more for you by teaching you modern article marketing techniques that really do work.

Here are the steps to take to get free advertising for your website without doing anything but write. Not one single page on your site need be optimized for any keyword if you use article marketing as an advertising technique, only the articles that you write.

1. Do some keyword research and find the most used keywords for your niche. Also find those that have the least supply - that is those keywords and phrases that are used the least by your competitors.

2. Use both kinds, irrespective of the supply of the first, or the demand of the second, as titles and topics for your articles. Then write an article based on the best keyword you have found.

3. Use the keyword in the title, first 100 characters and also again in the first paragraph (which should be of about 50 - 70 words). Use it in the last paragraph and once again for each 300 words in your article.

4. Provide information in your article, and write so that anybody reading it will want to find out more about what you are writing about. Just as I am doing now. After all, this is going to make you money without you having to pay anything out. It's free advertising.

5. Provide a link at the end of your article, or in the 'Author's Resource Box' if one is provided, that leads back to a page on your website directly relating to the topic of your article. Mine here will lead you to a page explaining how to write articles, market them properly and make money from them whether you have a website or not.

Most people have no idea what article marketing can do for them, and article services websites can help you to achieve your goals by providing articles for you if you cannot write them effectively yourself.

Article marketing is the new SEO, and websites are rapidly taking second or even third place to article directory pages, Squidoo lenses and MySpace and You Tube listings. Get into the modern world and use article marketing and article services to get your site and products advertised and starting making some real money.

http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/article-marketing-free-advertising-and-article-services-623950.html

The national headquarters of John McCain's campaign are in northern Virginia, near the condo where he stays when he is working across the river in Washington. But McCain didn't get around to actually campaigning in the most pivotal part of this pivotal state — exurban Prince William County — until the weekend of Oct. 18. That's when he realized he was running about 10 points behind in a state that hasn't voted Democratic since 1964.
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That pretty much sums up the entire race with just a week remaining: McCain is having to spend what little money and time he has left to defend the ground he thought he had locked up months ago. In Prince William County, about 30 miles south of Washington, he told a crowd of around 10,000 that electing Barack Obama would bring a new wave of socialism to the U.S. "America didn't become the greatest nation on earth by giving our money to the government to 'spread the wealth around,'" he said outside the county government headquarters in Woodbridge. "In this country, we believe in spreading opportunity." Leaving the rally, supporters handed out black bumper stickers with the word change written in red letters, the c in the shape of a U.S.S.R.-era sickle and hammer.

Virginia has become a make-or-break state for McCain, and Prince William County is its red-hot center. The site of the first and second battles of Bull Run more than 140 years ago, it now marks a new Mason-Dixon Line on the electoral map: a midpoint between the largely blue-leaning industrialized North that stretches up to Maine and the agrarian, conservative South. The western part of Prince William is old Virginia, rural horse country dotted with estates and polo fields. This end of the county helps make it the ninth richest in the U.S.; if the whole region were so wealthy, McCain would have less to worry about. But as you head east toward Washington, the antebellum mansions turn into McMansions, then give way to middle-class row houses whose shiny blue roofs gleam through the trees from Prince William Highway like giant Lego plantations.

On the other side of the tracks — literally Amtrak's line from Washington to Richmond — the county's eastern corridor is one of the fastest-growing areas in the state, home to a Latino population that has swelled from about 5% of the population in 1990 to approximately 20% in 2007. Along the Occoquan and Potomac rivers, the state's northern and eastern borders, historic black neighborhoods argue for space with new developments: golf courses, strip malls, gated communities, retirement villages — many that stand half finished, caught off guard by the subprime crisis. Such bedroom communities have been the worst hit in the state by the economic downturn; before the market plunge, high gas prices and highway congestion topped the list of concerns for those commuting to Washington or the northern Virginia cities of Arlington and Alexandria. This is the new face of Virginia — and the South — one where white working-class voters are being replaced by booming Hispanic and Asian populations and white college students outnumber white seniors 21% to 13%, according to a new Brookings Institution study.

All those new voters moving into Prince William have helped make the once reliably Republican district a swing county and the linchpin for Democratic statewide victories. The county voted 52% for President Bush in 2000 and 53% in 2004. But in 2005, Prince William residents helped elect Tim Kaine, a Democrat, governor with 50% of the ballots and the next year voted in nearly identical numbers to put Democrat Jim Webb in the Senate. "If Democrats split the vote in Prince William and win big in the northern counties, they win the state," says Mike May, a Republican Prince William County supervisor.

Even Republicans who didn't vote for Webb in 2006 are looking at Democrats this year. Karen Krivo, a 41-year-old mother of two who until now never considered voting for a Democrat for any office, is fed up. The high price of gasoline has made commuting the 30 miles into Washington impossible for some, and the housing crisis has glutted the once booming market. "It's a vote against President Bush and the Republican Congress's policies," she says. "I know we need to change, and Barack Obama provides that change."

McCain has also been forced to quell disgruntlement among rank-and-file Republicans over immigration. After an increase in gang activity, the board of county supervisors took the controversial step of checking the immigration status of every person arrested, irrespective of guilt or the degree of crime, from jaywalking to felonies. If a detainee is found to be illegal, the county immediately initiates deportation procedures with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The move, by the largely conservative Republican board, drew national attention and placed the local party at odds with its presidential nominee, who helped write the failed 2006 immigration bill that would have granted a path to citizenship for illegal aliens. "McCain's at risk here because people are concerned that he has not taken a strong enough position on illegal immigration," says Corey Stewart, Republican chairman of the county board.

The McCain campaign got into trouble on Oct. 11 when Jeffrey Frederick, the 33-year-old head of the Virginia Republican Party, likened Obama to Osama bin Laden. "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," he told a group of about 30 canvassers. "That is scary." It is also not exactly true — though that distorted reference to Obama's controversial association with William Ayers, a former '60s radical, was enough to stoke the volunteers at McCain's campaign office in Gainesville. "He won't salute the flag," one woman said, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man in the crowd, wearing a polo shirt embroidered with "I Love America," who called out, "We don't even know where Senator Obama was really born." (Actually, we do. It's Hawaii.) Frederick beamed: "You need to go out and tell people that from your hearts," he said as he sent the volunteers on their way to knock on doors across Prince William County. (The McCain campaign distanced itself from Frederick, who later claimed he'd been joking.)

Meanwhile, Obama — who, like McCain, has made only one appearance in the county, though Joe Biden has made three — spent all summer quietly registering thousands of new voters in Prince William, which had the second largest increase by county in a state that has seen its voter rolls swell by 436,000 since the beginning of the year. The Obama campaign has made a massive push to register blacks, who make up 20% of the population, as well as Latinos and students at the four colleges in the district. Obama will need these voters to eke out a win in Prince William. And if he does that, the state's 13 electoral votes will probably move into the Democrats' column.

So if Prince William County wasn't on McCain's radar at the start, it is now. "Until this past week, I'd always discounted all those talking heads saying Obama will win Virginia," says Earnie Porta, the Democratic mayor of Occoquan, a small town on the northeastern end of the county. "But this week I started to think that with the economy going the way it is, maybe he could."

—— with reporting by Karen Tumulty/ Gainesville
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1854243,00.html

Labels: New

(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama told voters on Monday that "we are one week away from changing America."
Sen. Barack Obama says Sen. John McCain will not bring the change the country needs.

Sen. Barack Obama says Sen. John McCain will not bring the change the country needs.
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Delivering what his campaign billed as his "closing argument," Obama told a crowd in Canton, Ohio, that "there's so much at stake" in the week ahead.

"We cannot let up for one day, one minute, or one second in this last week. Not now," he said.

The Democratic candidate, who has a sizeable lead in national polls, warned against acting as if the election is already over. Video Watch: 'One week away', Obama says »

"Don't think for a minute that power concedes. We have a lot of work to do. We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does depend on it this week," he said.

Obama told voters it was up to them to "give this country the change we need," as he tried to make the case that Sen. John McCain is too similar to President Bush to bring about that change.

"Sen. McCain says that we can't spend the next four years waiting for our luck to change, but you understand that the biggest gamble we can take is to embrace the same old Bush-McCain policies that have failed us for the last eight years," Obama said. Video Watch Obama rail against the 'McCain way' »

The McCain campaign blasted Obama's remarks as "an argument for closing down opportunity."

"It's fitting that during Barack Obama's 'closing argument,' he was unable to support his rhetoric with a single accomplishment ... Barack Obama's 'closing argument' is the same old argument in favor of job-killing tax increases and massive new spending," spokesman Tucker Bounds said.

McCain on Monday sought to assure voters that his administration would be far different from the Bush administration.

"This is the fundamental difference between Sen. Obama and me. We both disagree with President Bush on economic policy. The difference is he thinks taxes have been too low, and I think that spending has been too high," McCain said at a rally in Dayton, Ohio. iReport.com: What would you ask Sen. Obama?
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McCain tried to paint Obama as a candidate who "believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs." Video Watch McCain call Obama the 'redistributor' »

The Arizona senator pointed to a 2001 radio interview in which Obama said that one of the failures of the civil rights movement was that "the Supreme Court never entered into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society."

McCain said that in the Obama campaign, change means "taking your money and giving it to someone else." Video Watch McCain talk about his economic plan »

The Obama campaign called McCain's attack on the interview a "fake news controversy drummed up by the all too common alliance of Fox News, the Drudge Report and John McCain, who apparently decided to close out his campaign with the same false, desperate attacks that have failed for months."

McCain on Monday also warned voters of what he sees as the dangers of a government controlled by Democrats.

Democrats in the Senate are hoping to win 60 seats -- enough to secure a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

"The answer to a slowing economy is not higher taxes, but that is exactly what is going to happen when the Democrats have total control in Washington. Can you imagine an Obama, [Nancy] Pelosi, [Harry] Reid combination? We can't let that happen," he said.

With just eight days left for each side to make its case, Obama and McCain were both focusing on battleground Ohio, where 20 electoral votes are at stake.

Obama and McCain both planned to campaign in Pennsylvania following their Ohio events.

Obama leads McCain by 4 points in Ohio, 50 percent to 46 percent, according to CNN's average of polls there.

The Democrat also has the lead in Pennsylvania, up 51-41 percent, according to CNN's poll of the polls there. Video Watch CNN's Bill Schneider break down the polling numbers »

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell recently sent two separate memos to the Obama campaign requesting that the Democratic candidate as well as Hillary and Bill Clinton return to his state.

Obama's last visit to the state was on October 11.

Rendell said the McCain campaign was clearly making a push to win Pennsylvania, given the recent visits by the Arizona senator, his wife and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. According to Rendell, there is also worry among Democrats that the McCain campaign has successfully raised the enthusiasm level among Republicans in the state.

Palin had a series of rallies scheduled Monday in Virginia, where Republicans now find themselves playing defense.

CNN's poll of polls in Virginia shows Obama leading McCain, 51-44 percent. The state hasn't voted for a Democratic president in more than four decades.

Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, had rallies planned in North Carolina and Florida, two states that President Bush won in the past two presidential elections.

Obama leads by 2 points in Florida, 48-46 percent, according to the most recent average of polls there.
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In North Carolina, a recent CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corp. poll indicated Obama had a 4-point lead over McCain, 51 percent to 47 percent

The poll was conducted October 19 through October 21 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Download:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/27/campaign.wrap/index.html?iref=topnews

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Political allegiances are as divided as football loyalties in the country's heartland, home to deeply depressed economies, middle America values and profound doubts about whether either Barack Obama or John McCain will be able to reverse the worst financial turmoil this country has seen since the Great Depression.

"I don't want four more years of Republicans, let alone eight," said independent Craig Phipps, echoing nearly everyone else decked out in Ohio State University gear during a pre-game tailgate party. All but one in this group agreed when Phipps said: "McCain is no different than President Bush."

Across the parking lot, under a Purdue University tent, it was McCain who was the favorite — by default, it seems. Obama, although a fellow Midwesterner, "doesn't understand our values at all — even though Chicago's in the Midwest," said Tami Lee. She's a Democrat who once backed Obama but later became disenchanted with him.

Not far out from Election Day, weighing their choices in the midst of an economic crisis, there were still plenty of undecided voters in this swath of tailgaters, many of whom echo the doubts of Shannon Wells: "I'm not convinced that either one of them can change anything."

This is how many distill their choices: Obama, a first-term Democratic senator from liberal Chicago who is 47 years old and would be the country's first black president. McCain, a 72-year-old, four-term Republican senator running to succeed an unpopular president when most people think the country is headed in the wrong direction. Neither one, it seems to these voters, offers much hope for an economic turnaround.

The political winds strongly favor Obama, though Republicans and Democrats alike say McCain still has a shot. Most national polls show Obama with a lead of varying degrees but some, including an Associated Press-GfK survey, show the race a dead heat.

Interviews on a recent weekend with more than two dozen people in the economically ailing Midwestern battlegrounds of Ohio and Indiana, which lean more conservative than liberal, showed that the contest still is volatile.

Voters express the same doubts about the candidates as they have all year — that Obama is not the right fit, and that McCain represents a continuation of Bush. Those who have settled on a candidate explain their preferences by laying out what they don't like about the other guy. And, those who are undecided say they're turned off by both.

Anxiety is palpable as many people wonder aloud if anyone knows how to handle the economic crisis.

__

New Castle, Ind., has seen better times. Boarded-up storefronts in this factory-and-farming town attest to that.

Amber Hall is about to lose her job as a payroll supervisor at a plant that's closing. "We're in real trouble," she said as she pumped $23.01 in gas. "My concern with either one of the candidates is whether they can do enough to turn it around."

She doesn't ascribe to a political party and said she'll probably vote Obama for one reason: "I think we need something different. McCain is along the same lines as Bush."

Down the road, eating at the Bob Evans, the Marckels, who call themselves conservatives and abortion opponents, were siding with McCain. They don't want to risk an Obama presidency.

"He's untested," Les Marckel said. Wife Cindy Marckel was turned off by anti-McCain literature from Obama filling her mailbox, and said: "I can't trust somebody like that. That raises serious suspicions."

In Wilmington, Ohio, "Help Wanted" signs hanging from businesses belie the city's expected job losses when shipping-company DHL closes its local hub.

Waitress Deanie Pendall, who claims no party affiliation, lamented fewer tips as she plugged quarters into a laundromat washing machine and said she had little faith that anyone could fix "the mess." Put her down as a likely McCain voter if only because of running mate Sarah Palin and her discomfort with Obama.

"There's just something about him," she said of Obama.

"You know when you see someone for the first time and you just get a feeling?" Pendall said, though quickly added that the issue wasn't his skin color.

Democrat John Dumolt said Obama's race is an issue for some folks in southern Ohio, though not for him: "It's time that the country sees everyone as equal, and I think he can do the job."

He's backing Obama.

Yet, Dumolt, who lost his 13-year job "swinging a hammer" for a homebuilder and now is a truck driver, was uncertain that Obama really could do anything to strengthen the economy — nor any president for that matter. Climbing back on his Harley Davidson after fueling up, he said with a shrug: "It's bad everywhere."

____

It's no wonder voters sound so sour about the country — and the candidates themselves.

Since early September, Wall Street crumbled, stocks fluctuated, government intervened, layoffs rose and money was siphoned from people's retirement accounts. Voters depressed with the direction of the country became even more dispirited. Just 9 percent in a recent Gallup survey said the country was on the right track.

At the same time, Obama and McCain have been working relentlessly to plant negative impressions of one another in voters' minds.

McCain has sought to stoke voter unease about Obama, tagging him as the Senate's most liberal member while painting him as an unknown and unacceptable option. He's also raised Obama's links to questionable characters, including 1960s radical William Ayers, a founder of the anti-war Weather Underground.

"Who is Barack Obama?" McCain has asked. Palin's answer: "This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America."

The Democrat is countering with an ad that bespeaks Americana. It shows pictures of him with his white mother and grandparents, and talks of the values that shaped his life. "Hard work, honesty, self-reliance, respect for other people, kindness, faith. That's the country I believe in," Obama says in the ad.

Obama continues to cast McCain as no different from Bush. The argument has resonated even more since the economic crisis put the president's policies back in the spotlight. "We just can't afford more of the same," Obama's ads say.

He also has repeatedly asserted that McCain has been unsteady in his response to the crisis, saying: "I don't think we can afford that kind of erratic and uncertain leadership in these uncertain times."

McCain's rejoinder: "I am not George Bush." He's also now running an ad that says: "The last eight years haven't worked very well, have they? I'll make the next four better."

____

Listening to tailgaters at the Ohio State-Purdue game was like watching each candidate's TV commercials.

At the Herderick family's spot — amid chicken sizzling on the grill, beer chilling in coolers and a sea of Buckeye scarlet and gray — all but one person backed Obama.

"He is clearly a Midwesterner with Midwestern values. And McCain has shown himself to be erratic," said Ed Herderick, 25, a graduate student and a Democrat.

Tim Herderick, 50, a flight attendant and an independent, lamented his thinning pension and said: "We had eight years of Republicans and look what they got us into."

A lifelong Republican, Katie Herderick, the family matriarch at 78, explained why she's breaking with her party: "I just don't like McCain" and Palin wouldn't be a good president if needed.

Political sentiments — as well as team allegiances — were just the opposite in a nearby tent, where most people talked of supporting McCain as they snacked on deviled eggs, bags of chips and a vegetable tray.

"It's more about Republican Party values than McCain himself," said Republican Mark Iiames, 31, decked out in Purdue blue and gold. Of Obama, he said: "I don't know that I've heard or seen enough of him to say whether he's truly in touch with Midwestern values."

Lee, a 40-year-old teacher, voted for Obama during the primary but came to believe he couldn't relate to heartland voters when he said that Pennsylvania voters frustrated with the economy "cling" to guns and religion. Now, she said: "I'm really voting for Palin."

Of the crew, only independent Marie Budd, a 31-year-old teacher, said she was willing to choose Obama.

"Why not?" she said. "I'm ready for a change. I'm ready for a new path."


By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer Liz Sidoti, Associated Press Writer – Mon Oct 27, 3:51 am ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081027/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_the_heartland;_ylt=AvqjRiMnaimySG.G_r2GtS9snwcF

Labels: Economy

LONDON – World stock markets slumped again Monday with the Nikkei index in Japan closing at its lowest in 26 years as the financial crisis drove up the yen, piling the pressure on the country's exporters.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index closed down 6.4 percent to 7,162.90 — the lowest since October 1982. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 12.7 percent to 11,015.84, its lowest close in more than four years and biggest daily decline since 1991.

European markets followed Asia lower, with benchmarks in Britain, Germany and France trading down more than 4 percent in early trading. The FTSE 100 index was 190.31 points, or 4.9 percent, lower at 3,693.05, while Germany's DAX was down 182.81 points, or 4.3 percent, at 4,112.86. France's CAC-40 was the worst performing European index, down 184.65 points, or 5.8 percent, at 3,009.14.

"Worries about the impact of the surging yen on Japanese export earnings have hit the Nikkei hard," said Julian Jessop, chief international economist at Capital Economics.

"This in turn has led to sharp falls in European markets even when, as on Friday, the U.S. had closed higher the day before," he added.

Dow futures were down 268 points, or 3.2 percent, at 7,994. Standard & Poor's 500 futures were down about 4 percent.

Mounting concerns about the yen and the effect of the financial crisis on currency markets prompted the world's seven leading industrial nations to issue a statement Sunday warning about the "recent excessive volatility" in the value of the Japanese currency, which is rising against the U.S. dollar towards the 90 yen level and near 13-year highs.

"We continue to monitor markets closely, and cooperate as appropriate," the G7 said.

The statement has raised the prospect of coordinated intervention to stem the yen's appreciation.

"Although action could emerge at any time, it seems to us that it would achieve its maximum impact were it seen to be led by the U.S. Treasury," said Simon Derrick, currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.

"The New York morning today may therefore provide an ideal opportunity for them to make a clear statement of intent," he added.

The euro and the pound continued to drop, with the pound 3.4 percent lower at $1.54 and the euro down 1.8 percent down at $1.24. The euro is under pressure from fears about banks' exposure to emerging markets and expectations the European Central Bank will cut interest rates.

As well as potentially coordinating action in the currency markets, there's growing speculation that the world's leading central banks may cut interest rates together soon to help calm markets and provide some impetus to the stalling global economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve is already expected to cut its benchmark interest rate a half percentage point to 1 percent at a two-day meeting that ends Wednesday.

Economic data this week is likely to further stoke concerns about the global economy. Earlier Monday, the well-respected Ifo Institute in Germany reported that its main activity index fell to a five-year low 90.2 in October.

Monday's sharp stock market declines came amid another round of government measures to boost markets. In South Korea, the central bank slashed its key interest rate Monday by three-quarters of a percentage point — its biggest cut ever — to prevent Asia's fourth-largest economy from lurching into recession.

And Australian and Hong Kong central bankers injected funds into their markets to ensure liquidity.

In Europe, the International Monetary Fund said Sunday it had reached a tentative agreement to provide Ukraine with $16.5 billion in loans and announced that emergency assistance for Hungary had cleared a key hurdle.

Only South Korea's market managed to eke out gains, perhaps in part because of the big rate cut there. The benchmark Kospi ended 0.8 percent higher at 946.45.

In mainland China, the benchmark index slumped to its lowest level in more than two years as investors reacted to dismal earnings reports. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 6.3 percent, or 116.27 points, to 1,723.35. It is now down about 72 percent from its peak about a year ago.

In the Philippines, the key index plummeted 12.3 percent to 1,713.83 points, triggering a circuit-breaker that automatically halted trading for 15 minutes. The biggest one-day drop since February 2007 was caused by "big fund players" withdrawing investments to get cash and meet redemptions at home, traders said.

In Japan, stocks fell despite a report that the government was considering massive capital injection into struggling banks in a bid to calm jittery financial markets.

"The reported plan by the government hardly cheered investors. What the market really wants is a package of stimulus measures to boost the Japanese economy," said Kazuki Miyazawa, market analyst at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. Ltd.

Citing unidentified sources, the Yomiuri newspaper said Monday the government is considering injecting public money worth 10 trillion yen ($108 billion) into struggling banks in a bid to stabilize the financial market hit by sagging stocks and a soaring yen.

In oil, crude prices weakened after OPEC's move to cut production in an attempt to halt the declines. Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down $2.24 to $61.91 a barrel. Oil prices have plunged more than 57 percent from a record $147.27 in mid-July.

___

AP reporters Jeremiah Marquez in Hong Kong and reporters Tomoko A. Hosaka in Tokyo, Elaine Kurtenbach in Shanghai, Hrvoje Hrankski in Manila and Kelly Olsen in Seoul contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081027/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets;_ylt=Atcwc2EuU9NiJQ7YHwZa_e6s0NUE

Labels: New

RENO, Nev. – Scrambling to win the West, Democrat Barack Obama mocked John McCain on Saturday for aggressively trying to distance himself from President Bush. McCain touted his Western ties and warned that Obama is a tax-and-spend threat to the nation.

Ten days before the election, both candidates were targeting the same trio of states — Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico. Any of them could help shape who wins the presidency.

The flurry of appearances by Obama and McCain likely represent the last time in a long, testy campaign that the toss-up territory of the West will get this much attention. Electoral prizes of the East Coast, like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, will soon take command.

Obama recharged his habit of lumping McCain with the unpopular president of his own party. McCain, an Arizona senator, has outspokenly blamed Bush's leadership for the country's woes in recent days, a line of attack that may be giving him some traction as time runs out.

Obama said it was too late for McCain to portray himself as independent from Bush after standing with him for years. McCain has a mixed record of supporting and bucking Bush.

Real change, Obama said, is "not somebody who's trying to break with his president over the last 10 days after having supporting him for the last eight years."

As the front-running Obama campaigned at a baseball stadium, McCain was at an outdoor rally at the New Mexico state fairgrounds in Albuquerque. The Arizona Republican claimed he had the edge in battleground states in the region, calling himself "a fellow Westerner."

"Sen. Obama has never been south of the border," said McCain, arguing that he has a feel for issues like water that resonate throughout the region. Obama's campaign said Obama has, in fact, been to Mexico before he got into public office.

Later, in Mesilla, N.M., McCain said he had a home-court advantage in the West.

"I know the issues, I know land, I know water, I know native American issues," said McCain, speaking at a sun-splashed rally. "I know how western states are growing with dynamic strength. Senator Obama does not understand these issues."

McCain continued to portray Obama, an Illinois senator, as a tax-and-spend liberal certain to push for more government and higher spending.

"He believes in redistributing wealth," McCain said. "That's not America."

His running mate, Sarah Palin, evoked the same theme Saturday in Sioux City, Iowa.

While she spoke, the crowd at her rally cried out about Obama: "He's a socialist."

Obama, meanwhile, continued to use his massive fundraising appeal to his advantage.

On Sunday, his campaign unveiled a two-minute TV ad that asks, "Will our country be better off four years from now?"

The length of the ad, which will air in key states, highlights Obama's fundraising superiority — most campaign commercials run 30 seconds or a minute.

Without mentioning McCain, the ad promotes Obama's economic policies while saying that Obama will work to end "mindless partisanship" and "divisiveness."

The Republican National Committee released its own TV ad Saturday questioning whether Obama has the experience to be president. The ad, featuring the image of a stormy ocean, says the nation is in "uncertain times" that could get worse and asks whether voters want a president "who's untested at the helm."

In competitive Virginia, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Americans have been "knocked down" by Bush's economic policies. "It's time for us to get back up," he said. "It's time for us together to get back up and demand the change we need."

The West, once reliable Republican territory, has seen its politics and demographics shift over the last decade. Bush narrowly won Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico four years ago and Democrats see them and their 19 electoral votes as a real opportunity.

There was a glitch for Obama in Reno, though. A generator at his rally apparently failed, killing power and cutting off his microphone. Obama said someone from the McCain campaign may have pulled the plug on the rally — but quickly added he was kidding.

Later, at a rally at a high school football field in Las Vegas, Obama said: "We're not going to let George Bush pass the torch to John McCain."

Obama resumed his campaign in Nevada after spending Thursday night and Friday in Hawaii with his grandmother, who is gravely ill. He offered thanks to those who wished her well.

Despite sour polls, McCain pledged a scrappy close to the campaign.

"We're a few points down and the pundits, of course, as they have four or five times, have written us off," said McCain. "We've got them just where we want them."

McCain was headed briefly to El Paso, Texas, before moving on to Iowa where he's looking to make up for some lost ground in a state campaign aides argue is closer than the public polling shows. McCain was to appear on "Meet the Press" and hold a campaign rally.

Obama is campaigning on Sunday in Colorado.

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