On the economy, Obama and McCain are engaged in a frivolous arms race.

For presidential candidates, crises provide a certain allure. They allow the politicians to talk about off-the-cuff decisions they would make if only they were president right now. But they aren't president yet, so they don't actually have to incur the consequences of seeing their ideas come to pass. It's a rare occasion when it's all right—and expected—to talk the talk and not walk the walk.

Barack Obama and John McCain have been running their mouths about the economic crisis for weeks now. Every other day there seems to be a new economic proposal that, combined with a host of other ideas, could turn the American economy around. The dynamic is circular—the candidates propose ideas to ameliorate voters' agita, but they have no way of actually following through on their promises before the election. So, to prove that they're still on top of the issue, they keep offering new proposals. The cycle is quickened when each candidate has to respond to the other's action. It's a policy arms race in which neither candidate has access to the big red button.

The back-and-forth of the last seven days offers a case in point. The cause-and-effect chronology follows:

$300 billion answer: At the debate last week, McCain pulled out what he thought was a populist trump card. Rather than direct all of that bailout money toward the banks, let's spend $300 billion on bailing out struggling homeowners. The government will buy the mortgages, and homeowners can scuttle out from their predatory lenders' shadows. It was an attempt to put specifics to an area—homeowner aid—where Obama has been purposefully cryptic. On a conference call, McCain's campaign said the proposal helped show that McCain had "obviously been personally very concerned about the problems facing the economy." Economists said the proposal helped show that McCain doesn't get it—the predatory lenders would be getting just as much of the bailout as the homeowners, and the taxpayers would be on the hook.

Respecting the elders: McCain stacked one more policy atop the heap, saying that seniors shouldn't be forced to start drawing down their 401(k)s when they celebrate reaching the big 70.5.

Weekend tease: Unconvinced that his mortgage proposal and 401(k) shtick were hitting home, McCain's aides leaked word that more economic plans were coming this week.