Keywords: John McCain, Barack Obama, presidential candidates, president of the United States, campaign, blogs, reviews, first Black president, election 08

While there was plenty for bloggers to write about in the race for the White House this week, it was perhaps Republican nominee Sen. John McCain's assertion that the fundamentals of the American economy "are strong" that got the most attention in the blogosphere.

McCain made the comments while out stumping in Jacksonville, Fla. Though the speech appears on YouTube [you can watch it below], the transcript of his remarks, which are almost always posted on his campaign web site, was nowhere to be found.

McCain said: "You know that there's been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street. And it's … people are frightened by these events. Our economy, still … the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times. And I promise you, we will never put America in this position again. We will clean up Wall Street. We will reform government."

Here's a look at what some of the bloggers had to say in response to the senator's remarks:

Michael Cooper writes for the International Herald Tribune, the international arm of The New York Times. Cooper writes of how quickly McCain and his staffers worked to make an about-face over the initial remarks.

"With economic conditions worsening and voter anxiety on the rise, McCain has had to labor to get past the impression--fostered by his own admissions that the subject is not his strongest suit--that he lacks the experience and understanding to address the country's economic woes," Cooper writes. "In the most recent case, he first sought to explain away his remarks about the economy's fundamental soundness by saying he had been referring to American workers. But within hours his aides were scheduling television appearances so that he could try to erase the notion, being promoted aggressively by Democrats, that he was out of touch.

"His campaign also released the text of a speech he was delivering later Monday that included much starker language about the financial crisis, and by Tuesday it had produced a new advertisement asserting that his experience and leadership were necessary in a 'time of crisis.'"

Meanwhile, Dan Balz, a Washington Post blogger, says McCain may have a tough time rebounding from this misstatement simply because the senator is a self-professed economic novice.

Says Balz: "John McCain has a fundamentals problem. It is political as well as economic, and it remains the biggest obstacle standing between the Arizona senator and the White House. McCain didn't single-handedly create this problem but he made it worse Monday when, as Wall Street was melting down, he uttered words--'The fundamentals of our economy are strong'--that totally muddied the real message he meant to deliver. Barack Obama has hammered him at every stop since as a man out of touch with reality.

"Were McCain known as a student of the economy, this instance of a badly delivered statement would matter little. Because he is known as someone who is not, it matters plenty. McCain has responded by ratcheting up his rhetoric about cracking down on Wall Street and Washington. As with his Monday misstep, once again the message is mixed. Guns blazing, McCain is promising to ride into town to--oversee the creation of a commission to study the problem. He is speaking out in favor of regulation but against a history of opposing a heavy government hand. He has expressed his outrage, but what is the balance he would strike between the old and new McCain?"

Sam Youngman, a writer for The Hill, a nonpartisan newspaper that publishes information about Congress for members of Congress, demonstrated McCain's misstep by writing about the White House's refusal to back up McCain's statement. In the past, President Bush has said the economy, despite its recent struggles, remains "fundamentally strong." But not this time.

Youngman writes: "The White House on Wednesday refused to repeat earlier statements -- echoed this week by Republican presidential candidate John McCain -- that the fundamentals of the economy are strong even as a Wall Street crisis has deepened amid a major bankruptcy and another federal bailout.

"White House press secretary Dana Perino was asked repeatedly at the daily briefing Wednesday if the president continues to think, as he has said before, that the economy remains fundamentally strong. Sen. McCain (Ariz.) repeated the president's point Monday, after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, saying that 'the fundamentals of our economy are strong.'

"Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) seized on McCain's remark as evidence that the Arizona senator is out of touch and lacking in economic knowledge and appreciation of the degree of the current crisis.

"Perino would say only that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said 'that as he looks at our country and compares it with other countries, that we are in a position of strength to be able to deal with this crisis, and it's going to take us a while to work through it.'"