Seize the Moment!

The news coming from Wall Street last night and today is troubling.

* Lehman Brothers, the New York-based investment bank that reported $691 billion in assets last year — a company with 26,000 employees — has filed for bankruptcy.

* Merrill Lynch, a company that defined the term “blue chip,” is being sold to Bank of America for what is essentially a bargain basement price.

* American International Group (AIG), facing a credit downgrade, is seeking a $40 billion loan from the Federal Reserve. AIG, which employs 116,000 people, reported 2007 assets of more than $1 trillion.

How did the stock market react to the news? In 10 minutes of trading, the Dow Jones plummeted by more than 300 points.

Moreover, the major European stock exchanges dropped by more than 4 percent.

In his blog, The Flack, Hillary Clinton for President communications director Howard Wolfson describes the situation as the equivalent of a 3 a.m. phone call. He also called it “a moment.”

Coming from the campaign that created the phrase “3 a.m. phone call,” Howard would know. But it is more than a moment. In a campaign that is neck and neck, for the candidates, this is an opportunity. A big one.

The candidates have so far said more of what they already have said. The Obama campaign has linked the economic crisis to the Bush administration and, thus, John McCain. McCain is pointing out Barack Obama’s record in the United States Senate and the Illinois state Senate as supporting multiple tax hikes.

To move ahead, they must do more.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has dominated the coverage for the last month. For McCain, this represents an opportunity to keep the momentum building and put some distance between himself and Obama in the polls, while demonstrating, as he did in the Russia/Georgia situation, that he is an experienced hand.

For Sen. Obama (D-Ill.), it is an opportunity to demonstrate true leadership on a complicated, multilayered issue.

For both candidates, it provides the opportunity to take the lead on the key issue of this campaign: the economy.

The candidates cannot simply fine-tune their message and hope for the best. This is a time for bold proposals, a time to “change the game.” Announcing in advance a Treasury secretary who commands respect on both sides of the aisle and on Wall Street could be a good start. So, too, could be laying out specific proposals to strengthen the dollar, which, though it has gained on the euro in recent weeks, is still far short of where it once was.

The voters are paying keen attention to the business pages right now. The candidate who can best seize the moment puts his campaign in a much better position for November.