Why did John McCain say that "the economy is strong" during the 2008 presidential campaign?

I'm doing some research on the campaign, and while Obama also said some dumb stuff (57 states, "my Muslim faith," clinging to guns and religion, 10,000 dead in a Kansas hurricane, etc.) McCain's economy comment was much worse, because people at that moment were terrified about the economy. Why did he make that comment? What did he mean by it? It definitely hurt him in the polls. I'm just wondering what his logic was.

Public Comments

1. By asking what logic had in saying it, you're assuming it was intentional. It wasn't. He just had no clue that the economy wasn't strong, and thought it was.
2. I don't know why, but I do know that Obama mocked him for it. And the weird part with the economy worse 6 month's later, Obama said the fundamentals where strong when they were declining. Just pure politics.
3. He was comparing it to the good old days of the Reagan era and saw many of the indicators were similar. Poverty was growing, median wages falling, the rich were getting way richer and the poor poorer - that is obviously a Republican's idea of a good economy.
4. Ignorant misspeak. He has a penchant for lying to make things sound rosier than they are. Remember he said that he often took unguarded walks outside the Green Zone in Baghdad.
5. He was dumbstruck. He had said that he didn't know anything about economics. Remember? All he was prepared to talk about was war, war, war... "Drill baby, drill".
6. He was just trying to be a booster for America. It's really no different than when people say things about Americans having the best work ethic or whatever. It was just a really bad time to make that claim what was going on. Really not that bad a comment though... just typical America firstism.
7. He said "the fundamentals of the economy are strong"...but... SO DID OBAMA. On Meet the Press on the 15th he said: PRES. OBAMA: If we are keeping focused on all the fundamentally sound aspects of our economy, then we're going to get through this. And I'm very confident about that. So, in answer to your question, it did hurt him. However, note that it can't hurt OBAMA at all, because he wouldn't man up and admit it. However, now that HE is saying it, it definitely IS a lie. He just DESTROYED all the fundamentally sound aspects of the economy.
8. He was expressing his support of a deregulated free market, was supposedly referring to the American working spirit rather than wall street, and wanted to be reassuring rather than panic inducing. It was mind bogglingly out of touch, but nowhere near as indefensible as his opponents made it out to be.
9. What he said was that the foundation of the economy is strong, words that Obama parroted about 2 months ago, and nobody called him on it.
10. He sure was wrong about that. But don't overlook the fact that Obama has said virtually the same thing as of this March. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/us/politics/14message.html
11. He is delusional. He also said on the night of the elections "I've got Sen. Obama where he wants him." He also ran on the country first platform. But in reality it was White First platform.
12. Because he knew he was going to loose and under Obama the economy would go to hell...so he was forecasting a comparison of future events. lol i have no idea
13. because it was the week before the big crash he wanted to say it was fine so that would be out of the way so he could attack obama on national security
14. He said "The economy is fundamentally strong". The fundamentals of the economy, according to him, are the creative ideas and work ethics of the American people, or American workforce. That's what he meant. Of course, the media took it out of context and carped at him for it.
15. His diaper was taped on too tightly that day cutting off the oxygen to his already weakened mind.
16. McCain's economy was very strong, with all of his wife's beer money. The economy of the average American is declining rapidly, but none of the politicians care about that, as long as they can continue to tax us to death, and squander the money, giving it to their cronies and special interests. I don't know about the Obama comment, but Obama did campaign on a promise of eliminating pork and earmarks, and yet has signed the biggest pork-laden bills ever to come out of our corrupt Congress. And his appointment of tax dodgers to his administration like Geithner was an insult to all honest Americans. OBAMA: Change we can grieve in.
17. A Republican was president at the time. The party loyalists will vote along party lines anyway so his goal was to attract moderate/independent voters, as this is how politicians win elections. If he'd spouted off about the critical point the economy was reaching, he probably believed it would come off as a quasi-admission of mistakes made by the Bush administration. He wanted to distance the party/himself from that concept so the moderate/independent vote wouldn't run in the other direction. It was a gamble and he lost those voters anyway. It didn't take him long to backtrack on those remarks either. He was becoming more measured in his speech about the economy by the end of that same day.
18. That's a big part of why he lost that statement gave Obama the slam dunk he needed when huge company's like are on the Verge of failing the Economy is any thing but Strong and he said fundamentally sound witch was Far from the Truth.and for the Republicans that say Obama said the same thing here is what he said and it was in March.“But if we are keeping focused on all the fundamentally sound aspects of our economy,” he added, “all the outstanding companies, workers, all the innovation and dynamism in this economy, then we’re going to get through this. And I’m very confident about that.”
19. Three things. First of all, it's a president's job to be bullish on the economy. Whenever there's a recession the president talks up the economy. Because the economy is really only as good as peoples' faith in it. After the stock market crash in 1929, Herbert Hoover kept saying it was not a recession, just a brief 'depression' (that's where the term came from), and that prosperity was 'right around the corner'. He refused to acknowledge the depression, right up until he left office. Bush's dad did the same thing in 1992, pretending the economy was great. It only made him seem out of touch. The Clinton campaign's motto was 'it's the economy, stupid!' Secondly, presidential candidates always bust their butts to sound cheerful and upbeat and optimistic in general. They want to talk about problems with the country, but only so they can explain how easy it will be to solve them. Every candidate's convention acceptance speech, every new president's first term inauguration speech, is full of this stuff. Finally, McCain wasn't able to (or wasn't allowed to) distance himself from Bush. He had to pretend that he believed Bush did everything right and was retiring in great success and universal popularity. This is one main reason he lost. Like GHW Bush, he just seemed out of touch, like he didn't understand what was going on.
20. Interesting question. Because you're right, that was when he revealed his lack of comprehension. He meant that remark to show his unwavering support for our system, unfortunately, at a time when our country was looking into the abyss. And the abyss was looking back. And Mr. Magoo walked right past it. No logic involved, just blind as a bat.
21. When he meant "the economy is strong," he meant it AT THE TIME OF WHEN HE SAID IT, and if you think about it, that time compared to right now the economy was a lot more stronger Also he meant that if he were elected, then the economy would've been strong. Alas it would've, i don't know if you recall but the day after Obama won elections almost every country's stock index went down over 400 points. Truth be told mate, I'm not lying.
22. You didn't here him correctly. McCain did not say the economy was strong, he said the fundamentals of the economy were strong. I have to wonder myself why he would have even said that since he had been warning of a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac implosion. I suppose that since at the time he made the statement the only real evident problem was AIG, an insurance company. McCain did take a lot of heat for his remark but just last March Obama came out and made exactly the same statement, which begs the question "If the fundamentals are strong, why do we need a $3.3 trillion budget ? Honestly though the thing that hurt McCain the most was Bush, look at history very rarely do we get the same party elected after any president serves his two terms, the last time it happened was Regan for 8 years and Bush Sr. for 4 years. If Hillary had won the presidency we would have had either a Bush or a Clinton in office for for at least 32 years (36 if Hillary was reelected) 28 years was more than enough for me.