As President Bush announced yet another bail-out, this time for American automakers, it's hard to remember that there are other important problems that will need some serious attention when the administration takes over in January.

As we head into the final hours of the 2008 presidential campaign, millions of voters will make the final decision as to whether they should cast their ballot for president for Senator McCain or Barack Obama. For me, the decision has been easy: I’m supporting Senator McCain, because I believe that he is best prepared to lead our country through the tremendous challenges we face, both at home and abroad.

With just over a week until Election Day and our economy in disarray, it’s little surprise that the economic policies of both John McCain and Barack Obama have come into sharp focus for many Americans.  This has, of course, been aided by the emergence of Joe the Plumber as a major figure in the presidential campaign — though he is hardly the only current or prospective small-business owner looking closely at what the candidates are pledging to do to move the economy forward.  Since the beginning of the race, as the owner of a small business (and a Democrat), I have been carefully revi

Janna Six from the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado shared with us some of the efforts to make the DNC (and The Big Tent) the greenest convention ever. From compostable flatware and smoothie cups to businessmen on bikes and an army of volunteers, the DNC benefited from an array of clever efforts to not just green the conference but to plant seeds for the future. Now to see if the RNC follows... Stay tuned!

On Monday, John McCain visited Pennsylvania, where he attended a meeting with small-business owners to discuss jobs and the economy. While his remarks on energy earned plenty of press coverage, his comments on strengthening small businesses, and thereby promoting future economic growth, were less noted. As such, I wanted to use this post to highlight some key aspects of John McCain’s plan to help them.

John McCain held another in his series of question and answer calls with bloggers today and BlogHer was invited to join in (though I was unable to make it into the Q&A queue before time ran out).  The call came on the heels of his speech last night in Louisiana (video available at this link to Catherine Morgan at The Political Voices of Women and his media call this morning where, along with Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA) and his foreign policy and national security director Randy Scheunemann, McCain responded to Senator Barack Obama's earlier speech to  the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Today's blogger call confirmed that McCain is now campaigning against Obama and that national security and foreign policy will be key issues.

Sen. Barack Obama sat down with BlogHer today to answer key policy questions developed by this community of bloggers for 2008 presidential candidates. In an exclusive on-camera interview with BlogHer, Sen. Obama (D-IL) answers questions about the economy, Iraq, health care and the environment -- including a health-care screening process for every veteran and support for their spouses and families, health insurance coverage for birth control to avoid unwanted pregnancies, and working with China and other countries on climate change, a "major problem."

For better or worse, it's probably a safe bet that with Earth Day falling on the same day as the Pennsylvania presidential primary, April 22, the candidates are a little more focused on Pa. than on Mother Earth. For today, I'll let it go.

Is global warming a political issue? Yes. Should it be? That's a subject of debate. First, the term "global warming" is itself a matter of debate. Some argue the term "climate change" is more appropriate because global cooling could also be a cause of climate change and because global warming is a politically loaded term. Scientists on both sides of the debate are opposed to the use of global warming and of it becoming the subject of political debate.

Last week, I took a look at my inner eco-gal and discovered that there's much to be done here at Chez PunditMom to make our lives a lot greener and more Earth-friendly. Next week I'll be writing about the official positions of the Presidential candidates about the environment. Taking a look at where the presidential-hopefuls stand on how to preserve our planet made me start to wonder: How green are their valleys?

Did you watch the webcast of the enviro-focused presidential candidate forum on Saturday? If so, you heard what Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Dennis Kucinich had to say about energy policy and climate change -- and perhaps decided who's going to get your enviro-conscious vote.