John McCain
Sept. 15, 2008
"There's been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street and ... people are frightened by these events. Our economy, I think, 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."
—McCain, speaking at a rally in Jacksonville, Florida the day Wall Street giants Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch was taken over. After being painted as out of touch for the remarks, McCain later clarified them to say that he had simply been speaking about the men and women at the heart of the economy, not fundamental measures like inflation, growth or unemployment.
— Katie Rooney