There is just over a month to go until the presidential election, and across America, attention is now firmly fixed on the state of our economy. In key swing states, economic issues are now front and center. Many voters, including many women, who often take responsibility for managing their family finances, are wondering which candidate offers the best policies for their family, their town or city, and their state. But in my state, the way that each woman decides to vote could prove especially critical and indeed determinative.

Close your eyes. Relax. Take a deep breath in. Hold it. Now, let it out. Om. There, I just wanted to try to create a small moment of zen before I started talking about our economic mess. The one that has apparently caused my blood pressure to spike this week.

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.

Are High Gas Prices Affecting Your Health and Wellness? With gas prices going up and up, many people are facing difficult choices when it comes to their health. From not being able to afford their medications, to buying less expensive (usually unhealthy) foods at the supermarket...They are being forced to make financial decisions that may be bad for their health. Last year I did a post about how a major medical crisis (such as cancer) could force a person to choose between lifesaving medications, and paying their mortgage.

Dieting and frugality are a lot alike. After all, when we diet, we eat less and when we live frugally, we live with less. With both, we abstain, we hold back, we do without, we make do. So they are alike, two peas, yes, in that pod called life. Right? Wrong?

The election is only five months away; the economy is threatening to collapse any minute. It's currently about as stable as that chick George Clooney just dumped, and has the long-term reliability of a pair of $300 gladiator sandals. In other words, we're in trouble. So exactly which one of the current Presidential candidates is the man who will rescue us from certain doom? I sat down (in pajamas, on the phone, with a few other bloggers) with Frank Donatelli, deputy chairman of the McCain 2008 campaign, to hear why he thinks his candidate has the upper hand on economic policy.

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."

Here at BlogHer we have looked at how the leading presidential candidates promise to address issues of interest to the community based on the Voter Manifesto. And while it is important to do so, the economy is tanking now and people are hurting now and nothing any candidate promises to attempt to do a year from now will put money in your bank account, gas in your car, pay your mortgage or put food on your table. Therefore, let's take a look at what the government is doing right now to help struggling Americans out.

I'd like to interrupt this presidential contest's regularly scheduled mudslinging with your policy questions about the economy: BlogHer Voter Manifesto