Why did McCain just state that the American economy is still strong?

The Dow is down almost 300 points and Lehman Brothers is filing bankruptcy. Bank of America is buying Merrill Lynch and the future prospect for the economy is dismal. People's 401k money will take a big hit. If Bush & McCain had their way, the privatization of Social Security would have caused people to have lost their SS monies as well as their 401K monies.. Can we afford this kind of short sighted solutions to our economy, and a president who won't even admit that there is a huge problem with our economy. McCain admitted that he didn't understand the issues of the economy, but reured us that he bought a book by Greenspan. But he didn't say that he read it.