If John McCain wants my vote he must dump Sarah Palin and fast. Judging by the latest polls showing Barack Obama moving ahead and gaining traction, I'm not the only one that feels this way. The outcome of the election is key to investors worried about a range of issues including the $700 billion federal bailout of Wall Street.

Obama may lack the experience I would hope to see in a presidential candidate but to quote a friend and fellow McCain supporter "Sarah Palin is an idiot and the only way she should be allowed in the White House is if she buys a tour ticket." This is not a unique sentiment given the Sarah Palin must go stance taken by conservative columnist Kathleen Parker of the Los Angeles Times. She says her cringe reflex is being exhausted.

I do not like Obama's proposals on capital gains taxes, a windfall oil profits tax, new government programs and several other issues, but the idea of Palin being second-in-command is a joke. And speaking of jokes, if I have misjudged, and McCain and Palin win the election, then Oprah will be surpassed as the wealthiest female in the entertainment industry. The new titan will be 30 Rock and former Saturday Night Live star Tina Fey who will be racking up fat paychecks based on the never ending material supplied by Palin.

U.S. stock futures were higher Tuesday morning, pointing to a continuation of Monday's strong rally, albeit with more moderate gains, as the government takes over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Investors will eye data on pending home sales and wholesale trade due at 10:00 a.m. today, and will also be interested in the OPEC meeting as oil resumed its decline.

Meanwhile, British natural gas producer BG Group PLC abandoned its hostile takeover bid for Origin Energy Ltd., Australia's second-largest power retailer, on Monday, after Origin announced a $7.9 billion coal seam liquefied natural gas joint venture with ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP).

In what seems to be appropriate on a day housing data is on tap, Credit Suisse downgraded four U.S. homebuilders -- Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL), Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM), D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) and KB Home (NYSE: KBH) -- to Neutral from Outperform due to lower traffic and valuation. The broker also said home prices need to fall 9% further and credit availability must improve to spur sales and restore affordability.

Stock futures jumped higher, signaling a stock markets could have a significant rally when they open this morning Monday morning. Investors were relieved the government bailed out Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE), taking over the mortgage financiers giants, perhaps triggering a bottom of the credit crisis as trillions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities won't default now.

Still, Merrill Lynch analysts said Monday they believe it's still too early for investors to be overweight in financial stocks. Instead, rallies in the sector should still be used as opportunities to sell, Merrill said. The Fannie/Freddie bailout is solution to a one-off problem rather than solution of a systemic problem, it added. Indeed, it was only Friday that regulators shut down the 11th bank this year, Silver State Bank. There is no pre-market trading on FNM and FRE stocks. Analyst calls at the end.

Meanwhile, adding to positive sentiment, Altria (NYSE: MO) closed the deal talked about Friday to buy smokeless tobacco maker UST (NYSE: UST) for $11.7 billion, including the assumption of $1.3 billion in assumed debt. That's $69.50 per share in cash, which is a 29% premium to its three-month average stock price. Altria expects the acquisition to increase adjusted diluted earnings per share within twelve months of closing. Altria stock is trading 1.3% higher in pre-market trading.

And another deal is in the works as ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) has agreed to pay up to $8 billion for a half-share in the coal seam gas assets of Australia's Origin Energy Ltd. Origin will handle the coal seam gas production while ConocoPhillips will operate the downstream refinery.

This charming pic-toon of moderation comes from one of my talented long time friends, Ron Overmyer, who has allowed me to share it with our readers. He does a weekly email blast and this is one of his tamer commentaries, one that might give us pause to consider what it means to be objective.

I thought I would take a moment to shout out to any moderates in the audience and say that I too have worried that some of my colleagues may have sacrificed their reputations for objectivity by writing some posts that could be viewed as borderline paid political announcements. Some readers have quipped that this should be included in the disclosure. However, on the occasion that this is true, it is usually so blatant that I would characterize such disclosure as redundant.

Several of my posts contain political commentary but I think our posts should be about investing, not swaying voter opinion. I especially avoid one-sided rationalizations that appear to have a specific agenda -- although I readily admit that on occasion the dividing line may be very fine indeed.

I still have not made up my mind about the upcoming election because I find some merit in the positions of each candidate. But to me the real question on our site remains: where do you put your money in the case of either candidate's success?

No one wants to own a gas station; the margins are too small. Consumers will only pay so much for petrol. If the price moves up, people begin to ride bicycles.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) will sell the last 600 stations it owns, walking away from a business that Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) left just a few months ago. According to The Wall Street Journal, "ConocoPhillips is expected to sell the remainder of its 600 company-owned gasoline stations to closely held PetroSun West LLC for $800 million."

The announcement says a great deal about the perverse economics of the oil business. Due to the recent rise in oil prices, pumping oil out of the ground is an excellent business. The profits on $120 crude are stupendous. But the refining industry is awful. Trying to make margins on the gas and diesel from that high-priced oil is extremely difficult. Demand gets hammered by the consumer's inability to absorb the huge increase in fuel prices.

The question, of course, is why any company would get into the business. That says a great deal about the big oil company strategy of dumping stations. Either the people buying them are fools, or the profits in the sector will come back as gas prices drop. If so, Big Oil will look silly.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

U.S. stock futures were lower this morning on fear Tropical Storm Gustav's path may pose a threat to refinery activity along the Gulf of Mexico coastline and some would have to shut down. Indeed, oil prices rose to above $117 a barrel Wednesday. Also in focus today is the upcoming durable goods order to be reported before the opening bell. Meanwhile, the FDIC is considering borrowing funds from the Treasury, amid an expected wave of bank failures. Nine banks have failed so far this year, and the number of troubled U.S. banks rose 30% to 117 in the second quarter.
[Update: Futures turned positive after durable goods unexpectedly gained.]

Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE), which stocks jumped big Tuesday, both had several ratings cut by Standard & Poor's. Still, both stocks seem to continue their climb in premarket with Fannie shares up 7.5% and Freddie's up 10%. At least two analysts, from Citigroup and Goldman said Tuesday the situation isn't as bad as it may seem.

From financials to toys: A federal jury awarded Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) $100 million in damages on Tuesday in a federal copyright lawsuit against MGA Entertainment Inc., the maker of the saucy Bratz dolls.

Moving to pharmaceuticals, Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) and Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) shares are down 10% and 1% respectively in premarket trading after four more patients taking their Byetta diabetes medication have died. Baird downgraded Amylin from Buy to Neutral and cut its price target from $37 to $27. Soleil downgraded AMLN from Hold to Sell.

If Barack Obama is receiving advice from "my pal Warren" then he must not be listening. There is no way that Warren Buffett, the national debt hawk, would support Obama's stupid idea of giving another $1,000 back to every family in America. It is reported that he would pay for this by creating a windfall profit tax on oil companies.

This give-away program is an attempt to buy votes plain and simple. It would add to the national debt, discourage oil companies from investing and worse it would handicap American companies more than others and mortgage more of our children's futures.

The last thing the people of the United States need is more deficit spending. If we did tax oil companies, which I am against, I would only support using the funds for expanding education, research and development in science and engineering with the goal of maintaining our waning leadership in technology.

In the News:
3 Blue Chip Stocks to Watch
After nearly a decade, these growth stocks are finally showing some signs of life. They include Wal-Mart, ConocoPhillips and Burlington Northern.
Blue chips: A growth spurt - CNNmoney

The One Stock to Buy Now
We asked eight up-and-coming and top mutual fund managers what one stock they would buy now. Some of their recommendations are household names. Others might surprise you. They include Nike, Cisco, ExxonMobil, Noble Corp., Canon, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Nalco Holding Co and Cognizant.
The One Stock They Would Buy - Kiplinger

Stock futures were higher this morning, indicating stocks could have a positive start to the session as oil prices continued to decline, sinking below $127 a barrel. Weekly inventories numbers reported later today could have an impact on oil prices. Then there is continued optimism in the financial sector, which caused the rally Tuesday. Also, a bill aimed at helping the housing market will reach the House floor. But once again earnings will likely have investors' attention with Costco already giving a profit warning.

Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) shares are plunging over 8% in premarket trading after the wholesale retailer warned its August-ending quarter's profit would miss analyst estimates. This is most surprising as Costco had been one of the retailer that seemed to have benefited from consumers trying to save and buy lower-cost items. But Costco blamed the lower profit on rising energy costs, saying it will earn less than $1 per share.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says both oil futures and equity futures can move these hot issues.

Will the futures pull down the oil and gas stocks today? No, I don't mean the oil futures, I mean the equity futur

Last week when oil exploded, we caught two days of trading that dropped the stocks hard. We caught a bit of a bid in the nat gases like Chesapeake (NYSE:CHK) and Devon (NYSE:DVN) but at the end of the day, but the stocks were truly overwhelmed by the simple fact that they are in the indices.

This pattern has really held down the integrateds: last week Conoco (NYSE:COP) should have exploded, but it couldn't because it is such a big part of the S&P. Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon (NYSE: XOM) are no different.

The natural gas stocks are not as big a factor, but they can be rocked down without a problem.

I am not saying to avoid looking at the oil futures. They can control the stocks. I am saying that the equity futures tide can take down anything, even when the oil futures spike hard.

Leading advisor Jack Adamo, editor of Insiders Plus, reports that a Goldman Sachs analyst has chosen one of the stocks on his newsletter's buy list -- ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) -- as his top pick in the energy sector.

"There was an extremely interesting piece recently in Barron's by the oil analyst at Goldman Sachs who predicted $100 oil back in late 2004. We'd been buying energy stocks for almost a year at that point, but, although I expected oil prices to rise, I had no idea they'd go this high.

"In any case, the analyst, whose name is Arjun Murti, said he expects oil to reach $150 to $200 sometime within the next 24 months. The low end of that range is only a Middle East incident away, but the high end still seems like a reach, especially given weakening economic conditions.

With the economy facing soaring crude oil prices for the past year, consumers and drivers have seen a major impact on their savings. It could seem as though the good old times are over. Gasoline at $4 a gallon is not something we can ignore, and if we take into account that Americans consume nearly 40% of the world's gasoline, you can see where the problems begin. So the surge in oil prices came with an imminent effect on consumers, who had to cut back on their spending.

But since we are already in this unpleasant situation, Kiplinger offers some solutions to help investors fight against high oil prices. Kiplinger underlines in this article that one smart move would be to minimize the cost of driving by making some good energy-related investments.

Gerry Jordan, manager of Jordan Opportunity, recommends investors invest in oil companies such as Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) and Weatherford International (NYSE: WFT), citing strong international business. In addition, Jordan believes that higher crude prices will increase drilling demand. On the other hand, Jordan also loves power companies like Calpine Corp. (NYSE: CPN) and Reliant Energy Inc. (NYSE: RRI) as he anticipates huge power outages across the globe during this year.

Gather around the campfire and let me tell you such scary stories Jason's mask would fail to impress you after that.

Of course, the theme that runs in the background of these scary stories is the state of the economy in the U.S., from the housing slump, inflation and soft labor markets to weak dollar, excessive government spending and increasing national debt load and trade gap.

1. Exxon Mobil and Oil

So scariest of all stories is oil. With prices reaching new records nearly daily, gas prices have also zoomed higher, crossing the $4 a gallon mark. Why, then, is Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) exiting the retail gas business. To be sure, BP (NYSE: BP) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) have either indicated taking such measures or have taken them already. Apparently, gas prices haven't been rising fast enough to keep pace, causing margins to narrow and for cents-earned-per-gallon to be dismal.

One would then think it's a good move by Exxon and the other oil giants to get out of the retail gas business, but I have questions. First, it's alarming that companies with revenues in the hundreds of billions of dollar look for ways to make even more money (even if YTD XOM is down 6.4%). Second, and most important, what could it mean for the consumer? As Doug McIntyre suggested, would the price of gas at the pump increase even more after the sale to private owners than when it was sold under Exxon? Scary indeed.

This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

Standard Oil (1870 - 1911) was the dominant oil company in the world until it was felled by the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. John D. Rockefeller was a business genius of the first order. He used his control over train routes and refineries to buy up oil wells and block competitors from taking market share.

Thanks to journalist Ida Tarbell, Rockefeller's rough business tactics got plenty of publicity. In 1911, the Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil had violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act through its tactics of using low prices to wipe out competitors. The result, as chronicled in one of my favorite books, Ron Chernow's Titan, was a breakup of the company into what is now Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP).

The lesson: What didn't kill Standard Oil made its offspring stronger.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Let us know in the comments what you miss about Standard Oil. And be sure to check out other Companies That Have Vanished.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) closed at $92.17 Friday, shares near record on $137 oil.

WTI crude oil futures are recently down 1.08% to $137.04 according to Bloomberg.

COP overall option implied volatility of 34 is above its 26-week average of 32 according to Track Data, suggesting slightly larger movement.

Volatility Index S&P 500 Options-VIX at 23.55; 10-day moving average is 19.72

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