We don’t subscribe to the notion, which we hear from certain quarters, that America’s very survival might well rest on the result of this presidential election.

But the condition of our economy for the next couple years sure does.

And that matters a lot to all of us.

After comparing the two candidates’ prescriptions for our ailing financial system, we’re convinced that Americans would fare better under a John McCain administration than under one led by Barack Obama.

That’s why we urge voters to cast their ballots for McCain.

The most significant difference between McCain’s and Obama’s economic platforms involves their tax plans.

McCain thinks all Americans should turn over a smaller percentage of their income to the federal government.

Obama thinks people who make less than $250,000 per year should pay a smaller percentage, but people who earn more than that should pay a larger percentage — about 3 percent more of their income, from 36 percent to 39 percent.

Politics are notorious for provoking people to embarrass themselves, but for sheer stupidity there are few acts, it seems to me, that surpass the stealing of campaign signs.

Except for the burning of campaign signs, which besides being illegal could lead to skin grafts or even death.

And yet, every time we as a nation go about picking those who will represent us — and in particular when the presidency is at stake — the papers and the TV become infested with stories about people whose campaign signs have gone missing.

Or gone up in flames.

I’m sure some of these instances can be explained as pranks — the work of vandals who are wholly ignorant of politics.

Oregonians have a good deal going with their two U.S. senators, and we’d like to see it continue.

Which is why we urge voters to give Republican Gordon Smith six more years in Washington, D.C.

Smith, along with his Democratic colleague, Ron Wyden, exemplifies the sort of thoughtful politician whom Oregonians have long preferred.

Most politicians proclaim, of course, that their allegiance rests with their constituents rather than with their political party. But Smith’s record proves  beyond any question that he’s no blind partisan.

The senator has spearheaded legislation that toughens penalties for hate crimes. He supported bills that require higher gas mileage for new vehicles and that offer incentives for companies to build renewable energy plants.

Those aren’t central planks in the Republican Party’s platform.

But then neither are Smith’s concerns about the Iraq war.

Voters can change the roster of the Baker City Council a little or a lot in the Nov. 4 election.

We recommend the latter.

Nine candidates are vying for four vacancies on the seven-member City Council.

Three of the four members of the Baker City Herald’s editorial board had half-hour interviews with eight of those candidates during the past few weeks (Bill Todd declined our invitation).

Editorial board members who attended those interviews are: Kari Borgen, the newspaper’s publisher; Jayson Jacoby, the editor; and Chris Collins, the police and schools reporter. The board’s other member, reporter Mike Ferguson, did not attend candidate interviews because he writes news stories about the City Council and so, in the interest of preserving his objectivity, he was not involved in the board’s decision about endorsing candidates.

We urge residents to give their votes to this quartet: Aletha Bonebrake, Clair Button, Jeremy Gilpin and Milo Pope.

Voters will quickly notice, we suspect, that we are not endorsing any of the three incumbents: Sam Bass, Gail Duman and Terry Schumacher.