My second day in Atlanta, and several things stand out. One, this is a city where the black middle class is very robust. When I lived in Miami 20 years ago, it was commonly held that blacks with ambition moved to Atlanta. It’s quite striking and quite inspiring, remembering as I do the days prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

I’m at the Hyatt Regency. With 1600 rooms, it could pass as a small town when it’s at capacity. And it is. The AME Zion church is holding its conference here. Microsoft has 18,000 people in town for an international gathering (my seatmate on the flight out was coming from Sydney — a 24 hour trip.) I’m here photographing yet another conference.

The other striking thing is CNN, which is headquartered not far from where I sit. I haven’t watched much of CNN in years, but you can no more avoid it than you can expect to be served Pepsi in this city. TVs are everywhere, even the Landmark Diner where I walked to last night to avoid another buffet.

As I ate my meal, I stared at a muted CNN with Lou Dobbs and a graphic that read “The War on the Middle Class.” Dobbs plays the same part as Bill O’Reilly — angry outraged smart guy. Or seemingly smart.

The War on the Middle Class. Hmm. Waged by whom? Must be those ultra-rich people who pay 40% of the taxes — 70% if you include the top 10% of wage earners. Clever people they, bringing down the middle class with such tricks as $4/cup coffee, vitamin water, widescreen TVs and $2500 barbeque grills — stuff the middle class has been scarfing up like suckers. Poor us.

The sense I got from seeing CNN — again as I ate breakfast — is that stockbrokers will be leaping from skyscrapers any moment now. Sheesh. Remember when Bush, post-election 2000 but before inauguration, was accused  by Clintonians of “talking down the economy?” He was merely pointing out the fallout of the tech bubble and the slowing economy. If that was talking down the economy, CNN is in full shout.

The market is down. One possibility is the market pricing in the cost of an Obama reign.

Investors this summer have been placing their bets on an Obama presidency, and for the most part that hasn’t been good for the market.

Without giving him a chance to explain himself in detail on the campaign trail or at the Democratic National Convention, they are voting with their shares by tossing financial, health insurance, manufacturing and high-dividend stocks into the ash can, and are growing skeptical about energy companies as well.

It’s not that major institutional investors don’t like the man — far from it. He has many backers among the financial elite, including multibillionaires George Soros and Ron Burkle. And it’s not that there aren’t many other reasons for investors to sell stocks now, as the global economy tangles with the terrible twin beasts of bank deleveraging and inflation.

It’s just that Obama’s rhetoric on taxes and health care is scaring common wealthy people with large capital gains from investments made over the past decade, and a lot of them don’t want to wait around to see whether it’s just populist fluff that might be set aside once he takes office.

Plus, the Democrats who run Congress know that a weaker economy favors their nominee — and they are loath to pass banking or trade legislation now to improve the nation’s industrial standing over fears that it could backfire and give comfort to the Republicans. And finally, there is a well-founded anxiety that one-party rule in Washington for at least the next two years will bring about the sort of abuse of power that has gotten both parties into trouble over the past few decades.