Obama Has 6 Point Lead

Gallup is here.

God Prefers Atheists

Some Political Cartoons

Obama Still Riding This Wave

From FiveThirtyEight.com:

When the Democrat is polling even with the Republican in states like North Carolina, and polling 7-8 points ahead of them in a state like Pennsylvania, that means the Republican is in a lot of trouble. While there are isolated results in this batch of polling that seem decent for John McCain -- he may have closed the gap in Colorado a bit -- several of these polls have Obama at or near the highest numbers he's been at all year. Likewise with the national trackers.

Gallup still has Obama leading McCain 50-42%. Same as yesterday.

McCain and the Infamous Earmarks of Doom

Eric Martin examines the very small piece of the federal budget known as "Earmarks" and McCain's obsession with them.

For Your Consideration

From the NYTimes regarding the upcoming VP debate and expectations about Palin's performance:

Several Republicans said that all of this could ultimately play to Ms. Palin’s benefit, lowering expectations for her so much that a mediocre performance in the debate could be hailed as a success.

“Thanks to the mainstream media, quite a low expectation has been created for her performance,” said Ron Carey, chairman of Minnesota’s Republican Party. “The style of Sarah Palin is going to amaze people. She is going to be able to amaze people with the substance she is going to deliver.”

So the expectations are going to be SO LOW that we will be "amazed" by her mediocre performance? That is a troubling logic chain for me.

Gallup: 50-42

Full poll results here.

Real Clear Politics Poll

Visit them here.

Yikes

CBS:

Sarah Palin told a customer at a Philadelphia restaurant on Saturday that the United States should “absolutely” launch cross-border attacks from Afghanistan into Pakistan in the event that it becomes necessary to “stop the terrorists from coming any further in,” a comment similar to the one John McCain condemned Barack Obama for making during last night’s presidential debate.

80.5%

Dowd Responds to the Debates

"When Obama took quiet umbrage at McCain’s attack about troop-funding, he could have pounded the lectern and said with real anger: “John, I am sick and tired of you suggesting that I would take funds away from our brave soldiers. I no more voted for that than you did when you voted against our funding proposals that would have imposed a timetable. And unlike you, I did not vote against funding increases for the troops that have come home with devastating physical and mental injuries.”

And who cares what Henry Kissinger thinks? He was wrong 35 years ago, and it’s only gotten worse since then."

Full column here.

Campaign Suspension?

Frank Rich examines the "suspension," which, by now, has been roundly unmasked as a political gimmick.

Yet even as he huffed and puffed about being a “leader,” McCain took no action and felt no urgency. As his Congressional colleagues worked tirelessly in Washington, he malingered in New York. He checked out the suffering on Main Street (or perhaps High Street) by conferring with Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, the Hillary-turned-McCain supporter best known for her fabulous London digs and her diatribes against Obama’s elitism. McCain also found time to have a well-publicized chat with one of those celebrities he so disdains, Bono, and to give a self-promoting public speech at the Clinton Global Initiative.

There was no suspension of his campaign. His surrogates and ads remained on television. Huffington Post bloggers, working the phones, couldn’t find a single McCain campaign office that had gone on hiatus. This “suspension” ruse was an exact replay of McCain’s self-righteous “suspension” of the G.O.P. convention as Hurricane Gustav arrived on Labor Day. “We will put aside our political hats and put on our American hats,” he declared then, solemnly pledging that conventioneers would help those in need. But as anyone in the Twin Cities could see, the assembled put on their party hats instead, piling into the lobbyists’ bacchanals earlier than scheduled, albeit on the down-low.

Much of the press paid lip service to McCain’s new “suspension” as it had to its prototype. In truth, the only campaign activity McCain did drop was a Wednesday evening taping with David Letterman. Don’t mess with Dave. Picking up where the “The View” left off in speaking truth to power, the uncharacteristically furious host hammered the absent McCain on and off for 40 minutes, repeatedly observing that the cancellation “didn’t smell right.”

In a journalistic coup de grâce worthy of “60 Minutes,” Letterman went on to unmask his no-show guest as a liar. McCain had phoned himself that afternoon to say he was “getting on a plane immediately” to deal with the grave situation in Washington, Letterman told the audience. Then he showed video of McCain being touched up by a makeup artist while awaiting an interview by Couric that same evening at another CBS studio in New York.

Rick Davis and Freddie Mac

This story is not going away. It was buried under the chaos of the past few days, but now that the first debate is over and there appears to be an agreement on the Bailout, it's back.
From Newsweek:

Last week, though, McCain's trust in Davis was tested again amid disclosures that Freddie Mac, the troubled mortgage giant that was recently placed under federal conservatorship, paid his campaign manager's firm $15,000 a month between 2006 and August 2008. As the mortgage crisis has escalated, almost any association with Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae has become politically toxic. But the payments to Davis's firm, Davis Manafort, are especially problematic because he requested the consulting retainer in 2006—and then did barely any work for the fees, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement who asked not to be identified discussing Freddie Mac business. Aside from attending a few breakfasts and a political-action-committee meeting with Democratic strategist Paul Begala (another Freddie consultant), Davis did "zero" for the housing firm, one of the sources said. Freddie Mac also had no dealings with the lobbying firm beyond paying monthly invoices—but it agreed to the arrangement because of Davis's close relationship with McCain, the source said, which led top executives to conclude "you couldn't say no."

hilzoy responds:

Here's a question: did Rick Davis tell John McCain about his arrangement with Freddie Mac before last week? If not, then I would expect Davis to be fired within days: you just don't keep information like that from your boss and expect to keep your job. But if Davis did tell McCain, then when McCain approved his ad slamming Obama for supposedly having an advisor who had been the chairman of Fannie Mae -- though both he and the Obama campaign deny that he advised them, and his connection to Obama would have been tenuous in any case -- McCain knew that his own campaign manager had been retained by Freddie Mac until it was taken over by the government. That would be dishonorable, though not, unfortunately, surprising.

Where Indeed...

From TIME:

In the month or so since then she has been in lockdown, either lashed to McCain's side to boost the size of his crowds, or hunkered down in debate prep and remedial candidate school. No press conferences, few interviews, no questions allowed from the reporters traveling with her, no appearances on The View to stare down Joy Behar. Rather than playing to her strengths as a fresh face in an unendurably long campaign, they hid her away in a kind of conspicuous vote of no-confidence — which, one can only imagine, took a toll on her.

The VP Debate Should Be Interesting...

James Fallows on Palin:

I am not aware of any other current figure in national politics -- by which I mean any member of the Senate or House -- who would do a worse job under questioning. There could be some I don't know about. But they're not on a national ticket.

Reason and Voting: Mutually Exclusive?

A very interesting piece on psychology, reason, and how we make decisions - including who we vote for.
A few quotes:

"People who lack the knowledge or wisdom to perform well are often unaware of this fact. That is, the same incompetence that leads them to make wrong choices also deprives them of the savvy necessary to recognize competence, be it their own or anyone else's."

Feelings of absolute certainty and utter conviction are not rational deliberate conclusions; they are involuntary mental sensations generated by the brain. Like other powerful mental states such as love, anger and fear, they are extraordinarily difficult to dislodge through rational arguments. Just as it's nearly impossible to reason with someone who's enraged and combative, refuting or diminishing one's sense of certainty is extraordinarily difficult. Certainty is neither created by nor dispelled by reason.

In other words, we are as bad at judging ourselves as we are at judging others. Most cognitive scientists now believe that the majority of our thoughts originate in the areas of the brain inaccessible to conscious introspection. These beginnings of thoughts arrive in consciousness already colored with inherent bias. No two people see the world alike. Each of our perceptions is filtered through our genetic predispositions, inherent biologic differences and idiosyncratic life experiences. Your red is not my red. These differences extend to the very building blocks of thoughts; each of us will look at any given question from his own predispositions. Thinking may be as idiosyncratic as fingerprints.

So I want a president aware of how his mind works, as well as what he suspects are his inborn biases and intellectual limitations. Ironically, the acknowledgment of intellectual limitations may be the best evidence for superior decision-making skills. Contrary to George Bush's belief, we do not want certainty in the White House. We want flexibility and an acknowledgment that certainty is often a sign of ignorance.

Palin Pulled? Part II

From Newsweek:

Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, "to spend more time with her family"?

Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be vice president. She is a feisty, charismatic politician who has done some good things in Alaska. But she has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start. The next administration is going to face a set of challenges unlike any in recent memory. There is an ongoing military operation in Iraq that still costs $10 billion a month, a war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan that is not going well and is not easily fixed. Iran, Russia and Venezuela present tough strategic challenges.

Rainy Day Musing

I was walking back from downtown this afternoon and passed a house that had a sign in the door that read: "Sarah Palin Does Not Speak for Me!!!!"
My first thought, considering how little exposure to the media she's had was, "Gee, she doesn't seem to me speaking for anyone..."

Okay, I Guess I Was WAY Off

It seems most polls suggest that Obama was the clear winner in last night's debate.
Here's Nate from FiveThirtyEight:

Specifically, by a 62-32 margin, voters thought that Obama was “more in touch with the needs and problems of people like you”. This is a gap that has no doubt grown because of the financial crisis of recent days. But it also grew because Obama was actually speaking to middle class voters.
These internals are worse for McCain than the topline results, because they suggest not only that McCain missed one of his few remaining opportunities to close the gap with Barack Obama, but also that he has few places to go. The only category in which McCain rated significantly higher than Obama was on “spent more time attacking his opponent”. McCain won that one by 37 points.

Larison:

Aside from the reliable yes-men at NRO and some of the other large conservative blogs, I am having a hard time finding anyone who thought that McCain did better than stay even with Obama tonight. The idea that McCain won the debate seems not to have crossed the minds of anyone not already deeply committed to stopping Obama, which suggests that McCain’s performance was worse than it might at first appear.

Ross:

If these numbers show up in wider polling, it seems like awfully bad news for McCain. If he can't get a bump from last night's showing, which struck me as a pretty strong, I think it's going to be awfully difficult for him to get a bump of any sort across the run of debates. It's hard to envision him turning in a vastly better performance where the focus is explicitly on domestic policy (if you thought we heard a little too much about earmarks last night, just you wait ...), and of course there's the looming Palin-Biden fiasco for his campaign to weather as well. If undecided voters didn't like what they saw from McCain last night, I don't know what, exactly, his campaign can do - given his range and limitations as a politician, and the obvious weakness of his running mate - to win them over going forward.

CNN:

Fifty-one percent of those polled thought Obama did the better job in Friday night's debate, while 38 percent said John McCain did better.

Men were nearly evenly split between the two candidates, with 46 percent giving the win to McCain and 43 percent to Obama. But women voters tended to give Obama higher marks, with 59 percent calling him the night's winner, while just 31 percent said McCain won.

Halperin (Time Mag):

Obama - Overall: Went for a solid, consistent performance to introduce himself to the country… Two more performances like that and he will be very tough to beat on Election Day.
McCain - Overall: Failed to deliver his “country first versus Obama first” message cleanly, even when offered several opportunities.

Mark Penn:

In the end, Barack Obama seemed far more like Bill Clinton building a bridge to the future, and John McCain was Bob Dole, opening a window to the past. Round one decisively went to Barack Obama.

I'm Going to Sleep On It, But...

On the face of it, I think McCain, while clearly irritated and dismissive of Obama, came across zippier and unloaded a lot of proper nouns. Obama was more pointed than in previous debates but seemed to let McCain get away with some obvious misrepresentations.
Will undecideds be drawn to McCain's agitated demeanor and consistent references to Obama's naivete, or will they find it repellent?
They both got some cheap shots in, and played to their bases, and I have a feeling McCain will get good feedback from his performance.

This Caricature Gives Me the Giggles

Passport Prima Donnas

I couldn't agree more with Larison's take on Palin's passport response.

I resent the reverse classism that Palin uses to justify her lack of experience in traveling abroad, as if only the children of the wealthy go to other countries in their youth. Yes, those of us who have been privileged to come from families that could afford for us to travel overseas several times before the age of 43 are fortunate, but if she has spent so much time with book-learning about the rest of the world why is it that she doesn’t seem to know anything? It should not necessarily be a problem that she has not traveled abroad, provided that she does know something about international affairs, but she manages to combine a lack of personal experience with a lack of knowledge about other countries.

Her answer in response to Couric’s question on Hamas and democracy in the Near East was simply pathetic. There is no other way to put it.

Debate Expectations

Ezra Klein:

McCain was the guy who'd been doing this for 30 years. The guy you could trust and count on and predict. Over the past few weeks, he's proven himself so erratic and risk-prone that if he can simply modulate his tone and refrain from accidentally asking Lehrer for a fourth-quarter time out or a third lifeline, the audience will be comforted. The expectations are low, and in some ways, that's a victory. But on another level, it's an incredibly damning judgment, and evidence of how far McCain has fallen.

More Interview Fallout

From Hertzberg at the New Yorker:

This seems to be a case of incoherence of thought leading to incoherence of syntax. Pronouns wander in search of antecedents like Arctic explorers in a blinding snowstorm. Homophones confuse the transcriber. For example, one of the Governor’s answers could as sensibly, or insensibly, be rendered as

PALIN: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries. They’re in the state that I am the executive of. And they’re…

In the “Putin rears his head” answer, jagged shards of the hasty briefings lately stuffed into Palin’s pretty head clang tinnily against one another. “We send those”—those? those what?—”out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this powerful nation, Russia.” Those what? We send what? My hunch is that this alarming jumble must have something to do with the path that Russian intercontinental missiles would take on their way to the lower Forty-eight and/or the air-defense installations that NORAD maintains in the state Palin is executive of. But who knows? The whole thing reads like something rendered from the Finnish by Google Translate.

For a seventy-two-year-old cancer survivor to have placed this person directly behind himself in line for the Presidency was an act of almost incomprehensible cynicism and irresponsibility. It makes a cruel—what’s the word?—mockery of his slogan. “Country First” indeed.

Palin Pulled?

Kathleen Park from National Review decides it would be best if Palin withdrew from the ticket:

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

Who is naive?

From the latest interview:

Ms. Couric asked her questions firmly but gently, careful not to seem flippant or condescending. But she ended on a “gotcha” moment. After Ms. Palin attacked Senator Barack Obama for saying he would meet with leaders of Syria and Iran without preconditions, Ms. Couric reminded the governor that she recently met with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who supports direct diplomacy with both countries. “Are you saying Henry Kissinger is naïve?” Ms. Couric asked. Ms. Palin replied, “I’ve never heard Henry Kissinger say, ‘Yeah, I’ll meet with these leaders without preconditions being met.’ ”

After the interview, Ms. Couric faced the camera and added a postscript. “Incidentally, we confirmed Henry Kissinger’s position following our interview,” she said, explaining that Mr. Kissinger supports talks “without preconditions.”

Absense of Leadership Part III

Krugman:

This has to be a bipartisan plan, and not just at the leadership level. Democrats won’t pass the plan without votes from rank-and-file Republicans — and as of Thursday night, those rank-and-file Republicans were balking.

Furthermore, one non-rank-and-file Republican, Senator John McCain, is apparently playing spoiler. Earlier this week, while refusing to say whether he supported the Paulson plan, he claimed not to have had a chance to read it; the plan is all of three pages long. Then he inserted himself into the delicate negotiations over the Congressional plan, insisting on a White House meeting at which he reportedly said little — but during which consensus collapsed.

The bottom line, then, is that there do seem to be some adults in Congress, ready to do something to help us get through this crisis. But the adults are not yet in charge.

Absence of Leadership Part II

David Kurtz notes that McCain had spoken to the House Republicans before they staged their revolt, and that a number of them reported that he seemed sympathetic to their ideas. McCain's campaign, however, issued a statement saying that he "did not attack any proposal, or endorse any plan."

That's what I call real leadership: parachute in after other people have been in complicated negotiations for days, trailing the entire national press corps behind you, on the grounds that you are urgently needed, in person -- and then undermine the deal behind the scenes without being willing to publicly take any position at all.

Obama Still Moving Ahead

Fivethirtyeight has Obama winning 270 electoral votes 72.4% of the time:

"For each of the past six days, our daily point estimate -- formed from making inferences based on all the national and state polls that are released on a given day -- have shown Barack Obama with a national lead of between 2 and 3 points."

Is $700B Gonna Cover It?

From the WSJ:

In a research note Thursday, Goldman Sachs estimated that there are probably about $1.15 trillion in distressed assets in the market.

That number is higher than the figure proposed by the Treasury, but it represents the face value of the mortgages. Since the discussion focuses on delinquent or foreclosed loans, the government should be getting a discount. Paying as high as 70 cents on the dollar would translate into $1 trillion in buying power for $700 billion.

However, Goldman noted that its numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. “They could either be too optimistic or too pessimistic. On the one hand, further home price declines would likely result in a further increase in the amount of troubled assets. On the other hand, more than half of all delinquent (residential) mortgages are less than 60 days past due. Only some of these are ultimately likely to default,” the economists said.

Price Discovery

Krugman is not happy with the way this bailout is getting worked out:

"My sneaking suspicion is that they started with a determination to throw money at the financial industry, and everything else is just an excuse."

"The whole premise of the bailout push has been “We’re the grownups, we know what we’re doing, just trust us.” Sorry, but that’s how Colin Powell sold the Iraq war. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice … you shouldn’t get fooled."

"No more taking this administration on faith — and Paulson’s performance over the last few days has made it clear that yes, he is a Bush administration official, with the trademark inability to take responsibility for his own actions. Explain what you’re doing and why — or get out of the way, and let Chris Dodd and Barney Frank write the plan."

Fed Seizes Washington Mutual

Boom
Boom
Boom
And another one bites the dust...

Washington Mutual, the giant lender that came to symbolize the excesses of the mortgage boom, was seized by federal regulators on Thursday night, in what is by far the largest bank failure in American history.

Bailout Buildup

Just when it appeared the bill would pass, there comes word of a new, competing proposal from the Republicans and, possibly, McCain.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Negotiations toward a massive bailout for Wall Street fell into disarray on Thursday night after Democrats complained about an entirely new Republican plan, with lawmakers offering conflicting reports on presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's position.

Senior U.S. Democrats said they learned in an afternoon White House meeting that McCain is backing the new plan, which differs markedly from one that has been under discussion.

Speaking to reporters elsewhere in the Capitol, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd complained that up until Thursday's White House meeting, no Republicans brought up an alternative plan for the Wall Street bailout, including during meetings and Senate hearings.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was "a little stunned" when he heard talk at the White House about a completely new plan drawn up by House Republicans.

Absence of Leadership

From the NY Times:

It took President Bush until Wednesday night to address the American people about the nation’s financial crisis, and pretty much all he had to offer was fear itself.

He promised to protect taxpayers with his proposed bailout, but he did not explain how he would do that other than a superficial assurance that in sweeping up troubled assets, government would buy low and sell high. And he warned that “our entire economy is in danger” unless Congress passes his bailout plan immediately.

In the end, Mr. Bush’s appearance was just another reminder of something that has been worrying us throughout this crisis: the absence of any real national leadership, including on the campaign trail.

Mocking? Why Would She Ever Think That?

Sullivan says it best:

All you can say is: unbelievable. Except it's true. She is the vice-presidential candidate of a national political party. Seriously:

Watch CBS Videos Online

BREAKING NEWS: Palin Answers Press Question!

Although Larison thinks maybe it would be better is she hadn't.

POLITICO: Do you think our presence in Iraq and [Afghanistan] and our continued presence there is inflaming Islamic extremists?

A: I think our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan will lead to further security of our nation, again, because the mission is to take the fight over there. Do not let them come over here and attempt again what they accomplished here, and that was some destruction, terrible destruction on that day. But since September 11, Americans uniting and rebuilding and committing to never letting that happen again.

Davis and Freddie Mac

From The American Conservative. This is shaping up to be a huge deal. In her interview with Couric, Palin was noticeably uncomfortable answering the question about a possible conflict of interest in Davis' relationship with the mortgage giant.

Up until now, the lobbying connections among McCain’s inner circle had amounted to a sidebar story, fodder for Obama supporters, good government geeks and lefty rags like Mother Jones. But bless ‘em, they were onto something.

Senator John McCain had told the Times on Saturday, September 21, that Rick Davis, the CEO of McCain 2008, had not been associated with Freddie Mac for several years. The revelation that McCain was wrong has proven to be a major gaffe.

Up until its seizure, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (colloquially known as Freddie Mac) had been paying Rick Davis’ lobbying firm, Davis, Manafort & Freedman, $15,000 per month. According to two anonymous sources quoted by the Times, the payments were made to retain Davis as a lobbyist, and specifically, to gain access to John McCain.

Interesting Perspective on Troopergate

From Donald Craig Mitchell, an attorney in Anchorage.

So how did Attorney General Colberg, the chief law enforcement officer of the State of Alaska, respond to the subpoenas?

In a letter to Hollis French dated September 16 Talis first noted that the state employees who had been subpoenaed (who he characterized as his “clients”) were in an “untenable position” because “the Governor [i.e., Sarah Palin] has so strongly stated that the subpoenas issued by your committee are of questionable validity.” He then asked Hollis to withdraw the subpoenas and thereby “relieve” his “clients” from "the circumstance of having to choose where their loyalties lie.” He then concluded by announcing that if the subpoenas were not withdrawn “our clients will not appear in response to the subpoenas until either the Alaska Senate or the full Alaska Legislature convenes to issue a resolution requiring their presence before the appropriate legislative committee.”

In the puffery that has morphed into outright lying about Sarah Palin’s qualifications to be the Vice President of the United States even the McCain campaign has not suggested that Alaska’s governor-girl is an attorney. So what qualifications does an ersatz hockey mom and former small town mayor bring to the task of evaluating the legal validity of subpoenas that have been issued by a committee of the Alaska Legislature?

Pity-Inducing

Greenwald:

But Sarah Palin's performance in the tiny vignettes of unscripted dialogue in which we've been allowed to see her has been nothing short of frightening -- really, as I said, pity-inducing. And I say that as someone who has thought from the start that the criticisms of her abilities -- as opposed to her ideology -- were much too extreme. One of two things is absolutely clear at this point: she is either (a) completely ignorant about the most basic political issues -- a vacant, ill-informed, incurious know-nothing, or (b) aggressively concealing her actual beliefs about these matters because she's petrified of deviating from the simple-minded campaign talking points she's been fed and/or because her actual beliefs are so politically unpalatable, even when taking into account the right-wing extremism that is permitted, even rewarded, in our mainstream. I'm not really sure which is worse, but it doesn't really matter, because with 40 days left before the election, both options are heinous.

Staggered

I am amazed that anyone can claim she is fit to be VP.

The Maestra Has Spoken

Palin assesses the US economy.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said the U.S. may end up in a depression unless a solution is found to the current economic crisis.

Debating Alone on Friday Night?

Reuters:

"What I'm planning to do now is debate on Friday," Obama said from the hotel where he has been preparing for the debate.

"It's my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess," he said. "I think that it is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once."

"What is important is that we don't suddenly infuse Capitol Hill with presidential politics."

Who Said Anything About "Elite Institutions"??

Voice of America:

Analysts said the McCain campaign has sought to bolster Palin's image through the quick succession of meetings with the foreign leaders. A Republican Congresswoman from Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn, defended Palin's reticence to speak to the press. She told Fox News that she believes the Alaska governor has a better handle on international affairs than she is given credit for.

"I know that she keeps up with things and frankly I don't think it's necessary to study at an elite institution to understand some of the workings of the world," said Marsha Blackburn.

Now That's Reform We Can Believe In!

The Republican vice presidential nominee told "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric yesterday that Sen. John McCain would take the lead in reforming Wall Street -- or "we're going to find ourselves in another Great Depression." But Palin seemed stumped when pressed to cite examples of McCain trying to reform the banking industry, beyond urging greater restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "I'll try to find some and I'll bring them to you," Palin said.

McCain Returns to Washington

Marshall:

"Bringing the presidential candidates and their press entourages back to Capitol Hill won't speed or improve the process of coming up with a good bailout deal. It will politicize it. That's so transparently obvious that it barely requires stating. And of course that is the point.

hilzoy:

So I return from a day of teaching and discover that John McCain has decided to suspend his campaign and return to Washington DC, the better to deal with our nation's urgent problems. Goody! It might have been even better had he bothered to show up for even a single one of the 108 Senate votes that have been taken between April 8, when he last showed up, and today. Who knows how many problems might have been averted had John McCain managed to show up before today?

Postponing the VP Debate

How convenient. Given that they already altered the format to make it more manageable for Palin, it now seems that they are trying to buy some more time.
hilzoy:

"COURIC: Would you support a moratorium on foreclosures to help average Americans keep their homes?

PALIN: That's something that John McCain and I have both been discussing whether that is part of the solution or not ... you know, it's going to be a multifaceted solution that has to be found here.

COURIC: So you haven't decided whether you'll support it or not?

PALIN: I have not.

COURIC: What are the pros and cons of it, do you think?

[Translation: OK, you don't want to commit. But do you have the slightest idea what the salient considerations are?]

"PALIN: Well, some decisions that have been made poorly should not be rewarded, of course.

COURIC: By consumers, you're saying?

PALIN: Consumers and those who were predator lenders also. That's, you know, that has to be considered also. But again, it's got to be a comprehensive long-term solution found for this problem that America is facing today. As I say, we are getting into crisis mode here."

[Translation: Not a clue. But whatever the solution is, it ought to be comprehensive and long-term. Such a relief to know she doesn't actually favor temporary solutions that do not address the entire problem. Had she had more time, no doubt she would have come out for solutions that are judicious, well-designed, effective and (of course) bipartisan. And I'll bet she doesn't think people should play politics with this issue either. Call me psychic.]

No Questions For You!

Is this for real? Who are they kidding??

"McCain then looked around the room and gestured as if to welcome questions. The AP reporter shouted a question at Gov. Palin ("Governor, what have you learned from your meetings?") but McCain aide Brooke Buchanan intervened and shepherded everybody out of the room.

Palin looked surprised, leaned over to McCain and asked him a question, to which your pooler thinks he shook his head as if to say "No."

More Faint Praise for Obama From Bubba

On The View today.

Today he added to that, saying of Mr. McCain: “The American people for good and sufficient reasons admire him, and he’s given something in life that the rest of us can’t match.”

Turning back to Mr. Obama, Mr. Clinton said: “I do believe Obama will win, and I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t. I think he’s a good candidate, he’s a smart man, he’s shown growth as a candidate.”

A Different Kind of Palin Effect

Disappointment.

And pretty much everything she has said or done since her appearance on the national stage – beginning with her acceptance speech – has soured me on her. It’s decreasingly plausible to me that she’s who I thought she was when she was nominated. Based on her performance on the campaign trail so far, she’s a shallow and demagogic politician. And if, on the off chance, that’s not who she is, then it’s instructive that the McCain campaign seems to be eager to have her play this particular character.

Obama As "Other"

Again. Truthiness. The fog of misinformation is staggering and is leading to wildly uninformed voters. Kristof elaborates on the GOP's efforts to "other-ize" Obama.
Quote:

Just imagine for a moment if it were the black candidate in this election, rather than the white candidate, who was born in Central America, was an indifferent churchgoer, had graduated near the bottom of his university class, had dumped his first wife, had regularly displayed an explosive and profane temper, and had referred to the Pakistani-Iraqi border ...

Obama Ahead by 4 at Gallup.com

Krugman on the $700 Billion Bailout

A good overview and important questions.

A look at how McCain's plan to allow people to "purchase health insurance nationwide, across state lines" would impact people if enacted.

McCain argues that different states' regulations "prevent the best companies, with the best plans and lowest prices, from making their product available to any American who wants it." Although he hasn't given details, his supporters say that he favors an approach, endorsed by President Bush and championed by McCain's Arizona colleague John Shadegg, that would allow insurers to choose the state laws under which they are regulated. (I e-mailed the campaign about the specifics of McCain's approach and didn't hear back.) An insurance company that chose to be regulated under Arizona law could sell policies in New York without following New York rules. Arizona, like most states, lets companies charge what they want to people who are sick—or simply deny them coverage altogether. Under Shadegg's bill, insurers wouldn't even need to pick up and move their operations; it would be enough to file some paperwork with a state insurance commissioner and pay that state's relevant taxes.

Iraqi Ethnic Cleansing and the Efficacy of the Surge

A fascinating position by researchers at the University of California that suggests that ethnic cleansing, not an increase in US troops, led to the decrease in violence in Iraq.

"By the launch of the surge, many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country, and they turned off the lights when they left," geography professor John Agnew of the University of California Los Angeles, who led the study, said in a statement.

"Essentially, our interpretation is that violence has declined in Baghdad because of intercommunal violence that reached a climax as the surge was beginning," said Agnew, who studies ethnic conflict.

In other words, ethnic violence did the job before American soldiers got the chance.

Presidential Debates Scheduled!

Finally.

The Obama and McCain campaigns agreed to an unusual, free-flowing format for the three televised presidential debates, which begin Friday.

And the McCain campaign has asked to modify the VP debates to give Palin a better chance to shine against Biden.

But at the insistence of the McCain campaign, the vice-presidential debate between Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Democratic rival, Sen. Joseph Biden, will be much more structured, advisers to both campaigns said Saturday after a hard-fought agreement was reached.

The agreement calls for shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees and more structure for the back-and-forth between Palin and Biden. There will be brief opportunities for direct exchanges between the two.

McCain advisers said they had been slightly concerned that a loose format could leave Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

Truthiness: (n) truth that comes from the gut, not books

From Frank Rich:

Whatever blanks are yet to be filled in on Obama, we at least know his economic plans and the known quantities who are shaping them (Lawrence Summers, Robert Rubin, Paul Volcker). McCain has reversed himself on every single economic issue this year, often within a 24-hour period, whether he’s judging the strength of the economy’s fundamentals or the wisdom of the government bailout of A.I.G. He once promised that he’d run every decision past Alan Greenspan — and even have him write a new tax code — but Greenspan has jumped ship rather than support McCain’s biggest flip-flop, his expansion of the Bush tax cuts. McCain’s official chief economic adviser is now Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who last week declared that McCain had “helped create” the BlackBerry.

But Holtz-Eakin’s most telling statement was about McCain’s economic plans — namely, that the details are irrelevant. “I don’t think it’s imperative at this moment to write down what the plan should be,” he said. “The real issue here is a leadership issue.” This, too, is a Rove-Bush replay. We want a tough guy who will “fix” things with his own two hands — let’s take out the S.E.C. chairman! — instead of wimpy Frenchified Democrats who just “talk.” The fine print of policy is superfluous if there’s a quick-draw decider in the White House.

Palin Economics

An editorial from TIME that explores Palin's fiscal policies as governor of Alaska.

Although Palin's words side with McCain in this dispute, her actions side with Obama. Her major legislative accomplishment has been to revamp Alaska's windfall-profits tax in order to increase the state's take. Alaska calls it a "clear and equitable share" tax. The state assumes that extracting oil from the tundra costs about $25 per bbl. and takes as much as 75% of the difference between that and the sale price.

Economists for Obama

Here is a fascinating blog that tries to pull apart the candidates' tax and economic plans from an economist's perspective. Obviously a biased perspective, given the name of the blog itself. Interesting nonetheless.

Another Troopergate Detail

This Troopergate situation is getting uglier and more damning every day...

Contacted Friday, Monegan confirmed the travel authorization was to pursue funding for the anti-sexual-violence program. He said the travel authorization form was completed in a fashion consistent with practice, even though it showed no expenditures. The signed form approved the travel, he said, and authorized him to use a government credit card or seek reimbursement for expenses he incurred during the trip.

Monegan said he didn't know why Palin's chief of staff approved a trip that confounded her other aides. "It sounds like it's a breakdown of communication internal to the governor's staff," he said.

Obama Moving Ahead

FiveThirtyEight:

Foreign Policy Experts Weigh In: Engage Iran

From AFP:

Former US secretaries of state on Monday urged the next US president to work closely with key allies, engage with Iran, and avoid ruptures with awkward partners Russia and China.

Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher, James Baker and Henry Kissinger gave advice at a panel here that often appeared closer to the views of Democratic candidate Barack Obama than than to those Republican John McCain.

McCain and the Economy. Again.

From Krugman:

OK, a correspondent directs me to John McCain’s article, Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American, in the Sept./Oct. issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries. You might want to be seated before reading this.

Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform:

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!

Bridge to Nowhere Story Going Nowhere

This is getting to be 'old hat', but it is an important story in that it quite elegantly sums up Palin's tendency to lie about things that are easily fact-checked. Andrew Sullivan has been keeping a log of all of the lies she has told so far, and they are starting to add up. It's no wonder her favorability rating has plummeted over the past week.
Quote:

Some residents of Ketchikan -- a city of 8,000 on a neighboring island where the bridge was to end -- see the road as a symbol of wasteful spending that Palin could have curtailed. Some of them even accuse her of deception.

"Surely we won't have to commute on the highway if there won't be a bridge," said Jill Jacob, who has been writing and calling the governor's office for the last two years to protest the road. "It's a dead-end highway, a dead-end road."

Did Obama Press the Iraqis to Put Off Resolution?

Apparently, despite McCain's accusations to the contrary, no.

The First Dude Refuses to Cooperate

How is this not a bigger deal? The VP nominee is in the middle of an ethics investigation and is REFUSING to cooperate. Now her husband and staff are refusing, too. They are just hoping to delay it until after election day. And they call this "Reforming Washington"??

Paulson Explains Need for Government to Buy Bad Mortgages

"As we all know, lax lending practices earlier this decade led to irresponsible lending and irresponsible borrowing. This simply put too many families into mortgages they could not afford. We are seeing the impact on homeowners and neighborhoods, with 5 million homeowners now delinquent or in foreclosure. What began as a sub-prime lending problem has spread to other, less-risky mortgages, and contributed to excess home inventories that have pushed down home prices for responsible homeowners.

A similar scenario is playing out among the lenders who made those mortgages, the securitizers who bought, repackaged and resold them, and the investors who bought them. These troubled loans are now parked, or frozen, on the balance sheets of banks and other financial institutions, preventing them from financing productive loans. The inability to determine their worth has fostered uncertainty about mortgage assets, and even about the financial condition of the institutions that own them. The normal buying and selling of nearly all types of mortgage assets has become challenged."

The official statement can be found here.

McCain's Scapegoat

From the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. McCain clearly wants to distance himself from the Bush Administration. But this assault on Mr. Cox is both false and deeply unfair. It's also un-Presidential.

Save the Markets in 3 Easy Steps!

An insightful look at what went wrong with the financial markets, and how to save them.

Great Line

From Gail Collins today:

“The people of Ohio are the most productive in the world!” yelled John McCain at a rally outside of Youngstown on Tuesday. Present company perhaps excluded, since the crowd was made up entirely of people who were at liberty in the middle of a workday.

Sarah "The Energy Czar" Palin Speaks!

And Hilzoy is, well, unimpressed.

Comparing the Veeps' Experiences

From Politics of a New Paradigm.
Quote:

Sarah Palin graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in journalism in 1987, Biden’s 15th year serving as a United States senator. She didn’t attend graduate school. Instead, she worked as a sportscaster in Anchorage, and then owned a snowmobile, ATV, and watercraft business with her husband and served on the Wasilla, AK city council from 1992 through 1996, when she ran for mayor. It is interesting to note that she won her first race for council in Wasilla by a vote of 530-310 over her opponent John Hartrick, and won reelection by a count of 413-185 over challenger R’nita Rogers. This is how small-time we’re talkin’ here.

Another Republican Against Palin

This time, it's Chuck Hagel, senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States," Mr Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald newspaper.

And he was dismissive of the fact that Mrs Palin, the governor of Alaska, has made few trips abroad.

"You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."

Obama's Unfair Attack Ads

I agree with Andrew Sullivan on this one. Obama promised to avoid this kind of nastiness and he should pull these ads ASAP.

McCain and the Latin American Spain

Andrew Romano tries to explain the gaffe:

Option One--McCain's stance on Spain has become needlessly derogatory for no particular reason--suggests that he's erratic. Option Two--McCain is willing to adopt a needlessly derogatory stance simply to protect against the perception of a gaffe--suggests that he puts politics before policy. Either one strikes me as a far more disturbing error than mishearing--or not recognizing--the name Jose Luis Zapatero.

This Sounds Like the Current Administration's Policy

From CNN:

Aides to Gov. Sarah Palin won't comply with subpoenas issued by state lawmakers investigating the firing of Alaska's former public safety commissioner because Palin "has declined to participate" in the probe, her attorney general says.

How is this not getting more attention? A virtually unknown candidate for VP comes out of the woodwork 3 weeks ago, isn't available to the press, has repeatedly told lies about her background and positions, and now won't cooperate with an investigation into her behavior while governor of Alaska?

Gallup Has Obama Ahead by 4

48%-44%

If Only We Could...!

Palin speaking in Michigan about her foreign policy credentials:

"If you want specifics and specific policy or countries, go ahead, you can ask me. You can even play stump-the-candidate if you want."

Bounced Out?

New polls suggesting that the post-convention bounce and "Palin Effect" enjoyed by the Republicans over the past 2 weeks is fading.

The contest appeared to be roughly where it was before the two conventions and before the vice-presidential selections: Mr. Obama had the support of 48 percent of registered voters, compared with 43 percent for Mr. McCain, a difference within the poll’s margin of sampling error, and statistically unchanged from the tally in the last New York Times/CBS News Poll in mid-August.

Here's a reminder of how close the race actually is right now:

If the polls are right, and if election were held today, Obama would win 22 states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia to secure 273 electoral votes.

McCain would take the rest (including the battleground states of Florida, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia) for 265 electoral votes.

My sense is that Ohio is very much in play, however, so I think that giving it to McCain at this point is silly. The same may be true for Nevada, where a strong Democratic registration advantage ought not be discounted.

Ahh I Feel So Much Better About the State of the Economy Now...

Palin Not Cooperating in Investigation

Sheesh. This could be messy...

Palin says the probe’s been hijacked by the Obama campaign for political gain. But Monegan was fired and the investigation begun long before Palin was named to the Republican ticket.

The facts don't matter. Just keep blaming Obama in the face of demonstrable evidence to the contrary. It seems to be working for the McCain campaign so far...

No Surprise

From the Times:

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is effectively turning over questions about her record as Alaska's governor to John McCain's political campaign, part of an ambitious Republican strategy to limit any embarrassing disclosures and carefully shape her image for voters in the rest of the country.

McCain's Website

Given the number of times that John McCain tells reporters to look on his website for policy details (is he being efficient with his time? curt? or does he not know the details?), one would think that site would actually have relevant information (and be well-designed. but that's another post).
But just now, I watched McCain talking with Joe Scarborough about his attack ad accusing Obama of supporting sex education for kindergarten students. Asked to support this position, he said, "Read the language of the bill on my website. It's all there."
Well, I just spent a good amount of time trying to find said bill, and was unsuccessful. Shouldn't the bill that he is encouraging others to read be prominently displayed on the site to dispel any further accusations of lying about Obama's record?

Limitations of McCain's Message

Ross Douthat:

Instead, the McCain campaign decided that they didn't want to take the kind of risks that real ideological experimentation would entail - that despite the difficulties, short and long-term, facing the GOP as a whole, there's was too much potential downside in trying to imitate Bill Clinton in 1992 and George W. Bush in 2000 (both of whom ran genuinely creative campaigns at a time when their parties desperately needed them). I had hoped that the Sarah Palin pick was a sign that they were open to rolling the dice a bit more on policy; at the moment, though, it looks like Palin herself was the roll of the dice, and it's just going to be down-and-dirty politics from here on out. There's no question that anti-Obama hardball makes sense as a strategy given the limitations of McCain's message; it's just that a lot of those limitations are self-imposed.

Response to a Friend

A friend of mine expressed some concern about what he sees as Obama's socialist tendencies by posting this article from Investors.com
Having read the article, I was compelled to respond. Here's what I said.


Hey, ________-
I appreciate your posted article and wanted to respond to it respectfully. I think that many of the items listed in the article can be boiled down to fundamental philosophical differences of opinion regarding the role of government in the lives of citizens (i.e., should the gov't match retirement contributions?) That being said, I do take issue with what I regard as over simplifying or misrepresenting Obama's positions.

For example, the plan that Investors.com called "Universal College Tuition" is actually more measured than that. The plan's actual title is the American Opportunity Tax Credit, and the description (from Obama's website) includes:
Barack Obama will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax
Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is
completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college
or university. And by making the tax credit fully refundable, Obama’s credit will help low-income families that
need it the most. Obama will also ensure that the tax credit is available to families at the time of enrollment by
using prior year’s tax data to deliver the credit at the time that tuition is due, rather than a year or more later
when tax returns are filed.

Not exactly Universal College Tuition. More like financial incentives for low income families which REQUIRES 100 hours of community service to receive.

Next is the Health Care policy. Obviously a lot of conflict around this issue, and I won't pretend to know anything about it. I will, however, direct you to an article in the Wall Street Journal that explains why Obama's plan is superior to McCain's.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122152292213639569.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Here's a quote:
Sustained growth thus requires successful health-care reform. Barack Obama and John McCain propose to lead us in opposite directions -- and the Obama direction is far superior.
Sen. Obama's proposal will modernize our current system of employer- and government-provided health care, keeping what works well, and making the investments now that will lead to a more efficient medical system. He does this in five ways:

National Service.
The article you posted would have us believe that Obama's plan is straight out of Castro's Cuba (a la Havana). In fact, it's a means of creating connections between students and their communities for their mutual gain.
Given that SERVICE is such a central theme in the McCain campaign, I was interested in this article from Politico,com:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11705.html
Quote:
John McCain, who’s predicated his presidential run in no small part on his distinguished military record, frequently exhorts Americans — and especially young Americans — to serve their country. Despite that appeal, he has yet to offer any proposals to expand or transform national service outside of the military.
Barack Obama, by contrast, has proposed dramatically expanding Americorps and the Peace Corps, adding 65,000 members to the military and creating an annual $4,000 tax credit for post-secondary education in exchange for 100 hours of community service.

Universal 401(k)
From Obama's site:
Obama will ensure savings incentives are fair to all workers by creating a generous savings match for low and middle-income Americans. His plan will match 50 percent of the first $1,000 of savings for families that earn less than $75,000. The savings match will be automatically deposited into designated personal accounts. Over 80 percent of these savings incentives will go to new savers.

Wage Insurance:
Here's an interesting passage from John McCain's speech tonight:
Government assistance for the unemployed workers was designed for the economy of the 1950s. That's going to change on my watch....For workers in industries that have been hard-hit, we'll help make up part of the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower paid one, while they receive re-training that will help them find secure new employment at a decent wage.

McCain is talking here about "wage insurance," a proposal that's been bubbling around in neoliberal circles for over a decade and has considerable (though not unanimous) support among Democrats. McCain, I think, has mentioned wage insurance in passing a few times before, but as far as I know he's never really committed himself to it. And unless it's buried somewhere that I missed, it's not part of the economic plan on his website.

But tonight, in a speech with very few specific policy details, he committed himself firmly to supporting a wage insurance plan if he becomes president.

Global Poverty Act:
While it's difficult to argue with the moral/ethical impetus behind this policy, I understand that some may prefer NOT to invest so much into other countries. That being said, here's an article from the Washington Times that lauds W's efforts in Africa. So it seems Obama is not alone in attempting to fight global poverty.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/mar/27/bushs-africa-legacy/
Quote:
While critics here at home, including many in the press, focused on attacking Mr. Bush at every turn, he steadfastly pushed for greater investments to help the families and businesses of Africa. It's the great untold story that has rarely made headlines here in America, but even so, it has truly changed the world for millions of Africans.

Finally, I want to address the socialism/communism charge, which is being thrown around a lot these days. What do you mean by it? Are you suggesting that Obama is going to implement government ownership of businesses? Or is it that you disagree with his notion of redistributing income to others? Or both? Do you argue that the markets don't need regulation? Or that government-sponsored organizations like NASA are unacceptable because they are "State owned"?
I tend to think government is often the problem and not the solution, but I also think that there are some major issues facing us now that need to be addressed frankly and with the full support and resources of the American people. How will we face the issues on Wall Street without more support from the Fed? How will we continue to compete globally when education costs are so huge and the average family income is shrinking? I am open to suggestions. So far, the one who seems to have the most ambitious and forward-looking ideas is Obama.

Bob Herbert Joins the Crowd

From yesterday's column:

I feel for Ms. Palin’s son who has been shipped off to the war in Iraq. But at his deployment ceremony, which was on the same day as the Charlie Gibson interview, Sept. 11, she told the audience of soldiers that they would be fighting “the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”

Was she deliberately falsifying history, or does she still not know that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks?

Palin's Governing Style

I'm sure you've seen this article from the NYTimes already, but I figured I'd post it just in case.
There's not much I can add except to say that this report only further convinces me that she is not, as Brooks says today, "...the ultimate small-town renegade rising from the frontier to do battle with the corrupt establishment." Rather, in fact, she is a vindictive opportunist (but what politician isn't an opportunist?) who sacrificed friendships and alliances with people in the pursuit of power.

The themes of secrecy (can personal emails be subpoenaed?), loyalty ( the you're-either -with -us -or -against -us mentality), and blurring the lines of personal/public use of power (Troopergate, librarian story) all serve to remind me of the Bush administration. They took secrecy, loyalty, and abuse of power to a new level and I, for one, am not inclined to give a person with similar tendencies the reins of power anytime soon.

The Wagers

From US News & World Report:

For 18 months, Obama has wagered all his chips on the (quaint? idealistic? brilliant?) idea that the American people are tired of the same old sleazy and divisive politics. McCain has now chosen to bet against him.

McCain and Health Care

From Bob Herbert today.

Blinking Unthinkingly

Between Sullivan, Rich, and Dowd, it appears the MSM columnists are taking aim at Palin.
Dowd:

Like W., Sarah has the power of positive unthinking. But now we may want to think about where ignorance and pride and no self-doubt has gotten us. Being quick on the trigger might be good in moose hunting, but in dealing with Putin, a little knowledge might come in handy.

Rich:

The ambitious Palin and the ruthless forces she represents know it, too. You can almost see them smacking their lips in anticipation, whether they’re wearing lipstick or not.

Taxes. Again.

From Hilzoy. Note the pronounced difference between perception and reality.

Sullivan on Palin's Nomination

From the London Times:

"...I cannot say anything about this candidacy that takes it in any way seriously. It is a farce. It is absurd. It is an insult to all intelligent people. It is a sign of a candidate who has lost his mind. There is no way to take the nomination of Palin to be vice-president of the world’s sole superpower - except to treat it as a massive, unforgivable, inexplicable decision by someone who has either gone insane or is managerially unfit to be president of the United States. When, at some point, the hysteria dies down, even her supporters will realise that, by this decision, McCain has rendered himself unfit to run a branch of Starbucks, let alone the White House."

Woah

Even Rove says McCain's ads have gone too far.

The Facts

Andrew Sullivan telling it like it is:

The fact that Bush appointed a know-nothing apparatchik to deal with hurricanes is unavoidable. The fact that Bush made no serious preparations for occupying Iraq is clear as day. The fact that he and his party have added $32 trillion to the debt of the next generation is now part of the global financial system. The fact that the Bush administration effectively withdrew the United States from the Geneva Conventions and have legitimized the torture of prisoners across the world is empirically indisputable. The fact that Bush has failed to stem Iran's growing nuclear capabilities is inescapable. The fact that under George W. Bush, the country suffered its biggest attack in history, and the mass-murder of 3,000 people by religious fanatics, and that he was warned about this and did nothing is simply history. The fact that in his presidency, the West missed a critical window of opportunity to develop new forms of energy and to wean ourselves off foreign oil is staring us in the face. And the fact that after seven years, this president who once declared that he would get him dead or alive still has not apprehended the man who planned the 9/11 attacks is equally beyond dispute. And the fact that under George W. Bush - far from finding and killing these monsters, we gave them a new sanctuary and did virtually nothing to stem or control the possible supply of WMDS to al Qaeda is equally indisputable. It is equally indisputable that only one individual has been successfully prosecuted in the war on terror and he will be out of jail soon enough, because the evidence that could have convicted him could not be introduced into a court of law.

And if New Hampshire Goes Republican...

A cool website that lets you manipulate each state's electoral votes to see how either candidate may achieve 270 to win.

Elegy for a Maverick

This column from E. J. Dionne, written a week ago, appears to be getting more accurate with the passing of time.

McCain could not change his party, so he changed himself. McCain has pandered to a Republican right wing he once disdained on issue after issue, from oil drilling to immigration to tax cuts for the wealthy.

Just as important, he decided that his last chance for the presidency rests on a systematic effort to make the old politics of demonization work one more time. If McCain's convention is a prelude to the fall campaign, he will leave behind a legacy of bitterness that will turn his promise of a new day into ashes.

A Reasonable Person

An overview of the McCain/Palin campaign from the perspective of the self-proclaimed 'Reasonable Person'.

"...faced with seeing the presidency slip away from him again, John McCain has decided to sacrifice the Straight Talk Express in favor of dirty tactics and irresponsibility. But he's not just betting with his own chips."

Educational Backgrounds of the Candidates

Listening to Rudy Giuliani discuss how the presidential election is like being a business owner who needs to choose between two applicants, I found this list of educational accomplishments pretty interesting.

Obama:
Occidental College (Los Angeles) - 2 years studying Politics and Public Policy.
Columbia University (New York) - B.A. Political Science with a specialization in International Relations.

Harvard Law School - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude, Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Law Review.

Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and a B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank 894 of 899.

Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester - Business Administration.
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - General Studies.
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - Journalism.
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester.
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism.

The Maestro and McCain's Tax Cuts

Didn't McCain just try to assuage any fears about his economic know-how by saying that he was going to read Greenspan's book? Maybe he should have read it a little more thoroughly.

Seriously?

If she hasn't visited Iraq, that's okay in my book. But the fact that she has LIED about going only reinforces the perception that the McCain/Palin campaign is all about lies and half-truths at this point.

I Thought This Was a Joke

But unfortunately, I was mistaken. Rather than continue to engage the American people through legitimate interviews with respected journalists, the GOP has decided that it is an easier sell to have Palin remain, as Elrod puts it, in the cocoon by being "interviewed" next by Sean Hannity.

Last night’s interview with Charlie Gibson has clearly sown ever more doubts about Governor Palin’s readiness to be Vice President. Her impolitic response on Russia, complete avoidance of the Pakistan question, and ignorance over the Bush Doctrine has not sat well with the American people today. The McCain campaign clearly knows it, because now Sarah Palin will be holding her first cable TV interview with…Sean Hannity.

Palin Interview Reaction

I just watched the first section of the interview and I am, frankly, stunned. She so clearly is parroting answers fed to her by McCain advisers these past two weeks. I've already addressed the Bush Doctrine issue, but does anyone take her seriously when she tries to force her statements about God's Plan into an obviously-unrelated Abraham Lincoln quote?
Or can she really expect us to believe that it doesn't matter WHAT is causing climate change because she and John McCain are going to do something about it? How does one address the problem without first acknowledging the underlying causes? If it's attributable to man (which she very grudgingly accepted in some token fashion) then the proposed remedy would be vastly different than if it were simply global climate patterns.
She is out of her depth and I think - I hope - that this will be obvious to everyone who watched the interview. Her knowledge of foreign policy does not, and cannot, derive from the fact that one can view Russia from Alaska. Her obvious talking point on Russia and Georgia were stale and clearly disconnected to any depth of knowledge. Her repeated attempts to dodge questions was disconcerting and, thankfully, Gibson didn't let her off the hook too easily.
She looked and sounded intimidated, which I can understand. But with only a few months left before the election, we need to be convinced that she can be entrusted with the presidency. As of right now, I am thoroughly UNCONVINCED and UNIMPRESSED.