AND HERE'S A WINK AND A YOU BETCHA! TO SARAH!!!!

Obama Has Double-Digit Lead In Virginia By: Jane Hamsher Monday October 6, 2008 10:14 am

New SurveyUSA Poll:

As McCain's Lead Among White Virginians Shrinks, So Too His Chances of Holding The State's 13 Electoral Votes: 29 days until votes are counted in Virginia, Democrat Barack Obama is ahead 53% to 43%, according to this SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, WJLA-TV in Washington DC, WTVR-TV in Richmond, and WJHL-TV in the Tri-Cities. In 4 tracking polls conducted since the Republican Convention, McCain has gone from up by 2 to down by 10.

(Must be that Sarah Magic!)

There is movement among men, where immediately after the GOP convention, McCain led by 10, and where today Obama leads by 11. (No Joy in Sarahville, There.)

There is movement among whites, where McCain's once 22-point lead is today reduced to single digits.

There is movement among the well-to-do, where today for the first time Obama leads.

There is movement among pro-choice voters, where Obama's lead has doubled since August.

McCain no longer leads in any region of the state. In Northeastern VA, which includes the DC suburbs, Obama leads by 24 points. In Central Virginia, home of the Confederate White House, the Museum of the Confederacy and Appomattox, Obama today leads by 8. In Southeastern Virginia, Obama leads by 11. In the Shenandoah, where John McCain led by 24 points one month ago, Obama and McCain today tie.

Also, per a Suffolk University Virginia poll taken form October 3-5 (PDF), Obama now leads McCain 49-37, and 52% of those polled say that the economy/jobs will be the issue that matters most when deciding their vote.

Doggone it, that's worth a wink, eh?

MC CAIN CAMPAIGN, SLIDING TO OBLIVION IN THE POLLS, GOES NEGATIVE AND USES PALIN AS ITS ATTACK DOG

The dishonesty and cowardice of the right

I posted the italicized text below on a conservative blog called Mike's America, over the weekend.

I also posted it on a blog call The Conservative News.

Mike's America blog scrubbed my comments on the Palins' involvement with the treasonous, antiAmerican, Alaskan Independence Party, and the other, The Conservative News, called me a nut job for pointing it out.

If the conservative movement wants to know why their candidates are doing so poorly, all they need to do is look at themselves in the mirror. They create their own little comfy conservative world, and, as we can see, it's devoid of all reality.

Don't like the fact that the Palins were associated with an antiAmerican group? Just pretend it never happened; and when someone brings it up, delete it or call them nuts. Yeah. That'll work.

Here is the post I left on the two blogs:

While campaigning this weekend, Palin referred to an article in Saturday's New York Times about Obama's relationship with Ayers, now 63. But that article concluded that "the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called 'somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.'"

Several other publications, including the Washington Post, Time magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, The New Yorker and The New Republic, have debunked the idea that Obama and Ayers had a close relationship.

If Sarah Palin wants to talk about palling around with people who find America less than perfect, then it's time to talk about her association with the Alaska Independence Party (AIP), the secessionist group whose founder, Joe Vogler once said:

The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government...and I won't be buried under their damn flag...

I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions.

Palin's complete dealings with the group isn't entirely clear, and unfortunately we can't ask Mr. Vogler about it since he was murdered in a plastic explosives sale gone bad," but we do know this: Sarah Palin probably attended the AIP convention 1994, the McCain campaign admits she attended in 2000, and as governor, Palin taped a welcoming message to them in 2006, saying:

"Your party plays an important role in our state's politics. I've always said that competition is so good, and that applies to political parties as well. I share your party's vision of upholding the constitution of our great state... So I say good luck on a successful and inspiring convention. Keep up the good work, and God bless you."

So Palin says "God bless you." to a group of people who hate America?

Add to that, Todd Palin, aka, the "First Dude," was a registered member of AIP from 1995 until 2002, coincidentally changing his party affiliation when she began her first campaign for public office.

I'd say that was an extremely close association with a group of traitors--her own husband belonged to that group of treasonous America haters. That's rather close, eh?

So, we have Sarah Palin, actively involved with a secessionist group that professes its hatred for America, and whose husband was a card-carrying member of the group for seven years.

If Sarah Palin wants to talk about questionable associations, bring it on.

And then we can discuss McCain's shameful behavior in the Keating Five Scandal--which is also a discussion on his "character."

In any event, the American people don't actually give a fig about this crap--the economy is the most important issue, and the McCain campaign knows that and is trying to take the focus off of it.

JUST BECAUSE I THINK IT'S FUNNY...

PALIN GETS IT WRONG. AGAIN!

Well at least she's consistent.

The McCain campaign had to "correct" the assertion she made in Thursday night's debate concerning bankruptcy--an assertion that agreed with the Obama/Biden ticket.

Someone who knows what she's talking about would have understood that what Biden said was completely opposite of what her ticket stands for. Not Sarah "Wink.Wink." Palin. She just smiled and looked real purty. And spoke nonsense.

And her fans loved it.

And her campaign has to clean up the crap she left on the stage. Heh.

ABC News: Palin flub on bankruptcy has McCain camp flailing

As anyone who has followed the foreclosure crisis closely knows, there is currently a loophole in federal bankruptcy law that allows John McCain to protect his second through seventh homes and yachts and planes if he were to declare bankruptcy, but doesn't allow you and me to save our primary residence that we live in. Barack Obama has called for closing this loophole, Joe Biden has called for closing this loophole, and John McCain has defended it to benefit his banker buddies.

So, of course, I was thrilled last night to see Joe Biden press the McPalin ticket on this really important policy distinction, when he suggested that the GOP ticket opposed this important protection for homeowners. When Gwen Ifill pressed Palin on this point of whether she was opposed, she denied it, saying, "No, that is not so."

ABC News has this story this bombshell story up on their Political Radar blog, and the McCain campaign is already backtracking and trying to spin away Palin's answer, but it's revealing a deeper truth.

In reality, Palin didn't know what she was talking about and immediately pivoted to energy, even though she was asked about bankruptcy, just like she did all night. I am glad to see that progressive organizations are in rapid response mode and not going to let them get away with it. ACORN, one of the leading organizations fighting against foreclosure, put out this statement last night, perhaps tongue-in-cheek welcoming her endorsement of their prize bill:

"About 20 minutes into tonight's debate, Governor Sarah Palin demonstrated bipartisan appeal in endorsing Senator Biden's call for bankruptcy protections for primary residences. When Senator Biden called for bankruptcy shelter and suggested that Governor Palin likely opposed those protections, Gwen Ifill asked, "Governor Palin, is that so?" The Governor responded, "That is not so."

Both Senators Biden and Obama have supported the "Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act", which would close the loophole in current federal bankruptcy law that prevents primary residences from have their mortgages restructured by federal bankruptcy judges. Currently, second homes, seventh homes, and yachts are eligible for such restructuring, but not primary residences that are being lost at a record pace in the current foreclosure crisis.

ACORN welcomes Governor Palin's endorsement of this important provision, and hopes that this high-profile endorsement will encourage Senator McCain to change his mind and support this necessary change to assist America's struggling homeowners.

Delicious. The ABC story includes the always-enjoyable line, "The McCain campaign confirms to ABC News that Palin misstated McCain's position."

SARAH PALIN SURVIVES THE VP DEBATE TO BABBLE ANOTHER DAY!

Palin looked like the student who crammed to memorize the test and eked out a C.

Biden looked like the professor who wrote the book, and taught the class.


Some highlights of Sarah's talking-points answers and more of her gobbledigook to serious questions:

"Asked about Israel, Palin reeled off her support for “a two-state solution, building our embassy also in Jerusalem, those things that we look forward to being able to accomplish with this peace-seeking nation.”

Asked about the possible use of nuclear weapons, she declared “nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be-all, end-all of just too many people and too many parts of our planet.”

Palin’s primary tactic was simply to repeat the same thing over and over:

John McCain is a maverick. So is she.

To stay on that course, she had to indulge in some wildly circular logic: America does not want another Washington insider. They want Mr. McCain (who has been in Congress for nearly 26 years).

Palin condemned Wall Street greed and said she and Mr. McCain would “demand” strict oversight. In virtually the next breath, she said government should “get out of the way” of American business." --NYTimes

Here's her answer on education:

PALIN: Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again.

You preferenced your whole comment with the Bush administration. (What does "preferenced your whole comment mean?"--this is babbling.)

Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education and I'm glad you did. (Well, doggone it! let's look ahead!)

I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. (Holy crap. She sounds like Bush only not as articulate. She's not comfortable in her own language.)

I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more. (More mush from a muddled mind.)

Education credit in American has been in some sense in some of our states just accepted to be a little bit lax and we have got to increase the standards. (I need a translation here. What the hell does this mean?)

No Child Left Behind was implemented. It's not doing the job though. We need flexibility in No Child Left Behind. We need to put more of an emphasis on the profession of teaching. We need to make sure that education in either one of our agendas, I think, absolute top of the line. My kids as public school participants right now, it's near and dear to my heart. I'm very, very concerned about where we're going with education and we have got to ramp it up and put more attention in that arena. (Yes, let's definitely put our attention in that arena--and please take your own advice, Sarah.)

IFILL: Everybody gets extra credit tonight. We're going to move on to the next question. Governor, you said in July that someone would have to explain to you exactly what it is the vice president does every day. You, senator, said, you would not be vice president under any circumstances. Now maybe this was just what was going on at the time. But tell us now, looking forward, what it is you think the vice presidency is worth now.

PALIN: No, no. Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that's not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. (?????)

I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are. (She believes MORE authority should be given to the vice president? More? Dear Darwin!--And she expresses this in a convoluted blithering way again!)

Sarah Palin put in a good performance during the debate last night. But performance is not the same as expressing her own ideas with clarity, knowledge and depth. She didn't do that. Just read the above answers and you'll see she's as confused and clueless about major issues as she was in the Gibson and Couric interviews. Those are Palin's jumbled babbled answers to serious questions.

There were no follow-up questions in this debate--a format the McCain campaign insisted on for Palin. And we can see why.

She smiled, looked perky, and made the base happy. She's still uninformed, confused, and a potential disaster for this country should it be dumb and elect the McCain/Palin ticket.

Despite repeatedly criticizing Biden for looking backward during the debate, Palin closed the night with a quote from dead President Reagan.

AIR FORCE CONTRADICTS PALIN

ANOTHER PALIN GAFFE. SHE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT.

AGAIN. AND AGAIN. AND AGAIN.

Do her fans on the Right believe her or the Air Force???


Air Force contradicts Palin: There have been no Russian incursions into U.S. airspace during her tenure.

The McCain-Palin campaign recently clarified Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-AK) remark from last week that “Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America.” The campaign told CBS News, “Russian incursions…inside the air defense identification zone have occurred.” But as the Associated Press reports today, no such incursions have occurred ‘in recent years’:


The air defense identification zone, almost completely over water, extends 12-mile past the perimeter of the United States. … However, no Russian military planes have been flying even into that zone, said Maj. Allen Herritage, a spokesman for the Alaska region of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, at Elmendorf Air Force Base. “To be very clear, there has not been any incursion in U.S. airspace in recent years,” Herritage said.
Responding to Herritage’s statement, Palin’s foreign policy adviser Steve Biegun said that Palin was trying to point out that the “geographical location of Alaska has unique attributes,” unlike “many states in the union.”

PALIN UNABLE TO NAME A LANDMARK SUPREME COURT CASE OTHER THAN ROE V. WADE

Holy crap.

Her ignorance seems to have no bounds.

Gov Palin is a perfect example of an elected official who was "swept into office" at a particularly low period in a state's history. Not necessarily a great feat when the state's population is small with seemingly few qualified candidates to choose from who would want to run for high office.

In Alaska, it sounds to me like she just materialized out of thin air to much the same hoopla she received after her selection by McCain as his VP. Alaska, tired of its culture of corruption, was particularly vulnerable to the lure of someone passing herself off as a reformer, despite those claims being, at best, dubious.

Thus, Gov. Palin was likely not vetted as governor either, and an adoring, yet uninformed, populus elected her. The same thing happened when Evan Mecham (with no more qualifications than being a car dealership magnate) was elected as governor of Arizona, despite being inherently unqualified (he was later impeached).

It's only a matter of time before the wheels begin to come off of Gov. Palin's popularity in Alaska, as they most certainly have begun coming off of her VP candidacy. She is getting much greater exposure and scrutiny on a national scale, and McCain's impulsiveness and gamble is costing him big time on this one.

PS. Off the top of my head:

Brown vs. The Board of Education
Plessy vs. Ferguson
The Miranda Decision (Miranda vs. Arizona--her running mate's home state!)
and reaching back into American history, Marbury vs. Madison
How about Dredd Scott decision?
And most recently the Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld decision.

She's an undereducated embarrassment. And no matter how much lipstick (stuffing her with facts) they put on her, she's still woefully and dangerously not qualified to be anything more than a mayor of a village.

She has reached her level of incompetence.

John McCain chose this her to be VP, and possibly the president of the United States.

Country First? What a lie.

And for your reading hilarity, this zinger on Palin from "The New Yorker."

JOHN MC CAIN TAKES CREDIT FOR THE BAILOUT HOURS BEFORE IT FAILS!!!!

John McCain looks like a fool.


"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his top aides took credit for building a winning bailout coalition – hours before the vote failed and stocks tanked.

The rush to claim he had engineered a victory now looks like a strategic blunder that will prolong the McCain’s campaign’s difficulty in finding a winning message on the economy.

Shortly before the vote, McCain had bragged about his involvement and mocked Sen. Barack Obama for staying on the sidelines.

“I've never been afraid of stepping in to solve problems for the American people, and I'm not going to stop now,” McCain told a rally in Columbus, Ohio. “Senator Obama took a very different approach to the crisis our country faced. At first he didn't want to get involved. Then he was monitoring the situation.”
McCain, grinning, flashed a sarcastic thumbs-up.

“That's not leadership. That's watching from the sidelines,” he added to cheers and applause.

Wisely, in retrospect, McCain initially had been more modest. On Sunday, he said on ABC’s “This Week” that congressional negotiators deserve “great credit” for the bipartisan deal. “"It wasn’t because of me,” McCain said. “They did it themselves.”

But at almost the same time, McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt was saying on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “What Senator McCain was able to do … was to help get all of the parties to the table. There had been announcements by Senate leaders saying that a deal had been reached earlier in the week. There were no votes for that deal.

“Senator McCain knew time was short and he came back, he listened and he helped put together the framework of getting everybody to the table, which was necessary to produce a package to avoid a financial catastrophe for this country.”

On Monday morning, McCain campaign communications director Jill Hazelbaker said on Fox News that the deal would not have happened “without Senator McCain.”

“Senator McCain interrupted his campaign, suspended his campaign activity to come back to Washington to get Republicans around a table,” Hazelbaker said. “Without Senator McCain, House Republicans would not have appointed a negotiator, which would not have moved this bill forward.

“It’s really Senator McCain who got all parties around a table to hammer out a deal that hopefully is in the best interests of the American taxpayer.”

After the vote, commentators were harsh. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said: “He’s like a cavalry commander who said ‘Charge!’ and the Republicans went into retreat.”


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/14088.html

FIRST TIME IN 72 YEARS, CONSERVATIVE NEWSPAPER OF STOCKTON, CA, ENDORSES OBAMA

The Record, of Stockton, California, may not be the most well-known of newspapers, but they have been, for a number of decades, one of the most consistent. The last time the paper endorsed a Democrat for the White House, the year was 1936 and the lucky endorsee was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Since then, the closest a Democrat has come was in 1992, when they endorsed neither Bill Clinton nor George H. W. Bush to send a message that "a larger role for the third-party candidate" was warranted.

That's all changed over the weekend, in a move the California paper describes as a turning of the "tide":

For the first time in 72 years, The Record is endorsing a Democrat for president.

Franklin D. Roosevelt got our nod in 1936.

The reasons for the endorsement of Barack Obama over John McCain are articulated in the editorial on this page.

The unanimous decision was made by our editorial board, which consists of Publisher Roger W. Coover, Managing Editor Donald W. Blount, Opinion Page Editor Eric Grunder, Human Resources Director Sandi Johnson and me.

There are many who will question - with some validity - the power or value of such an endorsement. Our decision is hardly going to tip the balance in a competitive presidential election.

In their endorsement, the Record writes:

Barack Obama is our choice for president of the United States.

He has demonstrated time and again he can think on his feet. More importantly, he has demonstrated he will think things through, seek advice and actually listen to it.

Obama is a gifted speaker. But in addition to his smarts and energy, possibly his greatest gift is his ability to inspire.

For eight years, American politics has been marked by smears, fears and greed. For too long, we've practiced partisanship in Washington, not politics. The result is a cynicism every bit as deep as that which infected the nation when Richard Nixon was shamed from office and when Bill Clinton brought shame to the office.

This must end, but John McCain can't do it. He can't inspire, nor can he really break from a past that is breaking this nation.

[Read the rest of the Record's endorsement.]

h/t HuffPost

EVEN WHEN SEN. OBAMA SHOOK HIS HAND

MC CAIN COULDN'T LOOK HIM IN THE EYE. A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS. THIS PHOTO SCREAMS OF JOHN MC CAIN'S CONTEMPT, AND CONDESCENSION TOWARD SENATOR OBAMA.

But the nation agrees that McCain's failure to be commonly decent said more about him and the sort of snarling, petty man he would be as president than it does about Senator Obama.

Senator Obama was dignified, statesmanlike, and decent.

THE RESULTS ARE IN ON PALIN'S INTERVIEW WITH COURIC

NOTE: Last night's debate showed Sen. Obama to have a depth of knowledge not only on foreign policy issues but on economic issues as well. The foreign policy part of the debates was supposed to be McCain's strongest point. Sen. Obama was as good as the old timer, and in a few instances, showed he knew more. (The point on strategic vs. tactical policy in Iraq. The Surge was a TACTICAL move, not a strategic move, as McCain claimed.) Obama faced his opponent, McCain never looked at Obama, and what is more, did not look as relaxed and as assured of himself as Obama. Obama did a smash-up job. Good for him.

SEE BELOW FOR REVIEWS ON THE PRESENDENTIAL DEBATE.

Now we await the VP debate. And as a preview, here are some of the reviews of Palin's recent interview with Katie Couric:




Palin Couric media reviews are in, and are DEVASTATINGLY BAD

Palin talks to Couric -- and if she's lucky, few are listening James Rainey - LATimes

Her third nationally televised interview, with CBS anchor Katie Couric, found Palin rambling, marginally responsive and even more adrift than during her network debut with ABC’s Charles Gibson....
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/a...


Katie Couric carves up Sarah Palin Kansas City Star
Palin looks unprepared to be vice president (and certainly president)...
http://voices.kansascity.com/node/2157


Couric shines, Palin doesn't in CBS interview The Oregonian

Ouch. Only one of the two women showed poise, focus and a good grasp of the facts, and it wasn't the one who's running for vice president....
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ss...



I’m sorry — Sarah Palin is a bad joke Jay Bookman - Atlanta Journal and Constitution

Palin is living, breathing proof that John McCain lies when he claims to put this country first over politics. She makes Dan Quayle look like Albert Einstein with a better haircut.
http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-bl...


Shameless and clueless Sarah Palin David Horsey - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

How would Republicans be reacting if Gov. Christine Gregoire were the Democratic candidate for vice president and she claimed that, because Washington borders Canada and sends trade missions to Japan and China and Russia, she is, therefore, experienced in foreign policy? And what if Gregoire also claimed to be a seasoned commander-in-chief because she is titular head of the Washington National Guard? We all know how Republicans would react: they would roar with mocking laughter. And they would be absolutely right to mock such idiotic pretense.
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/davidho...

and no help from Palin's side of the aisle either:

Jake Tapper quotes conservative columnist Kathleen Parker:

Watching the CBS interview of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin did not exactly fill Parker with confidence.
"Palin's recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/20...

and my favorite, from a compilation on the British "firstpost"

Babbling Palin ‘makes George Bush sound like Cicero’ Rod Dreher

a religious-conservative blogger who frequently appears on Fox News and was as recently as last week a Palin supporter, says the Alaskan Governor "was mediocre". Dreher says he felt "embarrassed" listening to Palin "regurgitating talking points mechanically, not thinking. just babbling. She makes George W. Bush sound like Cicero."

PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE REVIEWS:

Why Voters Thought Obama Won

TPM has the internals of the CNN poll of debate-watchers, which had Obama winning overall by a margin of 51-38. The poll suggests that Obama is opening up a gap on connectedness, while closing a gap on readiness.

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. Per the transcript, McCain never once mentioned the phrase "middle class" (Obama did so three times). And Obama’s eye contact was directly with the camera, i.e. the voters at home. McCain seemed to be speaking literally to the people in the room in Mississippi, but figuratively to the punditry. It is no surprise that a small majority of pundits seemed to have thought that McCain won, even when the polls indicated otherwise; the pundits were his target audience.

George Harris:

I suspect that women voters especially would be turned off by McCain's sarcastic tone because women do tend to be the conciliators in our society and saw Obama display those conciliatory qualities very well in the debate. Obama looked at McCain, and McCain wouldn't return the eye contact but rather glared or displayed a tight and angry expression.

I also suspect (but don't have the data to support) that older voters were also turned off by Senator McNasty. I believe older voters will also be reassured that, though McCain has been around longer, Obama has a good grasp of foreign affairs and can learn quickly. He impressed as a statesmen, in marked contrast to McCain's warrior demeanor.

McCain referred to Obama as naive or as not understanding on many issues when the listener probably saw a mere difference of opinion. McCain's condescenion felt annoying; to the listener who might agree or disagree with Obama, Obama nevertheless was making good points, not naive ones.

David Ignatius:

Both styles were adequate; neither was entirely compelling. If you were adding up debating points, you’d give the contest to Obama. If you were counting only the emotional highs, you’d give it to McCain. The debate reinforced each man’s strengths and weaknesses. Obama had the most to lose, and he didn’t, so in that sense, by not losing he probably came out ahead.

What was troubling was that neither man rose to the challenge of the catastrophe that has seized the financial markets. On this issue, the two were bland, non-committal, uninspiring.

Added:

Jonathan Alter on MSNBC: The biggest loser? Sarah Palin. The debates set a standard she cannot live up to.

h/t dailykos

MC CAIN'S NEXT 10 HAIL MARY PASSES

Via Slate Ezine:

First Palin, Then Campaign Suspension, What's Next?

1. Returns to Vietnam and jails himself.

2. Offers the post of "vice vice president" to Warren Buffett.

3. Challenges Obama to suspend campaign so they both can go and personally drill for oil offshore.

4. Learns to use computer.

5. Does bombing run over Taliban-controlled tribal areas of Pakistan.

6. Offers to forgo salary, sell one house.

7. Sex-change operation.

8. Suspends campaign until Nov. 4, offers to start being president right now.

9. Sells Alaska to Russia for $700 billion.

10. Pledges to serve only one term. OK, half a term.

McCain's Big Gamble with the Country

At White House, McCain Plays Bailout Spoiler... GOP Strategist: Republicans Putting Party First, Not Country... McCain At Meeting: Sat Quietly, Never Offered Specifics... Bush: "If Money Isn't Loosened, This Sucker Could Go Down"... Bailout Talks To Continue...

What Suspension? McCain Campaign Still Active Across The Country...
Debate Will Go On With Or Without McCain

LISTEN TO SARAH PALIN SAY GOBBLE-DE-GOOK

John McCain is a reckless, selfish politician who wants the presidency so desperately that he would foist this uninformed, babbler on America. This is horrible. Listen to her non-answers. She has absolutely no depth on any of the issues facing this nation. What a terrible thing John McCain has done.

MC CAIN'S DESPERATE PLOY

UPDATE: See below.

From the blog "From the Left" http://tinyurl.com/4983f2

"A source close to the McCain campaign told me that Sarah Palin has been preparing for the vice presidential debate each day, spending long hours trying to master the debate concepts of First Affirmative Speaker, First Negative Speaker and Rebuttal. After two weeks of mock debates, things are not going well for the Alaska governor.

Yesterday’s stunning announcement that John McCain will suspend his presidential campaign until there’s an agreement on the $700 billion dollar bailout of Wall Street criminals did not have the ring of truth. For one thing, McCain does not sit on the Senate Committee on Finance. After McCain made his grandiose announcement, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid told McCain he wasn’t needed on Capitol Hill and he was free to continue his campaign.

All of this was followed by McCain surrogate, Sen. Lindsey Graham, telling CNN the McCain campaign is proposing, “that if there’s no bailout deal by Friday, the first presidential debate should replace the VP debate, currently scheduled for next Thursday, October 2nd in St. Louis.” Despite Barack Obama’s insistence the debate will go on, Graham insists McCain “will not go to the debate Friday if there’s no deal on the bailout.”

So there you have it.

John McCain is so worried about the underperforming Sarah Palin in the practice debates and what will inevitably happen when she goes up against the more experienced Joe Biden that McCain is actually trying to kill the vice presidential debate by using the trumped up excuse of returning to Washington to save the country from financial collapse. McCain isn’t trying to save the economy — he’s trying to save Sarah Palin."

McCain admits that, as of Tuesday at least, he hadn't had a chance to look at the Paulson plan yet.

Is he kidding? The Paulson plan is like three pages long.

OBAMA PULLS AHEAD IN THE POLLS, MC CAIN WANTS TO SUSPEND CAMPAIGN AND POSTPONE DEBATE

UPDATE: See below:


McCain admits he can't multi-task.

This is a cynical move, and it's pretty evident what the motivation is.

McCain hasn't been in the Senate to vote since April, but now he feels his presence is needed during this financial crisis, even though the two sides are compromising and finding consensus without the two presidential candidates.

By suspending the campaigns and postponing the debate, McCain will slow Obama's momentum.

Nice ploy, but the American people can see through it.

Early polling shows that a majority of Americans say it is a political move, not putting country first.

If he were putting country first, he would have selected Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge as his vp and not Sarah Palin, who's been hiding from the media for 25 days.

She's not only not ready for prime time, she's not ready for the vice presidency.


Barney Frank from the great blue state of Massachusetts had this to say:

“All of a sudden, now that we’re on the verge of making a deal, John McCain drops himself in to make a deal," Frank said. "I really worry about this politicization of it."

"Frankly, we’re going to have to interrupt a negotiating session tomorrow between the Democrats and Republicans on a bill, where I think we’re getting pretty close, and troop down to the White House for their photo-op, and then come back and get on to it," Frank said.

“We’re trying to rescue the economy, not the McCain campaign,” he added.

WHAT'S GOING AROUND THE INTERNETS (RECEIVED IN MY INBOX)

Dear Sir/Madame:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America . My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion USD. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gramm, lobbyist for UBS, who (God willing) will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a former U.S. congressional leader and the architect of the PALIN /McCain Financial Doctrine, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. As such, you can be assured that this transaction is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours faithfully,

Minister of Treasury Paulson


Republicans - The party that wrecked America

THREE FORMER SEC CHAIRMEN AGREE WITH OBAMA, RE: FINANCIAL CRISIS

From Bloomberg.com: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=alfUj1r0Z10o&refer=politics


Comfortable With Subject

Obama called for the overhaul of the financial-regulatory system and tougher enforcement well before this past week's traumas.


Detached observers who watched him last week, especially in a Bloomberg Television interview, were taken by how conversant and comfortable he was on the subject, despite his thin record. Few detached observers came away with that impression watching the Arizona senator.


Much of the re-regulatory fever focuses on the Federal Reserve and any new agencies created to clean up the fiasco. Central, however, will be a more vigorous Securities and Exchange Commission, or whatever holds that investor-protection function.


McCain displayed a sudden interest in the SEC last week when he demanded that Chairman Chris Cox be fired. When his campaign was asked if the senator had ever criticized the current commission's performance before, they failed to respond.

All For Obama

Tellingly, three former SEC chairmen, a Democrat, Arthur Levitt, and two Republicans, David Ruder and Bill Donaldson, have endorsed Obama. Levitt is a board member of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

Donaldson, who was tapped by Bush to head the SEC, says Obama called him last year about the financial-regulatory problems. He has never heard from McCain.


``Obama has been talking about the need for better financial regulation well before this crisis hit and has done some real thinking about it,'' says Donaldson, a lifelong Republican. ``McCain comes across as someone who suddenly realized changes have to be made.''

There is a case for McCain: it's if you believe in less regulation, that the government should get out of the way and let the markets work their will.

No `Real Understanding'

``I don't think anyone who wants to increase the burden of government regulation and high taxes has any real understanding of economics,'' McCain said this spring at an Inez, Kentucky, town hall meeting, where he also declared ``the fundamentals of our economy are good.''


Until recently, he repeatedly invoked Ronald Reagan's calls for less regulation. He voted for the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley corporate-governance regulations -- then last year said he regretted that vote.


McCain isn't averse to some regulations. He has strongly championed a greater federal role in campaign finance, tobacco and boxing. In each case, he saw a clear villain -- special- interest money, a tobacco product that puts profits ahead of lives, and unscrupulous boxing promoters.


There has been little evidence that prior to last week he ever put financial firms in this category. Although he assailed excessive corporate compensation last week, McCain has opposed a tepid House-passed bill that would give corporate shareholders the right to cast a non-binding vote on compensation of top executives.


Turning to Gramm


The person he has turned to most for counsel on such matters is his ex-Senate colleague Phil Gramm. Gramm is a political Gordon Gekko, a brainy economist with a Darwinian view of markets and public policy.

It's not easy to remember what the financial world looked like 10 days ago much less 10 months ago. Decisions that will be reached after this election will be the most important since the 1930s.
Obama, as more than a few Democrats are complaining, hasn't been as quick, sharp -- or demagogic -- as they would like. McCain has been beset by deeper difficulties: an inchoate and inconsistent message that seems to reflect political exigencies more than principled convictions.
On the financial crisis, last week belonged to Obama.



(Albert R. Hunt is the executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

PALIN THE UNINFORMED, PART XXX

Word is out that the McCain campaign is arranging for Palin to meet some world leaders this week at the UN. After the meeting, her bots will proclaim PALIN HAS FOREIGN POLICY EXPERIENCE, SHE'S MET WITH 3 FOREIGN LEADERS!!!!!

Of course, this ruse is a pathetic joke. Meeting 3 or 4 world leaders just weeks before an election does not make her, or anyone, a foreign policy wonk. They're putting more lipstick on the pitbull hoping her fans keep up the nutty idea that this woman is remotely prepared to be the next vp, never mind possibly a president.

Also, she doesn't know what she's talking about, as usual. She just pulls stuff out of her cramped, little mind hoping no one follows up on it and tells the truth. See below:

When asked by ABC News' Charlie Gibson whether she had ever met a foreign head of state, Palin responded, "I have not and I think if you go back in history and if you ask that question of many vice presidents, they may have the same answer that I just gave you. But, Charlie, again, we've got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time. It is for no more politics as usual and somebody's big, fat resume maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yes, they've had opportunities to meet heads of state."


In fact, every vice president over the last 30 years had met with foreign heads of state before being elected.

JOHN MC CAIN, LIAR