McCain blames Obama and other Democrats for bailout bill failure

The bailout bill failed to pass the House today. The McCain campaign quickly blamed Obama and the rest of the Democrats in Congress. As usual, the McCain campaign is completely divorced from reality. Here are the facts on the House vote:

The vote failed 228 to 205.

Democrats: 140 for, 95 against.
Republicans: 65 for, 133 against.

And it's the Democrats fault? How stupid does McCain think we are?!

No clear winner and why it bodes well for Obama

I don't think either candidate had a significant edge in the substance of the debate or in "scoring points" against each other. It just wasn't decisive one way or the other.

That said, I see two points that bode well for Obama.

Point one: Appearances. Where was McCain looking? As has been graphically illustrated repeatedly in this thread, Obama turned and addressed John McCain. McCain looked, I'm not sure where (at Lehrer?), but it wasn't at Obama. McCain threw some odd facial expressions while Obama was talking as well. I don't like the fact that appearances count so much in elections, but they do.

Point two: If any debate was going to play to McCain's strengths, it was this one, the foreign policy debate. Obama held his own and I don't expect to see much movement in the polls from this debate. The toughest night for Obama is now out of the way. He'll likely get stronger in the next two debates. Then there's the VP debate, which if Palin doesn't get it together better than she has in her interviews thus far, is going to be a bloodbath.

McCain cancels Letterman because of crisis

Well, that's what ol' Johnny said anyway. It turns out he was just down the street talking to Katie Couric. Oops! Can this guy become anymore of a joke? Word is that Letterman tears into him for it. I'll be watching the show tonight.

He wants to postpone the Presidential debate so he can run around Washington pretending to solve the financial crisis in an effort to look more presidential. The crisis is a situation that other lawmakers have been working on all week in negotiations that McCain has had no significant part in at all. Harry Reid said today that he doesn't want either candidate there right now, dragging presidential campaign politics into the midst of tense, difficult, extremely time-sensitive negotiations.

Now the McCain campaign is saying they want to postpone the VP debate too. So let's recap:

They've been shielding Palin almost entirely from the press since her selection.
They got the VP debate format changed to have shorter answers and less time for back and forth between the candidates.
They now want to postpone both the presidential and vice-presidential debates.

It's very clear that the McCain campaign does not want to deal with any tough questions about major issues facing America. They want to make this election about the same old cultural wedge issues the Republicans have been using for many years now. It's their only chance to win.

It's the economy, stupid

The disaster on Wall Street continues and the US government is planning a taxpayer funded rescue plan that's expected to cost at least $500 billion and quite possibly $1 trillion. Alan Greenspan called the current situation a "once in a century event". NY Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman was just talking about how serious this crisis really is on the Rachel Maddow show. Apparently current Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke and others told Congress today that if this rescue plan wasn't happening, we'd have the 1931 bank crash all over again. Literally no one would be able to get a loan and the economy would grind to a halt. The consequences, much like the Great Depression, would be catastrophic. Even with the government bailout, no one knows if it's going to be enough.

A Newsweek journalist just made an interesting point. "We are all socialists now." The bailout plan is necessary, but socialist in nature.

Campaign declares Palin above the law

Add Sarah Palin's husband to the growing list of people associated with trooper-gate who will refuse to cooperate with the Alaskan legislature's lawful subpoenas. The McCain campaign had already said that Palin's aides would not be cooperating.

In other words, the campaign has declared the Palins above the law. They know that the next step for Alaska's state congress would be to hold anyone refusing the subpoenas in contempt, but congress won't reconvene until January, obviously well after the election.

The Palins have taken a page from the Bush administration in refusing lawful subpoenas. It worked for Bush's staff because Congress has no balls. It'll probably work for Palin too. It's just stunning that a candidate would do it though. When they finally get around to reconvening, the Alaskan legislature should start with holding all of these corrupt fools in contempt. Then assuming McCain/Palin loses the Presidential race, the next step should be to force Palin to cooperate with the investigation or kick her ass out of the governor's mansion. The end. If they somehow win the Presidential race, well, we'll have far bigger problems.

Inconsistency

John McCain managed to contradict himself in a single day this week, truly an impressive feat! On Monday he said that "the fundamentals of the US economy are strong". Three hours later he said, "the fundamentals of the US economy are at risk."

In the intervening three hours, the Obama campaign was already rolling out a new commercial attacking McCain for saying the economy is strong when so many Americans are hurting. Presumably the McCain campaign went into damage control mode immediately. Now in an even bigger stretch, McCain has been claiming that by the fundamentals being strong, he meant American workers and whatnot because you know, we're the best workers and such. Yeaahhh... sure ya did, John. Sure ya did.

Now to recap a few of his other notable positions that he's completely changed his tune on in just the last couple years and even the last few months:

McCain was against government regulation of business before he was for it. He seems to have changed his mind just this week.

He was for stem cell research before he was against it.

He was for keeping Roe v. Wade intact before he wanted to overturn it.

He was against offshore drilling (just this past spring) before he was for it.

He was for his OWN immigration reform bill before he was against it. Yes, in January he said he would vote against his own immigration bill even in its original form.

He was for the supposedly vital qualification of experience to be President before he selected an inexperienced running mate whom he'd put a heartbeat from the Presidency.

Doesn't a subpoena mean you have to show up?

I don't understand how the GOP can do it. At the federal level the Bush administration has already ignored subpoenas without consequence. Now it's happening at the state level. Palin, who previously said she would comply with the Alaskan legislature's investigation, is now refusing to do so. What a shocker. To wit: "Aides to Gov. Sarah Palin won't comply with subpoenas issued by state lawmakers "

How the hell does that work? Is the conversation pretty much this?
Legislature: We've subpoenaed some of your people. We'll be taking their testimony.
Executive: No.
Legislature: Oh, ok.

Today Mudflats makes the case that accusations of the investigation being a Democratic hit job on Palin are completely ridiculous and unfounded.

Among other things, the investigation started this past summer when "the Legislature’s Legislative Council voted 12-0 (8 Republicans and 4 Democrats) to hire an investigator, and appointed Democratic Senator Hollis French, a well-respected former prosecutor, to find an investigator. "

Last friday: "on Friday the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 (2 Democrats and 1 Republican in favor); and the House Judiciary Committee issued a 7 - 0 (5 Republicans, 2 Democrats) advisory vote, to issue subpoenas to witnesses the McCain camp had previously stopped from testifying."

In deeply Republican Alaska, Democrat Hollis French is so popular and well respected that the GOP didn't even run someone against him this year. This is the guy they now claim is out to get poor Mrs. Palin.

Then it gets weird... Palin filed an ethics complaint against herself in an effort to get the whole case moved to a state personnel board made up entirely of Republican appointees. Now her lawyers are withdrawing their own ethics complaint saying she doesn't appear to have done anything wrong, so it should all just go away. Seriously.

Mudflats article here.

Reporters are scary!

Palin will refuse to cooperate with the Alaska trooper investigation. Everyone had to see that coming. She pledged full cooperation before being picked as McCain's running mate, like that would last after. As soon as I heard a report on the investigation was due on Oct 31st, I said the McCain campaign will use stalling tactics to push it out past the election. Sure enough. Corruption, thy name is the GOP.

And by the way, the bipartisan panel in Alaska investigating Palin, the one she now wants us to believe is a tainted partisan witch hunt... yeah, it has 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats on it.

So we're supposed to believe that Sarah Palin is ready to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency, but the McCain campaign won't even let most reporters talk to her. Campaign manager Rick Davis said they wouldn't let the press talk to her until they showed "respect and deference". ie. He wants softball questions.

When they finally did allow one interview, last Thursday's sit down with Charlie Gibson, it was clear just how ignorant Palin was on foreign policy. Now they're once again keeping the press at bay until her next permitted interview. And who's it with? Sean Hannity. yes, Sean freaking Hannity, a guy who if anything is to the right of Rush Limbaugh. Expect to hear questions along the lines of, "how did you get to be so spectacular, Governor Palin?!"

This is laughable. Colbert nailed it tonight saying that she's ready to be VP, to face down world leaders, but watch out for those prickly Kansas Star reporters!

Palin links 9/11 to the Iraq war, doesn't know what Bush Doctrine is

Sarah Palin linked 9/11 to the Iraq war, "telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would 'defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.'"

The really scary part? She said that on 9/11/2008. Years after it has been shown conclusively that Iraq had NOTHING to do with the 9/11 attacks, a claim that even the Bush administration has had to drop, she's still linking the Iraq and 9/11. Unbelievable.

Also coming out today, in her interview with Charlie Gibson, Sarah Palin was asked her opinion of the Bush Doctrine. As you can objectively see in this clip, she doesn't know what it is!

We are freaking doomed if this ticket wins the election in November.

Obama-McCain tax plan - the truth vs. the lies

I am becoming deeply concerned about the misinformation on this issue. The "fact check" article here -
MSNBC: Lie or Fact - tells us that even now, 51% of people think that Obama will raise their taxes. Excerpt:

"A Washington Post-ABC News poll taken Sept. 5 to Sept. 7 found that 51 percent of voters think Obama would raise their taxes, even though his plan would actually cut taxes for the overwhelming majority of Americans. Obama has proposed eliminating income taxes on seniors making less than $50,000 a year, but 41 percent of those seniors say their income taxes would go up in an Obama administration."

This misconception is because of the McCain campaign advertisements that blatantly lie about Obama's tax plan. Unfortunately it is also, in my opinion, because the Obama campaign has not effectively hit back against the lie.

Where's the national advertisement? An ad explaining in succinct detail the tax breaks in Obama's plan should be a centerpiece of the campaign! The fact is that under Obama's plan, most Americans will get a bigger tax cut than they will under McCain's plan, and only the top 2% or so will see their taxes go up. The campaign should be blasting this information from every outlet they can!

Where's the concise response from the campaign during appearances and to the press? I've seen a little of that, but not nearly enough. They need to employ repetition on behalf of the truth in the same way that the McCain campaign is using repetition of a lie to drive it into voters' heads.

For reference, the Tax Policy Center has an extensive analysis of both candidates' tax plans.

We don't need no education

College education level of our Presidential/VP candidates:

John McCain: Graduated from the US Naval Academy, ranked 894th in a class of 899.
Sarah Palin: BS in communications-journalism from U. of Idaho

Barack Obama: Law degree, Juris Doctor magna cum laude from Harvard, undergrad was a poly-sci major with specialization in international relations from Columbia U.
Joe Biden: Law degree, Juris Doctor from Syracuse University, undergrad was double major in history/poly-sci from U. of Delaware

The PTA - a stepping stone to the Presidency?

Yesterday in an interview with Brian Williams, John McCain defended the experience level of his VP pick and argued that she has more experience than Obama. In ticking off her experience, he included, I shit you not, her PTA membership. Her freaking PTA membership! I really, really wish I was joking. Yeah, there's a qualification for being a heartbeat away from the Presidency!

Senator McCain apparently also counts being a mayor of a town of fewer than 7,000 people in rural Alaska as more impressive experience than the Illinois Senate.

Again, the only reason he made this VP pick is obviously because she has ovaries. She's not the only pro-life, pro-gun pick he could have found and she's far less qualified than almost anyone on his short list. Oh, and speaking of pro-life, Palin is on the extreme side of pro-life. She wants no abortions allowed even in cases of rape and incest. This woman is a religious fundamentalist who wants to teach Creationism in public schools. So of course the religious right is now ecstatic about a ticket they barely cared about before.

Truly this election has become even moreso a test of ignorance. Are we as a nation stupid enough to continue down the path of the last eight years? Are we willing to elect another administration that's based on wedge issues and ideaology rather than an intelligent analysis of the issues?