Totally OT, but I just had to share this: on CNN's Ticker they're reporting that John McCain actually compared Sarah Palin to RR and Bill Clinton. As a governor who's been underestimated by the MSM and gone on to greatness. What is he smoking?!?

Apologize?! "You should never blink!" (Sarah Palin).

Steve, the ad doesn't have to make sense. Early voting has started in Ohio. If they can get angry low-info voters to march out and vote against Obama right now, before the ad gets debunked, that's a win for them. Sure, there might be some low-level media embarrassment in their future, but the whole campaign is about the short term, about winning news cycles, about tactics over strategy. This is just more of the same.

right now on CNN, McCain is holding what he calls an "Economic Roundtable". I thought a roundtable means a conference of experts, but apparently to McCain, it means a town hall meeting with a few citizens sitting around a table asking him the types of questions Sarah Palin would excel at.

This certainly lends credence to the notion that the Republicans were attempting to set up the Democrats by leaving them solely responsible (in the public's mind) for a hugely unpopular bill, allowing Republicans to demagogue the issue into November.

And it utterly confirms Pelosi's judgment in providing a majority of Democrats, but not enough to win without a matching majority of Republicans.

It's very important that Republicans in no way be able to walk away from responsibility for whatever compromise solution is passed. The only other alternative is a solution restructured to be entirely a Democratic plan, that Senate Republicans and the Bush administration must adopt in toto as the price for staving off their emergency.

I'd like to second MaryL's astute point above. Much has been made of the infamous GOP campaign machine, but all that's required is an uninformed electorate that votes by impression, instinct and team loyalty - a state of affairs heartily reinforced by a compliant media. How else does one score a point by comparing who you'd rather have a beer with, even if one of them is an alcoholic like Bush?

Remember, the TV media doesn't issue corrections like Newspapers occasionally do...

My jaw hit the floor when I saw that ad not once but twice on TV before I came into work.

Reality and the Republicans part ways many years ago.

Democrats should push their own bill through and make Bush choke on a big fat pretzel that he'll have to sign. Turnabout is fair play and tra-la-la! The Republican party's right hand doesn't know what the hell the left hand is doing, it doesn't even realize that it has soiled itself.

n CNN's Ticker they're reporting that John McCain actually compared Sarah Palin to RR and Bill Clinton.

That was part of the Couric interview with McCain and Palin. Funny, in making that comparison, McCain forgot to mention George W. Bush.

If I were John McCain I'd take a full week off and disappear completely. I'd get my teeth fixed and have a complete fashion makeover. I'd re-emerge like the campaign was just beginning and pretend like nothing that has come before has happened. Granted, it would be weird, and people would wonder what the heck was going on, but its the only thing he can do. Now, every appearance, every move, every utterance just fuels his disaster. He's in a downward spiral of terminal "I'm a joke."

Instead of conceeding, he'll have to make his appearance at an empty hotel ballroom dressed as a clown and sweep up the spotlight.

Democrats should push their own bill through and make Bush choke on a big fat pretzel - The Galloping Trollop

The problem is no one has a solution that is going to solve the crisis. Their best hope is to soften it. If the Dems act alone, the Reps will 1) insist they had nothing to do with the original crisis and 2) the solution was the only problem to begin with.

This is just the "Bridge to Nowhere/Thanks But No Thanks" bullshit again. Just in fast motion. Let's compare:

BRIDGE
1] Palin campaigns on building the Bridge
2] Congress kills the Bridge
3] Palin says she didn't want the Bridge
4] Palin takes credit for killing the Bridge
5] Palin blames Obama for supporting the Bridge

BAILOUT
1] McCain says he must ramrod the bailout for the sake of the country
2] Congress kills the bailout
3] McCain says he didn't want the bailout
4] McCain takes credit for stopping the bailout
5] McCain blames Obama for supporting the bailout

Q.E.D. I'll be in my office.

According to Politico, those RNC ads were received by stations before the debate even began on the bailout bill yesterday.

Maybe OT, but here's my new fear. Cheney has put a lot of time, energy and resources into greatly expanding the executive branch's power. A lot. It's unlikely he and his minions will just allow someone like Obama into the white house to mess it up. Is anyone else thinking that an October surprise might involve invoking marshal law (or whatever the proper term might be), using the economic meltdown as the crisis, and pushing the November election into the future? Like I said, OT, but I read Political Animal and comments a lot (stalker!) and I respect you guys.

Kind of reminds me of the old Popeye cartoons where Popeye is inside Bluto's shirt and Bluto ends up punching himself in the head.

wouldn't "Thanks, but no thanks" (with an image of mcC/P) be a good slogan for obama?

Another indication that the Republicans have decided to make this a party-line issue [ignoring both their own president and their own presidential candidate]: This from this morning's Tennessean:

"But Tom Lawless, a bankruptcy lawyer and chairman of the Davidson County Republican Party, said warnings of catastrophe in the absence of a rescue package have been exaggerated.

'It may be the CEOs in large financial institutions who are concerned, but perhaps they should be,' Lawless said. 'They might look in the mirror and say, 'What can I do to improve this?' It's called tightening your belt. Live within your means.'"

In context, this article mostly quoted local financial and businesspeople expressing concern and alarm over the collapse of the Paulson-Frank-etc. proposal.

In a state of confusion the one with the most accusations wins. McCain is trying to make it seem that he and he alone got all congress together to vote for "his" package that he got others to put together but later found that some dems disagreed with it so it failed but wouldn't have if dems would have been nicer and put country first so now McCain will have to get them all back together again and spank them for their failure. We are to believe "It takes a McCain". Just pathetic. The man can screw up anything he touches...just like Bush.

Pay back for unregulated greed. Losing a mansion or a plane or a yacht is a bitch just like losing $40mil out of $100 mil owned really makes me want to payfor the next 20yrs to keep that from happening...yup, yup. It's "Idiocracy" to bail out the wealthiest.

Robbed us for oil profits, war profits, mortgage profits, health ins profits and now robbing us on the way out the door. No bailout and they are lucky we aren't shooting them and confiscating their holdings.

Add up those CEO bonuses and salaries and the short term profits accumulated the last 8yrs and you would have more than enough to pay $700 billion and wall street owners would have what they had 8yrs ago.

Posted by: chrenson on September 30, 2008 at 12:03 PM:
Excellent comparison analysis...lol.

I saw one of those ads yesterday in Minnesota, at 5:00 PM. I was also confused about who exactly made the ad. At the end it showed "RNC" in the lower left hand corner, "McCain Palin" in the lower right hand corner, and said "I'm John McCain and I approved this message." Do ads from the party have to be approved by the candidate? Anyway, I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more attention.

...what obama and the democrats have yet to explain is why they so srongly opposed regulating Fannie and Freddie...and why they opposed the attempts of McCainand others only 2 years ago to avert this disaster...simple questions...but never an answer...instead there is some sort of one liner attack point...

...they need to also explain obama's connection to ACORN

...obama showed a total lack of leadership in this issue...he said he would "probably" support it...that is not good enough...then he had prepared remarks based on his assumption that the bill would go through...any senator should be more involved and aware than that...especially one that is applying for the job of president...

...and the democrats need to explain pelosi...why she did not do her job properly...she said she wanted Republican votes too...then she gave her congressmen the option of voting against...then she let a very important bill go to vote without getting the votes lined up..

...and then this simplistic "blame everything on Bush" he is not the king...they have had a majority for 2 years...they opposed getting fannie and freddie under control and insisting basic standards for loans be enforced with the claim of risk free assets...discuss the issues in a bit of detail instead of this simplistic personal insults approach which is an insult to the intelligence of average americans...

...pelosi has a significantly lower approval rating than bush...

..and I think as the facts come out regardless of the media's major contribution to the democrats, the wheels are going to come off the obama reid pelosi bus and mccain will actually win....obama socialism does not represent the majority of americans and this financial crises is proof it does not work