McCrazy

With his numbers nosediving in polls from The Wall Street Journal to even Fox News, with news of McCain getting $5,000 make-up treatments, with Laura Bush agreeing that Sarah Palin has zero foreign policy experience, and with Palin herself tanking in an interview with Katie Couric:



...what's a hero to do? Meltdown.

From Reuters:

Republican White House hopeful John McCain threw the campaign into turmoil on Wednesday by calling for a delay in the first presidential debate to try to forge a Wall Street rescue plan -- a surprise move promptly rejected by Democrat Barack Obama

The political stunner came as some polls showed McCain falling behind Obama in their race for the November 4 election. Republicans and the White House welcomed McCain's move as a needed appeal for both parties to work together, while Democrats suspected a publicity stunt.

Y'think? Why the hell is McCain scared to be seen on the same stage as Obama -- unless he's somehow stacked the deck. And why are they trying to push off the Vice Presidential debate between Biden and, gulp, cratering Sarah Palin? Could it be...panic?

McCain's appeal is a cynical move based on a genuine economic crisis. Not the economic crisis in Washington. The financial crisis is in McCain's campaign. McCain has only $85 million to play with. Even though the RNC is skirting the fringes of election law and subsidizing McCain's ad campaign, McCain is still at a disastrous financial disadvantage. Obama plans to spend $40 million in Florida alone.

Every day McCain can shave from the remaining forty odd days left in the campaign via "suspending" his campaign makes his financial disadvantage less significant. Con the media into giving him free airtime to cover his "surprising announcement?" Good. Bully Obama into pulling ads? Even better.

The fact is that previous debates have been held while a crisis was happening and each candidate could walk and chew gum at the same time. Per Obama:

"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," said Obama. "Part of the president's job is to deal with more than one thing at once."

And while McCain pretended he couldn't get back to Obama when Barack approached him about doing a bipartisan statement, he was actually meeting with mega-wealthy ex-Clinton supporter Lady Lynn Forester de Rothchild. You know, "Country First."

Harold Meyerson nails what's really going on here, and it is appalling:

Slipping in the polls? Concerned that Americans may be paying more attention to the declining economy -- and even supporting economic regulation again -- than to your own stellar leadership abilities?

What's a Republican presidential nominee to do?

If you're named John McCain, the answer became apparent yesterday afternoon -- make the solution to the economic crisis all about yourself. Suspend your campaign. Pull out of tomorrow's debate -- a trivial exercise merely allowing Americans to judge the two candidates side by side. Change the terms of the nation's economic discussion from the course we should take, and the defects of the laissez-faire model that got us here, to the indispensability of John McCain, leader of leaders.

Meanwhile, those doing the real work and late hours all this week to craft a deal like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tell McCain to stay away. Rep. Barney Frank goes further:

"All of sudden, now that we are on the verge of making a deal, John McCain here drops himself in to help us make a deal, Frank said.

He expressed fear that McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona who has spent much of the year away from the Capitol campaigning, could end up slowing down work on the bill.

The Massachusetts Democrat noted that a meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday will be interrupted for a "photo op" at the White House with congressional Democrats and Republicans as well as Bush.

"We're trying to rescue the economy, not the McCain campaign," Frank said.

Aside from the fact that "Ole Miss" has been preparing for this debate for ages and that cancellation by McCain would cause yet another financial crisis, losing them several million dollars, there's the psycho nature of the whole ploy, per Michael Tomasky:

Think about the kind of mind that's required to even think up something like this. I could never think up something like this. Most average people, of whatever political persuasion, could never do it. Some pundits are talking about desperation and Hail Mary passes and so on, but that doesn't really begin to describe the deviousness at work here.

This is like a man who gets caught cheating on his wife and then, with his back against the wall and with confrontation looming, goes out and intentionally wrecks the car, contriving to break a few ribs and get rushed to the hospital, all to delay the inevitable conflict and in the cynical knowledge that, in front of the doctors and until the wounds are bound, the wife will be forced to offer sympathy. Males are messed up creatures, but believe me, only a rather small percentage of us is really capable of thinking this connivingly.

I mean, which one of these two is shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater, and which one would you trust in a Presidential crisis:





Clue: It's the one who took questions.

(And, more ominously, who's left eye isn't twitching like something medical is going wrong inside.)

But the most brutal commentator of all today was none other than David Letterman, stood up by McCain supposedly so the Senator could jet back to D.C. (where he's missed more votes this year than any other Senator) and solve the crisis, but was revealed to be in studio with Katie Couric, possibly to try and drown out the Palin interview. And it looks like Letterman is not a guy you want to stand up:



Ouch, ouch, ouch. For the whole show. Relentless. So McCain is down in the 4th Quarter and, for a multitude of reasons, calls for a time out.

Matthew Yglesias recalls what happens when you try a stunt like that.

McIncoming

Is John McCain's campaign going to be buried in enough bad news to sink it?

After trying to smear Obama on the Freddie Mac/Fanny Mae mortgage crisis, it turns out that it is actually his Campaign Manager, Rick Davis, who's on their lobbying payroll:

One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.

The disclosure undercuts a remark by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years.

As my son likes to say, that's gotta hurt!

Kinda negates the McCain campaign's lambasting of The New York Times just a day ago. Seems they can't stand being called liars. After all, this is politics, right? Maybe they were brought up to believe it was okay to lie, even better to win the lie count contest.

But the incoming fire from the Obama campaign might be enough to keep McCain knocked back on his heels. There's not only Obama taking it to him on the economy, but also faster out of the gate on Iran's Ahmadinejad's latest anti-Semitic remarks while also urging McCain to join him in supporting a bipartisan bill, as well as (being a little to demogogic for my tastes) slamming McCain for his fleet of cars:

In response to all this (and more on Palin below) McCain seems to be dummying up all around, earning the new sobriquet, "No-Talk Express":

He's doing the same thing his campaign has mandated for running mate Sarah Palin. She's being shielded from the press in every way possible, even while arranging bullshit photo ops with world leaders (aw, her very first!), earning more ire from journalists:

The McCain-Palin campaign tried to prevent reporters and television producers from viewing the vice presidential nominee's meetings with world leaders during the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday.

The campaign had planned to allow a “pool” camera and producer -- serving as representatives for all five television networks -- as well as wire and newspaper reporters into of most of Palin's meetings. But, at the last minute, the campaign informed the press corps that only cameras – without reporters or producers accompanying them – would be permitted.

The five television networks protested, threatening not to shoot video of the meeting at all unless an editorial presence was allowed into the meeting...

..One aide (possibly from Karzai’s entourage) repeatedly said “No writers” and tried to block the CNN producer from entering the room during the Karzai meeting, according to a pool report, but a senior Palin aide allowed the producer to enter...

...Members of the press were in the room for a total of 29 seconds during the Karzai meeting, according to the pool report....

...She has not held a press conference since being chosen by McCain four weeks ago, and has not done the traditional local interviews when traveling into media markets.

On Sunday, Palin stopped at an Orlando ice cream shop but reporters were not told of the event so an editorial representative was not sent. Several days earlier, press aides were surprised that a pool reporter asked questions about the economic situation during a stop at a deli in Cleveland.

She can't handle the truth. And there's ample reason why -- it's prosecutable:

The reason Gov. Palin has abandoned her truth and transparent, open and honest aura with her foolish and obvious coverup and trail of lies is simple. Troopergate is not about trying to get her ex-brother-in-law, trooper Mike Wooten, fired. It's not even about the firing of her Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Troopergate is about something the public has not yet picked up on...

...The real damage to Palin from Troopergate comes with an injury claim involving trooper Wooten when he hurt his back while in the line of duty.

Independent investigator Steve Branchflower testified recently he believes someone in the governor's office tried to block Wooten's workers' compensation injury benefits.

Harbor Adjustment Services, the company hired by the state to process, evaluate and decide on workers' benefit claims, had great financial incentive in bowing to pressure from the governor to deny Wooten's injury claim...

...But Branchflower says an employee with Harbor Adjustment Services contradicts the owner and has testified the governor's office did apply pressure to deny Wooten his benefits...

...Dianne Kiesel, a state employee with the Department of Administration, tells me former Palin chief of staff Mike Tibbles instructed her to walk Wooten's personnel file over to the governor's office.

And there is the governor's aide, Frank Bailey, caught on tape admitting he has information that came from Wooten's workers' comp file.

The very file that includes pictures, taken by none other than Todd Palin, of Wooten riding a snowmachine trying to prove the trooper was not injured.

Here's why this is all so damaging to the governor. It's one thing to try to get a trooper fired because you believe he is a danger to the public. But using your considerable power as governor to block the benefits of a former family member you have a long-running dispute with moves this scandal into a new realm.

Vindictive Sarah even had her husband go shoot some "evidence." How Mayberry is that?

She's still stacking the deck, pretending now that she'll cooperate in the probe. But the reality is:

Less than a week after balking at the Alaska Legislature's investigation into her alleged abuse of power, Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday indicated she will cooperate with a separate probe run by people she can fire.

The fix is is in, baby! But hasn't the GOP learned anything yet about getting nailed worse later for the cover-up?

Andrew Sullivan's been doing the yeoman's job of cataloguing Palin's lies and is up to a solid, fact-checked twelve. And there's still 41 more days until the election for her to run up the count.

Nice executive decision, Johnny.

I hope it keeps you busy.

Presidential

All you need to know:



Besides the remarkable unanimity, I think Sam Donaldson opens up the most potentially damaging hidden point, that McCain's age is addressable as an issue in regard to his inability to find a consistent voice. It's something Obama seems to do to his more traditionally rhetorical political opponents, witness Hillary's shifts even as she self-consciously took us through "finding her voice." The problem an ingrained D.C.-type politician has with using his or her traditional voice against Obama is that it is by nature a media feeder, a kind of meta-rhetoric designed to win news cycles, while Obama's just telling the truth. So that "experienced" politician has to find a way to be truthful all the time with their voice, which isn't as easy as it sounds.

So for McCain to try and find his consistently truthful voice right after his 72nd birthday is by nature a difficult task. At 47, some change is understandable. Even finding your footing as a female politician age 60 after years of working for your husband's ambitions, that's not entirely impossible to imagine. But Donaldson is right -- if McCain's voice is flailing around in a single day when he's supposed to be the experienced, battle-tested guy...

Well, with the election 42 days away, how much more time does he expect us to give him?

Bailout Battlelines

So the $700,000,000,000 tab being sent to Congress by Treasury Secretary Paulson and George W. Bush calls for, surprise surprise, no oversight:

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Um...bullshit?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rejects the lack of oversight:

"We will not simply hand over a $700 billion blank check to Wall Street and hope for a better outcome. Democrats will act responsibly to insulate Main Street from Wall Street."

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) joins Pelosi (yep, he must hate that headline).

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), once again, actually lays down lines in the sand:

First, there must be no blank check when American taxpayers are on the hook for this much money.

Second, taxpayers shouldn't be spending a dime to reward CEOs on Wall Street.

Third, taxpayers should be protected and should be able to recoup this investment.

Fourth, this plan has to help homeowners stay in their homes.

Fifth, this is a global crisis, and the United States must insist that other nations join us in helping secure the financial markets.

Sixth, we need to start putting in place the rules of the road I've been calling for for years to prevent this from ever happening again.

And finally, this plan can't just be a plan for Wall Street, it has to be a plan for Main Street.

More details on the principles on his website, from Sunday in Charlotte, NC:



If you're a fan of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) better, here you go.

This is what's called an inflection point, and it's crucial that our representative leaders don't blow it. This is the moment of leverage and it won't come back if Paulson's plan is passed as is. Let history be the teacher: Bush and Cheney gave away half of our U.S. Treasury to private bigwigs with the Iraq War.

Don't let them use this crisis to finish the job.

Approved

I like this.

If she has to have a cult of personality, I'm pleased she's putting it to such good use. "Hillary Sent Me" allows her supporters to vote for and even work for Obama's election while retaining their sense of Hillary identification.

I mean, can you imagine "Mitt Sent Me"?

Exhausted

This must have been the most exhausting week in politics of the year...if not for America, at least for John McCain.

He's seen his stature drop due to his ill conceived running mate pick -- she has effectively boxed him out. BAGnewsNotes is the link, and compares his obvious discomfort with his chosen self-damnation to this photo of McCain with politicians with whom he actually enjoyed tooling around.

His running mate also bring more baggage than just husband, children and imminent teen-mom grandchild -- she's forcing his campaign to work up fresh, failing lies daily with her to cover her burgeoning scandal back home.

And the economic scandal that has us all "a little panicked," as Barack Obama now credibly refers to McCain is a boulder he can't outrun, not when he has his name on pieces coming out like this:

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.

Ah, the secret of great comedy.

Timing.

McChaos

Has John McCain lost whatever precarious control he might have once held over his campaign?

Is he even at the top of the ticket anymore:



Wow, a Palin-McCain Administration. That was quick!

Maybe he should turn it all over to her, since she's rapidly becoming more headache than he signed on for with his split-second vetting process. Her husband has now joined her in stonewalling investigators in her Troopergate scandal. Today's lie-of-the-day revelation is that while she may have cut her mayoral salary when first taking office, it ended up higher still than the original level, not to mention her unilateral $50,000 office redecoration. And then there's her in a speech today proposing the very same federal transparency law that Barack Obama already co-sponsored and got passed in the Senate. You know, that guy she and McCain say has "zero" legislative accomplishment.

In fact, the McCain campaign's idea of control here is to call up Alaskan truth-telling investigative reporters to try and intimidate them into shutting up!

What else if OOC (Out Of Control) for McCain? Besides the whole rain in Spain fiasco noted yesterday, today he went medieval on the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman, former GOP Congressman Chris Cox, which isn't exactly something a President can do, even if it were to somehow magically solve the collapse created by decades of GOP led financial deregulation. A statement like that is technically called, in campaign terms, "flailing."

None of the events this past week make Johnny's Social Security privatization stance appear like a smart idea, either:



Then there's his fellow Republicans. Karl Rove using terms like "angry" and "hothead" to describe the nominee, true GOP maverick Chuck Hagel calling out Palin as not ready, and another true GOP maverick, Maryland Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, endorsing Barack Obama. No control over elements of his own party.

And what is to be made of the latest smears against Obama? The Republican Jewish Coalition, in a large paid print ad, is pretending some sort of connection between Pat Buchanan and Obama, in a transparent and dishonest attempt to scare elderly Jews away from voting for him. Meanwhile the McCain campaign itself has once again injected race in to the race, getting called out by Time's Karen Tumulty for their barely disguised race-baiting ad: "Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman."

If that's McCain exerting control, it looks even worse.

And on the other side of the campaign, there's Obama working a target-rich environment, running an ad highlighting McCain economic advisers Carly Fiorina and Phil Gramm, and openly ridiculing McCain's flip-flops with comparisons to Saturday Night Live sketches and getting laughs saying that McCain can't decide if he's Barry Goldwater or...wait for it...Dennis Kucinich.

Right now the crowds are laughing along with Barack, and in politics the ridicule stage is always the beginning of the end. Witness Stephen Colbert at the White House Press Correspondents Dinner, when the room wasn't laughing but by the end of the week everyone else in America was -- at Bush. It was the turning point.

This is the piercing of the McCain teflon. The press corps is finally abandoning him, and while an international incident or an above-expectations first debate performance (the one on foreign affairs, McCain's supposed strength) might turn things around for Johnny. Maybe Obama falters, maybe McCain crates a strong enough diversion.

But follow the laughter. If you hear enough of it, in big enough crowds, public enough places or by the commentators themselves against Sarah Palin or her running mate, it'll be all over.

Like with this guy.

McConfused

Is John McCain flip-flopping or confused?

On regulation of the financial markets and institutions, he was anti-regulatory until, I believe, yesterday. ABC News calls him out on it. At the same time, today, he seemed to confuse Spain with some Latin American country with which we maybe don't have perfect relations. In the Spanish language papers, he's coming across short of an international incident, just rather...loco.

Good news for John, however -- he did, indeed, gain a Hillary Clinton supporter, and one who says she's for him because, ""I don't like him. I feel like he is an elitist."

Damn, she must have credibility then, right?

If only she weren't, and I kid you not, Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, wife of Sir Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England, with whom she splits their time between New York City and a British country estate:



Ah, just the kind of crossover support Sir John McCain doesn't need. Might even make him nostalgic for Carly Fiorina.

This week has been the turning point in the Presidential campaign, and McCain has been completely blindsided. Why bother asking what's McCain's plan for the economy -- he doesn't even have a plan to win the election, which the Obama campaign is laying theirs out in public, via email today to supporters, David Plouffe being transparent and, I think, convincing:



I mean, $39 million to seriously contest Florida. If that isn't a gauntlet thrown down before the McCain campaign, what is?

Back to the turning point -- it's in the polls, including a new poll showing Obama ahead in traditionally red Indiana. But the big trend polls are the lead flipping on Gallup Daily, Obama 47% vs. McCain 45%, and in the CBS News poll. In that one, last week it was McCain 46% Obama 44%, tonight it's Obama 48% McCain 43%.

Here's my prediction: barring Obama having an Edwards-level scandal, I don't think it's going to matter what slime they try to throw at him, these numbers will never be this tight again. If anything, the Obama campaign, steeped in Internet enterprise culture, knows that it's a winner-take-all world now, and mindshare is everything.

Without Palin I'd have given McCain a 38% floor, absolute rock bottom. With Palin I think it could be 42%, still giving Obama room enough for a landslide.

The semiotics of the campaigns are interesting now. Obama comes across cool, even-handed but firm and willing to duke. His produced ads are efficient and clear, his email blasts focused and just frequent enough. I expect them to accelerate as we close in on election day, but he's showing excellent taste throughout both new and traditional media. The only other big video element of his campaign is the raw, man-with-a-camera clips from his stump speeches daily, sometimes a zinger like this:



McCain's semiotics are, however, all over the place. He's for this one day, he's against it the next in a different, jarring setting. His banking crisis ad is a mishmash of fear evoking imagery, unfortunately for McCain having him in a black-box netherspace, as if giving us his word on the economy from an undisclosed sci-fi bunker:



And he falls back onto biography at the end, the biggest mistake any Presidential candidate can make. It's vision we vote for, even ersatz if the other side has zero. Kerry lost on biography. McCain also acts like he's somehow "Best Manager," a big traditional loser for Dems (Mondale/Dukakis/Gore) which is rather ridiculous when today's claim is that he was Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee. On one hand, he once again misstates, this time its jurisdiction. But the other reason this is a loser for him is so much more obvious.

It's like raising your hand when the teacher asks who set off the fire alarm, and there's the identifying ink from the security system all over it.

Are you trying to get nailed?

McCatastrophe

John McCain started the day by losing his temper through gritted teeth and coming off, well, like what he often calls "a little jerk":



Damn, I may not even have to wait for minute 45 of that first debate on 9/26 for him to snap.

Meanwhile, his so-called economic advisor, the loser-CEO who only raised HP's value by leaving, Carly Fiorina, hit a double today, first saying that Sarah Palin was unfit to head a major corporation, then taking the self-correction opportunity to extend that cogent analysis to the top of the ticket as well:



By knocking herself off the air -- or, as a McCain spokesperson put it, will be "disappeared" like a government enemy in Pinochet's Argentina, canceling further TV appearances this week -- she has knock another leg of McCain teetering stool of viable campaign spokespeople:

"Carly will now disappear," this source said. "Senator McCain was furious." Asked to define "disappear," this source said, adding that she would be off TV for a while – but remain at the Republican National Committee and keep her role as head of the party’s joint fundraising committee with the McCain campaign.

Fiorina was the only ubiquitous woman beside the increasingly icky Sarah Palin to boot.

All Obama has to do is play McCain's own quotes in his ads:



The fact is that no matter what he flip-flops, McCain is losing the confidence of the American public that he can handle the economy by the day, i.e. by 4 points over the past 24 hours. Between his lies and those of his chosen running mate, along with her stonewalling of the Troopergate investigation which can now only fester and his loss of control over his own temper as metaphor for losing control over Fiorina and his campaign, the only question is whether it is all enough to send his polling numbers into Bush-like freefall.

Meanwhile, not only does such an authority as Warren Buffett believe that Obama could run a business, here's how the Dem candidates are looking out there, starting with "Riding the Rails with Amtrak Joe" in The New York Times:

The train arrived in Wilmington at 3:16 p.m. Amtrak Joe walked the platform, shaking hands with cops and Amtrak workers.

At one point, he reached into an open door for one last hand-shake with another Amtrak employee and the automatic doors nearly closed on his arms. “You’re like family,” Biden said, pulling his arm away.

And the top of the ticket -- as the financial meltdown reinforces his longtime message, he's on fire:



A helluva lot less gloomy that the other side, even as he tells the truth.

He saw it coming. What more needs to be said?

The Meme Takes Root: McLiar

Here's a great new website. After all, John McCain lies so regularly now, you need a Wiki just to keep track.

We'll see if it spreads nationwide as it should, if it reaches voters and turns polls, working hand-in-hand with the GOP deregulation-fest financial meltdown. But even Fox News is calling out McCain for lying.

And how about the once-Master himself:



It's so bad that someone in the McCain camp pulled the plug on this interview:



Yep, they're starting to run scared. Even McCain is forced to admit his own lies:

Did Barack Obama really call Sarah Palin a pig, as a John McCain ad leads people to believe? "No," McCain said Monday. The Republican presidential nominee defended the ad anyway, saying Obama "chooses his words very carefully."

Whine, whine, whine, Johnny "Doubletalk" McCain. Obama's new ad makes it plain that all the news sources agree -- McCain's honor and integrity are things of the past:



Don't just believe the ad, read U.S. News and World Report, for heaven's sake. Read Richard Cohen (of all people!) in the Washington Post, who admits in Monday's column that he was once in the tank for McCain:

McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains -- his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that's all -- but just as honorably. No more, though.

I'll date the moment that McCain set his demise in motion as the final night of the Democratic National Convention when Obama's powerfully executed four day event climaxed with his blockbuster speech, making John McCain flinch enough to cynically pick Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate. The emperor has no clothes because the empress was a short-term sucker move and all but the die-hard can see it now, thanks to Charlie Gibson and her own unblinking egomania.

As for McPalin, not only does the Earmark Queen of Alaska lie about her $453 million in earmarks, not only is she refusing (through the McCain campaign spokespeople!) to cooperate with the investigation of her Troopergate lies, not only does she continue to lie again today about her opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere, not only does she lie about how much energy Alaska contributes to the U.S., but even her skin tone is a lie -- she had a tanning bed installed in the Governor's Mansion!

Like the candidate says, if you believe anything that you hear from McCain and his chosen successor, I've got a bridge to sell you...:

Two More Down

It looks like Merrill Lynch is being saved by Bank of America, although there will be massive layoffs to be sure. The short story tells you everything you need to know about how few wealthy individuals control the economic fates of this country:

“A hundred guys flew this firm into a mountain,” said a broker who works for Merrill in California and asked to remain anonymous because he did not have permission to speak with reporters. “It’s really sad. Now we’re going to be a bank like every one else.”

Sorry they'll just be a bank, as if there's something wrong with that, but over at Lehman Brothers it's worse. In fact, this 158 year-old company, formed by three brothers in Montgomery, Alabama to act as a brokerage house for buyers and sellers of cotton, is just going bankrupt.

What does this mean for the average investor? If you own shares of Lehman, it probably means they're worthless. As Lehman primarily served institutions rather than reg'lar folks like you and me, it may not hit the residents of Main Street in their homes, but it sure as hell will play havoc with the capital markets, including start-up type funds, the kind that help America stay ahead in the 21st Century global order.

Oh, and insurance giant AIG (American International Group) is close to doomsday as well, seeking $40 billion in bridge loans from the Federal Reserve.

And if you aren't nervous yet, there's another load of high-flying investors preparing to crash more firms in order to make themselves wealthier still:

In May, David Einhorn, one of the most vocal short sellers on Wall Street, made no secret he was betting against Lehman Brothers. Now, some investors are afraid that fund managers like him will take advantage of the climate of fear stirred up by the troubles of Lehman to single out other weak financial firms whose declining share prices would bring them rich rewards.

Are we looking at a run on the banks? Is Monday, September 15th, going to turn out to be another Black Monday? Or, worse, like this Black Monday?

I'll leave it to my more finance-knowledgeable readers to fill us in, if they like. But the bottom line has to be that this huge crash, just like the 1987 crash precipitated by the Reagan-era market deregulation, has to be laid at the feet of the Republican Party and all fellow travelers on the road of deregulation.

Folks, we just socialized the mortgage system in this country a week ago today. After having allowed all kinds of high-risk home borrowing in order to give Pyrrhic boost to the economy (no thanks, Alan Greenspan) and permitted these unsafe mortgages to be used as financial instruments for trading and gambling, with all kinds of "derivatives" that scant laypeople could ever understand, after deregulating the walls between banks, brokerages, insurance companies and more in order to "create wealth" for the wealthy, isn't it clear that unfettered markets lead to unmitigated catastrophe?

If America elects as President a self-admitted economic moron like John McCain with sclerotic notions, cronies who contributed wholeheartedly to this disaster (Phil Gramm) and no economic plan he can even speak of (other than a bullshit rallying cry against "earmarks!"), then America will get what it deserves.

A vote for Obama, and I pray it won't have to come to this, may very well turn out to be a vote for our next FDR.

The Next-Gen George Bush

This weekend the evidence is in: Sarah Palin is just as much of a deceitful, crony-mongering, power-hungry narcissist as our current President.

It turns out she lied about visiting Iraq, and she's still lying about her support for the Bridge to Nowhere, tonight in Nevada:

Palin has come under fire in recent days for misleadingly saying she told Congress “thanks but no thanks,” refusing an earmark for a bridge to a sparsely inhabited island in her home state. Independent groups and media fact-checkers have said Palin advocated for the federal earmark before opposing it, only ended after Congress had essentially killed it, and kept the $223 million for the appropriation after the project was killed.

Palin had cut the refrain from her speech during her three-day visit to Alaska. But she came back to it today, citing it as an example of earmark reform she and McCain would push for in the White House.

Hired unqualified old friends to state jobs as Governor and ran the office as her personal fiefdom:

But an examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls local opponents “haters” — contrasts with her carefully crafted public image.

Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.

And it's all about her and her trail of bad blood (WaPo):

"Sarah always did and still does surround herself with people she gets along well with," she said. "They protect her, and that's what she needs. She has surrounded herself with people who would not allow others to disagree with Sarah. Either you were in favor of everything Sarah was doing or had a black mark by your name."

There's more from The New York Times, and decide for yourself how disturbing it is:

Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records.

***

Laura Chase, the campaign manager during Ms. Palin’s first run for mayor in 1996, recalled the night the two women chatted about her ambitions.

“I said, ‘You know, Sarah, within 10 years you could be governor,’ ” Ms. Chase recalled. “She replied, ‘I want to be president.’ ”

***

In 1997, Ms. Palin fired the longtime city attorney, Richard Deuser, after he issued the stop-work order on a home being built by Don Showers, another of her campaign supporters.

Your attorney, Mr. Showers told Ms. Palin, is costing me lots of money.

***

Ms. Palin ordered city employees not to talk to the press. And she used city money to buy a white Suburban for the mayor’s use — employees sarcastically called it the mayor-mobile.

***

But in 1995, Ms. Palin, then a city councilwoman, told colleagues that she had noticed the book “Daddy’s Roommate” on the shelves and that it did not belong there, according to Ms. Chase and Mr. Stein. Ms. Chase read the book, which helps children understand homosexuality, and said it was inoffensive; she suggested that Ms. Palin read it.

“Sarah said she didn’t need to read that stuff,” Ms. Chase said. “It was disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library and she didn’t even read it.”

“I’m still proud of Sarah,” she added, “but she scares the bejeebers out of me.”

***

During the last legislative session, some lawmakers became so frustrated with her absences that they took to wearing “Where’s Sarah?” pins.

Many politicians say they typically learn of her initiatives — and vetoes — from news releases.

Mayors across the state, from the larger cities to tiny municipalities along the southeastern fiords, are even more frustrated. Often, their letters go unanswered and their pleas ignored, records and interviews show.

***

At an Alaska Municipal League gathering in Juneau in January, mayors across the political spectrum swapped stories of the governor’s remoteness. How many of you, someone asked, have tried to meet with her? Every hand went up, recalled Mayor Fred Shields of Haines Borough. And how many met with her? Just a few hands rose. Ms. Palin soon walked in, delivered a few remarks and left for an anti-abortion rally.

The administration’s e-mail correspondence reveals a siege-like atmosphere. Top aides keep score, demean enemies and gloat over successes. Even some who helped engineer her rise have felt her wrath.

Dan Fagan, a prominent conservative radio host and longtime friend of Ms. Palin, urged his listeners to vote for her in 2006. But when he took her to task for raising taxes on oil companies, he said, he found himself branded a “hater.”

It is part of a pattern, Mr. Fagan said, in which Ms. Palin characterizes critics as “bad people who are anti-Alaska.”

Any of this sound familiar?

She just younger.

Which means she'll be around longer.

John McCain's Bucket List

I can't take credit for this -- I was speaking with a friend today with libertarian tendencies who would have been alright with McCain until he chose Palin and revealed himself as more interested in winning than anything else -- including, as Obama pointed out today, his own integrity. If you saw McCain getting some actual grilling by Barbara Walters and the women on The View, you'll find yourself nodding in agreement:

Today on "The View," John McCain defended his campaign's latest ad campaign, which has been debunked repeatedly as both false and sleazy. In running the sleaziest campaign since South Carolina in 2000 and standing by completely debunked lies on national television, it's clear that John McCain would rather lose his integrity than lose an election.

Since he laid out zero plans for the economy, zero vision for the nation, and no actual foreign policy doctrine at the Republican National Convention; since he now lies every day, admits to being divorced from reality, flipflops on major defense sinkholes, supports huge pork-laden legislation while claiming to be against earmarks, has hired a long-time oil company lobbyist and ex-Nixon employee to handle his transition team (should he win), has Republican operatives working to disenfranchise voters and can't seem to hold his own in interviews with local television reporters...one has to ask, why the hell does he want to be President?

My buddy had the answer: getting "President of the United States" on his resume is the #1 item on John McCain's Bucket List.

You know, like the movie, all that stuff you're supposed to write down and then do before you "kick the bucket."

We're all victims-in-wating of what John McCain has admitted himself is purely driven by his own outsized ego:

"I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. . . . In truth, I'd had the ambition for a long time."

A lot of us who thought more of John McCain when he ran in 2000, before he was bitch-slapped by the man he came to embrace for what one hopes were purely political reasons, have been saying that McCain has changed, that the McCain who's pandering so whole-heartedly now is not the same man he was back then.

Well, maybe he is. Only now it's even more urgent for him, and somehow he's trying to con this entire country into filling the checkbox on the top of his personal bucket list...even if it means that once he's kicked it, he's left us with President Sarah Palin.

And he infers that Obama is unpatriotic?

Right.

Just as Incompetent -- or Worse

If John McCain's campaign is lying about Barack Obama at every turn:



...doesn't that make John McCain himself a liar?

If his campaign is sending out mailers deliberately misinforming potential Obama supporters in a critical state:

About one-third of the absentee ballot applications received at the Hamilton County Board of Elections have been ruled invalid because Republican Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign printed a version of the form with an extra, unneeded box on it.

...doesn't that make the John McCain an enemy of American democracy?

If his Vice Presidential running-mate is completely oblivious of the most important and disastrous foreign policy doctrine of the past eight years:



...doesn't that make John McCain a fool for having chosen her?

If she also thinks we may need to start a war with Russia without thinking if it's in the best interest of our own country:

When asked by Gibson if under the NATO treaty, the U.S. would have to go to war if Russia again invaded Georgia, Palin responded: "Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help.

"And we've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable," she told ABC News' Charles Gibson in an exclusive interview.

...doesn't that make him a dangerous fool for having chosen her?

If John McCain is somehow not responsible for all these key aspects of his Presidential campaign, doesn't that say that he is just not in control of his campaign, meaning that he is grossly incompetent for the office he seeks? I mean, how will he somehow be more in control when he's got the full breadth of Presidential responsibilities to contend with for four full years, if he is not in control of his own campaign?

Doesn't all this essentially disqualify him from office, no matter how many years he spent in a POW camp? Doesn't all this (and more) make electing him a danger to America?

Even (thinking) conservatives are getting scared.

How's this for a new GOP campaign slogan:

Vote McCain-Palin
For Four More Years of Lies
Covering Up Nation-Threatening Incompetence and Criminality
At the Highest Level of Government.

Okay, a little wordy, but it might be the first time in a long time that John McCain and his campaign had told the truth.

Lies and Distractions

McCain is running a classic modern GOP campaign where the lie is actually the plan.

There's no reason to expect a McCain Presidency to be any different:



It's all one big distraction and pure gutter politics. McCain is now clearly running for Bush's term now.

Elect McCain and prepare for scandal and failure.

Here's the guy.

Kicking In

The election is on. Lots of fears about McCain's gain in the polls, but is it just the same GOP states solidifying, i.e. in the South due to Palin's appeal to the previous unenthused Religious Right?

Speaking of Palin, how nasty is she? -- per Newsweek:

Court documents show that Judge Suddock was disturbed by the alleged attacks by Palin and her family members on Wooten's behavior and character. "Disparaging will not be tolerated—it is a form of child abuse," the judge told a settlement hearing in October 2005, according to typed notes of the proceedings. The judge added: "Relatives cannot disparage either. If occurs [sic] the parent needs to set boundaries for their relatives."

Nice White House-type family. But as Palin continues to lie about her propensity for earmarks:



...there's another piece of her public service past coming to light -- charging rape victims for their own rape tests:

While Sarah Palin was serving as the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the city charged victims of sexual assault between $300 and $1200 for their own rape kits. A rape kit is a sexual assault forensic evidence kit, used to collect DNA that can be used in criminal proceedings to assist in the conviction of those who commit sex crimes. The kit is performed as soon as possible after a sexual assault or attack has been committed. It is usually humiliating and uncomfortable for the victim–imagine enduring that and then paying $1200 just so that the criminal who assaulted you might be caught.

I guess there's being a woman, and then being for women's rights.

Meanwhile more Republicans are calling successful African Americans "uppity" in broad daylight, making one wonder if the hoods are in the closets. But things are just starting to fly now, with Obama about to announce awesome August fundraising numbers, and striking hard at McCain -- just in time:

“John McCain says he’s about change, too — except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics,” Mr. Obama told his supporters here. “That’s just calling the same thing something different.”

With a laugh, he added: “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change; it’s still going to stink after eight years.”

While the McCain campaign tried to claim Obama was calling Palin a pig, that's laughable on the face of it. And you know that Dems are sensing it's time to step up for face four more years of helplessness when Paul Begala lets one rip for Obama:

ALEX CASTELLANOS: The amazing thing about Sarah Palin is when she became governor she actually stood up and said no.

BEGALA: That’s not true.

CASTELLANOS: She took a strong stand. That is rare and that never happened.

BEGALA: That’s just not true. You know, John, the facts matter. There’s lots of things that are debatable who is more qualified or less experienced or more this or more passionate, whatever. It is a fact that she campaigned and supported that bridge to nowhere. It is a fact that she hired lobbyists to get earmarks. It is a fact that as governor she lobbies for earmarks. Her state is essentially a welfare state taking money from the federal government… This is the problem. We have this false debate when we ought to have at least agreed upon facts.

That's right. Call out the liars and let them be damned.

McSame & Chenlin

Is there enough time between now and the election to expose Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin for the fraud she is?

Is McCain & Co. finally getting called out by the press on the mounting lies that she was against the "Bridge to Nowhere," when she was all for it but flipped when it looked bad politically?

(You know, Palin as same old opportunistic politician.)

How about that she spent the state's money on herself -- writing herself a per diem for staying home at night 312 times in 19 months, even for exercising on Thanksgiving?

(Palin as opportunistic narcissist. An unfortunate mirror of a narcissistic nation?)

Or how about her failure to wrest away control of the investigation into her own wrongdoing in her burgeoning Troopergate scandal?

(Palin the excellent student of Bush/Cheney/Rove, and already starting with the scandal and lawyering up even before being elected VP.)

Or maybe she'll keep walking away from ordinary voters asking honest questions like:

Sarah first looked at Caterina said hello, and I shook her hand. I asked, "Are supporting Ted Stevens this year?" She replied, "He's under indictment you know...his trial is in September." I replied, "But are you voting for him?" She walked away without answering.

(Palin already in an undisclosed mental location.)

The Democratic Party, not just Barack Obama and Joe Biden and even Hillary Clinton, have 55 days to get everyone to understand that the McCain/Palin Maverick Myth is simply a lie, false advertising, not close to what Obama/Biden plan to do to save this country. The Republicans are still the same Republicans that screwed it all up these past eight years. Like this:



Do your part or suffer the consequences.

Froth of the Damned

It's possible my feelings will change as the year tails out, but I'm thinking that Woody's Allen's unlikely new film, Vicky Christina Barcelona, is my favorite moviegoing experience so far this year. Sure, The Dark Knight is excellent spectacle, especially in IMAX. And I may have laughed harder throughout Tropic Thunder or Forgetting Sarah Marshall. But Allen has made his best film since, well, I'll call back to 1989's Crimes & Misdemeanors. And this one is shot better.

What touched me about this new Allen opus is how well it captures that particular bohemian freedom and experimentation of youth, that time of openness and frothy decisions which you don't think will have the critical impact on your life that maybe they do. Rebecca Hall (excellent in The Prestige but the protagonist here) and Scarlett Johansson (best performance to date?) play Vicky and Christina, two friends with very different views of love, who are on that one last trip together to Barcelona, where they meet a reknown painter paid by the incredibly appealing Javier Bardem and, eventually, his psychotic ex-wife (Penelope Cruz). The rondelay of seduction leads to rather unexpected places, and ultimately a comic rondelay of the damned, although the sureness of touch makes it seem almost soft-pedaled, even as the final image takes our beautiful co-leads down.

During the first third of the movie, the most effervescent section, we're watching a movie about youth that could almost be created by a young filmmaker. It's the the twists in the second and third act that reveal the long view of a novelist, not condemning as an angry young director might, but certainly putting the knife in on the expressed theme that "only unfulfilled love can be romantic."

Along the way, with 60 year-old Spanish cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe, Allen seems to rediscover the camera, even more profoundly than he did with another highly successful recent picture of his, Match Point. Since the tragedy this time is more Chekhov than Dreiser, the feeling is a hell of a lot lighter, but the shots are sumptuous and feel like discovery, whether the tourist trip to the Catalan world or the beauty of the young starlets in close-up.

Whatever the pleasures of the other movies listed above and the shared competence with Allen's latest, this is the one that feels the most like real people undergoing real character change, inasmuch as attitude changes while character remains constant. This is the movie breathing fully of life and offering the most flesh-and-blood experience in the most entertaining way, with lots of laughter but something tho take home and think about.

And, as a little bit of a reality check for those (like me) who sometimes deride auteur Allen for his flops, let it be noted that this is Woody Allen's 43rd directing effort. That kind of directorial productivity only happened back in the days of the studio factories, and now he's doing each one basically as an annual independent film. When all is said and done, considering his 100% creative control, it is a career unparalleled in the history of moviemaking.

And #44 is on the way.

Fiscal Nightmaress

Even the Wall Street Journal is onto Gov. Sarah Palin's fraudulent claims that she's a fiscal conservative:

The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters.

The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla.

Turns out she's just George W. Bush in drag -- spend, spend, spend, lie, leave 'em in debt.

Joe's Right

Clear away the b.s. from the past week and here's the truth:



Unlike his opponent, Obama made a Presidential choice.

The difference is obvious.

The King

I could write about Sen. John McCain's acceptance speech but the sizzle was last night with the new celebrity; I could cover Cindy McCain's $300,000 outfit which could itself cover a down payment on an eighth house, or Sarah Palin's second ethics charge as filed against her today by the Alaska Police Union for illegally looking into personal records; I could comment on how GOP Rep. Westmoreland laid bare the inherent racism of the "elitist" tag by calling Obama and his wife (I kid you not), "uppity"; I could even link to Obama's ultimate cool, collected, community organizer explaining press conference where he said he'd been called worse things than Palin did on the basketball court.

But I'd rather tell you about a great guy I met several years ago, during my life as an entertainment advertising exec.

Every year the Hollywood Reporter hosts the Key Art Awards, named for the primary image used to sell a movie. This is the Oscars of movie marketing and, as such, is held in the very same Kodak Theater where the Oscars happen annually. There's usually great talent hosting the show and I saw Sarah Silverman, Kevin Nealon, Rob Schneider and others join in the marketing side of the industry making fun of itself even as it rewarded itself with statuettes (one of which Ms. Silverman sniffed and said smelled "assy").

I believe it was the last one I went to that saluted Don LaFontaine, not exactly a household name, but definitely a household voice. His signature line:

In a world...

Don's voice actually changed how movies were marketed, from the old days of listing stars and attractions to creating a mood, telling the story more atmospherically, drawing you in rather than shouting out at you. And yesterday he died at the rather abbreviated age of 68.

I had the good fortune to meet Don at the always-excellent catered, open bar reception that always follows the Key Art Awards. He was talked to by everybody, but there was a moment and he seemed so approachable that I just had to approach him.

He was warm, welcoming and just modest enough, understanding the slight undercurrent of absurdity there but still grateful for the recognition. I asked a bit about his past based on the program notes and in-show testimonials, and learned that a large part of the reason for his early success as a coming attractions voiceover talent was that he was working, starting in the 1960's, as a movie marketeer himself. He continued to do double duty, being appointed head of the Paramount trailer department in 1978. But his voiceover work grew so much that he built a home studio and sometimes did up to seven jobs a day. In fact, based on the number of contracts signed, LaFontaine "is the most employed actor in the (Screen Actors) guild's 75-year history."

As his ubiquity grew he remained able to make fun of his image, including a famous Geico ad:



And you may remember:

Last year, he did a promotion for the “The Simpsons Movie,” in which his comments were immediately echoed by characters from the film. At one point he says, “Hey, you’re just repeating everything I’m saying!” and Homer responds: “I know. It’s weird!”

So it's sad that he's left us, four years younger than GOP Presidential nominee McCain, a man who seemed (based on the very funny videos made for the awards show that night) generous with his fellow voice talent and warm of spirit:



I guess he's left our world...or...maybe he's in a different world altogether...

Hate Mongers

I'm thinking that the GOP jumped the shark tonight, or maybe they just continued the arc over the shark that McCain's choice of Tracy Flick, I mean Sarah Palin began just five days ago. Even as recently as 2004, the Republicans' 9/11 Convention, there was condescension, yes, belittling and fear-mongering (what is already seen as the hallmark of the Cheney/Bush/Rove Administration), but as they still felt they had a leg to stand on (war) they weren't hateful without any other seasoning.

Aside from Mike Huckabee, who has the graciousness of Obama to praise Obama's achievement in a non-partisan American way, the headliners were full of spite and did little to define themselves or their party as anything other than identity -- no clear vision, no new ideas, nothing constructive enough. Nothing else to sell but hatred.

Mitt Romney opened up by opening fire on the media, hoping that the nation will turn against The New York Times for reporting the truth about both Mayor Palin and Governor Palin's hypocrisies and lies on taxes, earmark, Bridge to Nowhere, child services, loyalty tests, book censorship and Troopergate. Ex-NYC Mayor and adulterer Rudy Giuliani derided citydwellers for being "cosmopolitan". And the star of this Salo-like evening of reality TV, where an entire callow family from unwed couple to passed around infant to unborn child were paraded before the Party like sacrifices on the alter of ambitious partisanship.

For a party that thrives on red meat, the Palin family and the promise of its tabloid-to-White House narrative is divine sustenance. But the family is fed by the candidate, and the candidate may have made the mistake of believing she had already introduced herself, in a single under-attended appearance last Friday, as a gracious-enough public servant that she could turn attack barracuda as quickly as tonight.

The line that I believe will be remembered after the rest of her speech is forgotten:

"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

When you denigrate the term "community organizer" you're denigrating not only all the people who don't get to live in a state-owned mansion or squander a small town's pension, you actually sacrifice your own creature comforts in order to improve the lives of others less fortunate. When Gov. Palin smears community organizers, she's dismissing church people as well, those who create the programs that actually give some relief to the little guy and gal.

When you denigate "community organizer" you denigrate service. Paradoxically, considering her claims to be of the people, it valorizes the more institutionally powerful elective office over community service.

In fact, the cold angry core of this convention and campaign is a reliance on the subordination of all other forms of service to military service, particularly military service which entailed actual physical and mental suffering, torture and deprivation, particularly John McCain's military service and incarceration by the enemy, the one we shouldn't have been fighting at the time, in the war we lost. There's not much constructive, not much developed forward thinking. There's just another flowering of the Conservative stabbed-in-the-back mythology.

Sarah Palin may not win this election, but she is clearly the future of the Republican Party. Mitt would do well to cut her legs out from under her now, otherwise he will lose the nomination to her in four years. If she can outrun justice in Alaska.

The gleam in her eye, her fixation on the camera, the obvious pleasure she got from being part of the club, stepped up to the big time by adopting a speech actually prepared for one of the male contenders to read, juiced with the faux defiance of her biographical droppings, it's all so ambitious. There's no sense of a plan for the American people in her speech, no substantive program for change. It's all oppositional, as if her Party hadn't been in power for the past eight years. The lies come hard and fast and the challenge isn't to refute them, it's to even keep up. All the rest is gussied up bile.

I know she's energized the GOP base, but it isn't even close to 50% of the country anymore, and if I were a Romney-style economic Republican, I'd work behind the scenes to get her indicted in Alaska, because the Party is now prisoner of the Religious Right. There's only one national figure, i.e. since last Friday, who has this wing's full emotional investment.

All I want to know is which campaign raised more money off of would-be Miss Congeniality's speech tonight.

I'd lay a bet it's Obama's.

Too Much

There's been a landslide of Sarah Palin. I can't be the only person wanting her off the ticket so she and her whole family and checkered history get out of my head. McCain I can handle, but not with Palin by his side. The two of them together, it's too McCreepy.

I'd like to have something original to say about the whole thing, and there's a lot of whole thing there. The lie about her being anti-earmark -- she loves earmarks when they're for her dominion. Her ironic, and tragic, slashing of funds for homeless teenage mothers. The affiliation with the anti-U.S.A. fringe Alaska Independence Party who's founder curses the American government and our flag. Her being in church a few weeks ago when the founder of Jews for Jesus spoke (easy way to lose Florida for McCain) and

described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.

Now the National Enquirer is on the case and if what they did for John Edwards' career is any indication, the mudslide will continue, along with other mainstream publications with lurid headlines.

Heck, McCain's "maverick" choice even has mainstream media doing its job:



A shock, I know. But the material keeps on coming -- who knew that the Palins had a car wash that fell in to non-compliance by not filing or paying fees. Or that her spokesperson lied about her having visited Ireland. (This with the Wikipedia that had to be scrubbed, including her phantom Miss Congeniality award, all reinforce Palin as a resume padder.) And the McCain people getting handily scooped again today, on her Mayorial papers at the Wasilla town hall.

At dis-juncture like these, the beast is more apt to be laid bare. Witness McCain Campaign Manager, Rick Davis, giving the game away:

Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain's presidential bid, insisted that the presidential race will be decided more over personalities than issues during an interview with Post editors this morning.

"This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

In other words, they can only run on image, not issues. It's McCain, not Obama, who's the supplicant at the alter of celebrity culture. And there's Phil Gramm today, reiterating that those criticizing the current oligarchical economy are "whiners". Seriously. He's proud of that shit.

Sully has the killer quote from all of tonight's RNC speeches:

"What you can expect from John McCain as President is precisely what he has done this week," - Joe Lieberman.

Terrifying.

Unsalvageable?

The title of this post might refer to the Republican National Convention, coming on the heels of the gladiatorial challenge that was the Democratic National Convention (with Obama coming out not into the Parthenon as the GOP spinmeisters mistakenly called it, but rather the Coloseum as if in his hard-hitting speech he was calling to McCain, "Come out, come out, wherever you are..."), or it might refer the Sarah Palin GOP VP nomination, or it might refer to John McCain candidacy itself.

At this point the RNC is a shambles, with Monday a, um, wash as Hurricane Gustav managed to force massive program cancellation but then made land more safely than expected, thank God, saving lives but denying any dramatic visit by McCain or McCain/Palin to the distressed area.



It doesn't help that tanks are roving the streets of St. Paul to quell protests and even Democracy Now's Amy Goodman has been arrested for expressing her Constitutional right to free speech:



Meanwhile, why haven't I seen any new photos or live video of Palin this past 24 hours? Am I missing something, or is she under wraps as she lawyers up on her Troopergate (and gets a deposition date), reveals a teen pregnancy in her family in order to end rumors of another teen pregnancy that might seem even stranger, turns out to have been Wasilla's "Mayberry Machiavelli" ordering loyalty tests as Mayor, appears to have lied in her Wikipedia entry about winning Miss Congeniality in a beauty contest, and been a member of a fringe Alaskan secessionist party:



You know, putting country first.

Worst political day ever? How about when right-leaning cable heads like Campbell Brown start to wail on your experience claims:



What all this does is the very thing it was meant to avoid: split the Republican Party. You've got serious government and security Republicans faced with a Presidential nominee who doesn't do sufficient vetting on the first major decision of his office, thrown into post-vetting instead and only beginning that process on the first day of their national convention. You've got what appears more and more to be a cynical violation of "country first" principle calling into question the candidate's judgment and playing right into the Obama's argument against McCain, along with the "four more years of the same" meme. You've got the first Administration Republican in history lawyering up before even being nominated. You've got a campaign that tried to throw the long-ball diversion (as Obama calls non-issue, non-policy politics) of all time boomeranging back to create the hugest possible diversion for the GOP itself at the very week where it needs to bind together in full.

You've got a Party out of any possible control by the candidate and ostensible Party Leader:



Big question: if Palin is forced by the party elders and hands to Eagleton out, who will run with the damaged McCain? McGovern couldn't do better than Sargent Shriver, who had started The Peace Corps but never held national elective office. In situations like these, the stink of the loser is too great, the label of second choice too humiliating.

My guess is McCain will/would wind up with his original choice, Joe Lieberman, mainly because that's another guy with nothing left to lose.

As for Governor Palin, I just think all of this backwoods Alaskan smalltown stuff makes her look more and more disconcerting to the average American voter, and will remain so even after she's left the scene.

Very disconcerting.