The Pop Culture President.

With the news that Barack Obama ejected reporters from three conservative-leaning newspapers out of his cadre but kept reporters from Glamour and Jet, it's time to wonder if we could have another pop culture president on our hands.

A good example of a Pop Culture President is Bill Clinton. Clinton was a media darling and the public loved him (for the most part). But do we really need another Clinton right now?

Not to be confused, I don't think we need McCain either, but somebody who thinks that Jet is more important than The Dallas Morning News rubs me the wrong way.

Going into the last weekend, Obama is ahead 50 percent to 43 percent for McCain...next up, Election Day.

Vote Early Worked, Point For Obama.

Those are not parking tickets they're holding.

Barack Obama is making history again. He actually has black people waiting in line for hours to get INTO the courthouse. (I'm black, I can say that.)

People all across the country are heeding Obama's call to vote early, causing several states to extend hours to deal with the onslaught of voters.

Obama blitzed every form of media (including video games) urging people to vote early, and they are responding in droves.

Georgia, North Carolina and Florida have all signed orders to extend hours to allow more people to vote, and people are waiting in lines for up to 90 minutes to cast their ballots.

This makes the chances even slimmer for McCain...although the margin on the CNN poll is closer (49 percent to 44 percent for Obama), Obama's lead in the projected electoral votes is increasing.

Is it possible for McCain to just quit?

That's All You Can Come Up With?

If Tiger doesn't know, I don't know either.

Barack Obama just spent a few million dollars to commandeer the major networks....to tell you the same thing he's been telling you for the past 10 months.

After watching the special, I didn't learn anything new about Obama I didn't already know, and I missed 30 minutes of a basketball game.

I'm sorry Ty, but seeing the Will.I.Am. video would have been better than watching a 30-minute-megamix of all of his campaign points blended with a rally speech in Florida.

This special was the equivalent of Nintendo's keynote speech at this year's E3 (or was it CES?), where they basically said "We're ahead of the rest by so much why even bother showing anything new, i'll just stand here and look handsome while the time ticks off."

Six.More.Days.

What will Obama do with his 30 minutes?

Pictured: Barack Obama

Tomorrow, Barack Obama will appear before the nation on NBC, CBS, Fox (take that Philly fans) and Univision to do . . . something. We don't know, as the campaign wants to keep the contents of his infomercial a surprise. It might be a highlight reel of various speeches and people talking about what a great guy he is (like the kind they play at his speeches before he takes the podium,) it may be a "presidential" address to the nation where he directly lays out his plan to tax everyone's money and use it to build giant terrorist mosques. Maybe it will be some combination of the two. Anyway, here's what he needs to do to seal the deal.

• Don't show that Will i am video. Not even a second of it. Please.
• Don't sling too much mud. Since the focus will be on Obama, he should use it as an opportunity to promote himself and make the case FOR Obama. Don't even mention John McCain.
• Don't be too flashy. This probably won't be a problem, as Obama's been running as the Serious Candidate ever since the economy went downhill, but this shouldn't be a big production. Just show voters the meat and potatoes (hey, that's the name of this blog!) of what an Obama presidency means.
• If there are any big endorsements that they've been waiting to spring, though, now would be a great time to do so, though I can't imagine who the Obama campaign could have bottled up.
• Seriously, though, enough with that Will i am video.
  

The Home Stretch

With just 8 days left until the election, one side is going for the jugular while the other side is just trying to keep it close.

Barack Obama plans to campaign in Ohio and Pennsylvania this week to make what his people are calling his "closing argument." Obama is currently ahead on virtually all the major polls, with a four percent lead in the Reuters/C-Span/Zogby poll, and an eight percent lead on the CNN poll.

Sometimes polls can be false indicators of how a vote will play out, but when they all say the same thing, the outcome is pretty certain.

For all the mudslinging and diversionalry tactics of the Republican Party, John McCain is just trying not to get blown out at this point.

Personally, I feel sorry for the man...he spent the past decade or so riding for what he thought was right, angering his party and making enemies with almost every conservative from Maine to the Valley in Cali, only to lose because he tried to play the game.

In actuality, he might have had a shot if he had just stayed true to himself.

In other Alaskan news . . .

Embattled US Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty on seven counts of ethics violations and making false statements regarding gifts and services he received. The 84-year-old Stevens is up for reelection next week and will stay on the ballot as he attempts to win his eighth term against Democrat Mark Begich, which could be served in jail. The charges carry a maximum sentence of five years, but Stevens will most likely not get the maximum penalty. His next move will likely be a decision of whether or not to resign from his position.

Now let us remember Senator Steven for what will undoubtedly be his defining moment, The "Series of Tubes."

Ass, Gas or Cash: Nobody Reports for Free.

The regular line forms to the right, VIP is to the left.

A friend clued me in to this story today.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Barack Obama is charging media outlets anywhere from $410 to $1,870 for access to his Election Night party at Grant Park in Chicago.

The prices vary based on preference of position and the level of phone, television and internet access needed.

Charging outlets for these things are not foreign to presidential campaigns, but in Obama we're talking about a candidate who just raised $150 million in September.

Obama has more money than he knows what to do with at this point, why not throw the press a bone and foot the bill for this?

If this story spreads, it would not be a good foot for Obama's potential presidency to start on.

Obama should already know that the media can be as nice as Mr. Rodgers or as evil as Cruella Deville at the drop of a hat, all they need is a reason.

Whose campaign is this?

Today, while giving an interview with Christian radio host James Dobson, Sarah Palin outlined her running mate's stance on gay marriage, abortion and stem cell research. She said that she is convinced from the bottom of her heart that McCain not only supports, but would implement constitutional amendments banning all abortions as well as gay marriage and that he would block any federal funding towards stem cell research.

Did someone bother to inform John McCain that he now believes these things? Because he's never previously mentioned any of these things specifically, and some of his own people have mentioned his opposition to an amendment banning all abortions, including in cases of rape and incest.

Really, is anyone even running this campaign anymore? Or is Sarah Palin basically just doing her own thing at this point?

Women Be Shoppin.

Who knew business suits and glasses cost so much?

According to Reuters, the Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to dress Sarah Palin since she became the VP nominee.

The committee spent over $75,000 at Neiman Marcus, close to $50,000 at Saks, and the rest in miscellaneous purchases at other stores over the past couple of months.

I don't know why they have to spend so much money to make her look the same pretty much all the time...it's not like she's wearing anything extravagant, she looks like she just left work everyday.

Maybe they could have taken some of that money and hired somebody to show her how to get in touch with Fake America:

The biggest gaffe of the campaign (so far)

Oh my. Who would have thought that the biggest gaffe of the campaign wouldn't come from Sarah Palin or Joe Biden? Some background. A Democratic Congressman from western Pennsylvania named John Murtha made headlines by calling his region of the state "racist." While the old "win over your constituents by calling them racist" ploy is the oldest trick in the book (I didn't say what book,) some people have taken Murtha's words to be insulting. Who are you to call these people, some of whom own Steelers jerseys with a black man's last name emblazoned on the back, racist?

Well, non-racist people of western Pennsylvania, John McCain thinks that anyone who calls you racist is . . . absolutely right? Wait, what?



He recovered nicely (not really) but how awkward was that. Look at that guy in the red hat's face. He's so confused. Why would John McCain invite him onstage to stand near an attractive Asian girl only to insult his home state? Luckily, he lives in "the most patriotic part of the country" so he was humming Lee Greenwood in his head the whole time.

Fifty, Twenty, Ten, Five, One.

This is what $600 Million looks like.

Apparently alot of people believe in change.

Barack Obama smashed fund raising records with a $150 million month in September. When you add up the numbers in the title of this entry, you get $86, the average contribution per donor.

September's fund raising numbers put Obama over $600 million total for this election...sit and think about that for a second.

The company you work for (or got laid off from) most likely doesn't bring in that much money in a year.

I'm sure there were a few max contributions ($2300 is the most an individual can give to a campaign), but for the most part the lion's share of that money came from people like me and you.

People are complaining about a the cost of gas, the cost of food, a lack of healthcare, lack of jobs, eroding 401(k)'s and a myriad of other problems, but they managed to scrap together $86 to give to a man who already had over $400 million.

And for what? So him and Biden can ride around in Obama Edition Maybach's or something?

Where does that money go when the election is over? He can't possibly spend it all in the next few weeks, does that mean you get your contribution back?

Somebody sarcastically commented on a message board that Barack Obama could probably pay down the national debt with a fundraiser...in reality that idea doesn't sound far fetched at this point.

If that was to ever happen, that would be some change I can believe in...until then i'll use my $86 to put some gas in my car and some food in my fridge.

Is Jeremiah Wright McCain's last gasp?

Davis (left) writes his strategy on the ball for Hewitt (right)

John McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis, who famously attempted and missed a between the legs dunk when he played for the Celtics, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that McCain might bring up Barack Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright. But why would McCain do this when his campaign already said that Wright would be off limits? Because Rep. John Lewis has forced their hand, I guess. When the Georgia congressman compared the hate-filled crowds at recent McCain/Palin rallies to hate-filled crowds at George Wallace rallies, he crossed the line.

"Look, John McCain has told us a long time ago before this campaign ever got started, back in May, I think, that from his perspective, he was not going to have his campaign actively involved in using Jeremiah Wright as a wedge in this campaign," he said late last week. "Now since then, I must say, when Congressman Lewis calls John McCain and Sarah Palin and his entire group of supporters, fifty million people strong around this country, that we're all racists and we should be compared to George Wallace and the kind of horrible segregation and evil and horrible politics that was played at that time, you know, that you've got to rethink all these things. And so I think we're in the process of looking at how we're going to close this campaign. We've got 19 days, and we're taking serious all these issues."

So the goal is to refute the charges of coded racism by . . . attacking the angry black man that knows the other black man? I see. I don't know what this would even accomplish. No one cared when McCain finally mentioned Bill Ayers, and he was a lot worse than Wright. Besides, what could they possibly say about Wright that wasn't already said during the Democratic primaries, which Obama also won?

Barack Obama: He's In The Game.

Obama's banner in the game Burnout Paradise.

If you thought you would be able to turn on your Xbox360 to tune out the onslaught of political propaganda as the election draws closer, think again.

Barack Obama has teamed up with Microsoft this week to add billboards and banners to 18 popular Xbox360 video games.

Combined with the rest of Obama's advertising strategies, this is undoubtedly the most intensive ad campaign in election history.

At this point, I could seriously see people not voting for Obama simply because they're sick of seeing him.

And that was the 2008 presidential debate season

The most important voter ever

Wasn't that fun? Now the debates are in the books, and nothing really happened. John McCain finally mentioned Bill Ayers, but no one cared. Both the CBS and CNN polls say Barack Obama won the third and final debate. We're now 18 days from away from the election, and there's no more conventions, no more debates, it's all up to the two campaigns to manufacture their own successes and failures. Unless Joe The Plumber (pictured?) has anything to say about it. His vote apparently is worth more than all the rest of ours combined, because that's what it says in the Constitution.

Unless Bill Ayers flies a plane into Joe The Plumber's Mushroom Kingdom Castle, the big issue is still the economy, which is only going to benefit the Dems.

Where the Republicans Went Wrong

The only poll McCain is winning right now.

With the last debate coming tonight and McCain behind big on virtually every poll out there, it's time to find out how the Republican party got into this mess.

1. The Republican Party should have nominated Mitt Romney*. (Or he should have at least been nominated VP)

This is probably the biggest mistake they've made so far in this election, they picked the wrong person to run in the first place.

When the economy went into the tank, McCain's chance to become president most likely went along with it. Mitt Romney is very strong on economic issues. How good would this comment had sounded for Republicans when Wall Street crashed a couple weeks ago?

"I had occasions to be in the turnaround business. And I'd like to get my hands on Washington. It needs to be taken completely apart, with every program and agency evaluated for effectiveness and efficiency. Every business does that or goes bankrupt. But Washington seems to get larger and larger every year." (Peter Hecht, "Political Conversion," Sacramento Bee, 3/15/07)

Romney couldn't win the nomination though because it wasn't his political "turn in line." And he wasn't picked by McCain to be VP because of issues between the two, even though any Republican worth their weight in Grey Poupon knew that McCain/Romney would have been the best ticket.

2. John McCain had a bad gameplan from the start.

McCain had the Republican nomination wrapped up about 3 months before the end of the Democratic primary campaign. The time, plus all the mud being slung in the Democratic primary should have been more than enough for McCain to effectively prepare for Hill Dawg or Obama...yet he still didn't have a gameplan.

If he did, he wouldn't have had to pick Sarah Palin to inject false sizzle to his campaign. And that brings me to number 3.

3. The Republicans allowed John McCain to nominate Sarah Palin VP.

This may turn out to be the single biggest mistake to this point.

The idea that jilted Clinton supporters would vote for Palin just because she's a woman is insulting to Republicans and women.

Sure, she got McCain a quick bump in the polls coming off the heels of Obama's nomination, but as the layers peeled away from the onion it made more and more people cry, and not in a good way.

Once she opened her mouth to Katie Couric, the jig was up...now she's a walking, talking version of The Daily Show, except the jokes are real.

If and when McCain gets killed in a couple of weeks, I hope the Republican Party looks at the mistakes they made and comes correct in four years (not really though).

Only one debate left

McCain (right) questions Obama's (left) stance on flaming skull projectiles

Wednesday will give us the third (fourth if you count the VP debate, which no one does) and final presidential debate of this election. The last debate was completely forgettable except for John McCain calling Barack Obama "that one" and not shaking Obama's hand, because he forgot his gloves or something. What will we see in this final debate, live from Strong Island?

• McCain will maybe bring up Bill Ayers in a debate. Or he won't. But if he does, it's only because Obama made him do it.
• Most of the talk will be on the economy, because that's the scheduled topic (technically it's the economy and domestic policy.) Even though almost all of the second debate was about the economy and the first third or so of the "foreign policy debate" was as well. Expect no new questions asked by moderator Bob Schieffer.
• Speaking of Schieffer, if the candidates deviate from the rules a little bit, don't make a big deal of it. Tom Brokaw did that at the last one, and nobody will probably ever invite him to a debate, debate party or over to their house to watch The Great Debaters ever again.
• With the polls looking favorable for Obama, don't expect him to deviate much from the same points he has been making since our economy first died. At this point, he just needs to grind out the clock and wait until November 4. Expect him to, at some point towards the end of the debate, take a knee and trot off the stage.
• Finally, expect the polls to call it "mostly a draw, which benefits Obama."
  

ACORN Diffuses A-Bomb

The Republicans are going to have to find a new drum to bang after ACORN acknowledged potential voter fraud.

For those out of the loop, ACORN is a nationwide organization that has been registering poor and moderate-income voters across 18 states.

The group has been the subject of many negative ads because of its ties to Obama, but mostly because the voters that ACORN is registering are more likely to vote for Obama.

Trust, if ACORN was focusing its registering drives on Wall St., there wouldn't be a problem.

Officials from ACORN said that it is the responsibility of state election officials to weed out the bad applications (which is a suspect statement, because the likelihood of officials catching every single bad application is slim to none).

I think Republicans have a right to call shenanigans if they feel like somebody is trying to overwhelm the system, but in reality, its not that big of an issue...I highly doubt that half of those people even vote.

Phoenix Crashing

McCain (second from left) and Goldwater (far right, no pun intended)

Everyone's trying to compare this election to past elections. Is it like 1992, where the economy trumped every other issue and swept a young Democrat into office over a much older Republican? Is it like 1980, where people wanted to throw the incumbent party out of the White House but had reservations about the relatively inexperienced but very charismatic challenger until the debates? The answers are kind of and yes. But for now I want to look at the last time the Republicans nominated a veteran Arizona senator, 1964.

Then, the nominee was Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was the de facto leader of the conservative faction in the GOP in an era when the Republican party was dominated by moderates, many of whom were from the northeast, like Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton, Michigan Governor George Romney, New York Governors Thomas Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller and the symbol of moderate Republicanism, Dwight Eisenhower. Many conservatives, both in and outside of the party, were frustrated with the Republican nominee frequently being someone who more or less echoed the policies of Democrats. They never heard their candidates talk about total victory over communism abroad (even if it meant using nuclear weapons in Asia,) and what they saw as the overexpansion of the federal government's authority over states with the new pressures of civil rights legislation. They were becoming disenchanted with their party's leadership, and they found their savior in Senator Goldwater.

Though he was initially reluctant to run for president, Goldwater didn't realize that it was already predetermined. The movement to draft Goldwater to run was too big for even him to ignore. He officially jumped in and all hell broke loose. The 1964 Republican primary wasn't just to determine a nominee, it was now for the soul of the Republican party. Governor Rockefeller, the favorite of the moderate establishment, would face his greatest challenge from a conservative westerner. What ensued was a primary battle so nasty it made the punches thrown in this year's Obama/Clinton race look like love taps. Goldwater's opponents in the GOP called him dangerous, an extremist, a racist and a warmonger.

(Yes, this is all going somewhere.)

Goldwater prevailed, and the conservative wing of the party finally had their own candidate, but the trouble was far from over. The 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco showed a party divided. Rockefeller was booed, hissed and shouted down by the audience during his speech when he said that the party must repudiate extremism, to the point where TV cameras caught his wife sobbing in the stands at the Cow Palace. The Goldwater Republicans were behind their man 100% and were willing to roll over anyone who disagreed, even if they were in the same party. This was the environment that Goldwater, who was not crazy himself, had fostered.

America saw this on TV and decided to support Lyndon Johnson, the guy who did not represent a party that had been taken over by rabid dogs that had suddenly learned to talk. As Goldwater's post RNC poll numbers went down, he became increasingly desperate. Goldwater, an opponent of the Civil Rights Act, was very popular among the people who had supported George Wallace's presidential campaign earlier that year. That's not to say Goldwater and Wallace saw eye to eye on everything. Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act on constitutional principles. Goldwater didn't believe that the federal government should have any authority over states except for when it was explicity spelled out in the Constituion. Wallace opposed it because he hated black people.

But Goldwater wasn't above using the code words that had gained Wallace such a large following in southeastern Wisconsin (racism in Milwaukee? I know, it shocked me, too,) northern Indiana and Maryland, not to mention the South. "State's rights," "law and order," and allusions to "mobs in the street" caught the attention of fearful whites across the country and drew them to Wallace, and later Goldwater. The KKK, the John Birch Society and other far right groups supported Goldwater, whose Jewish ancestry didn't seem to bother them as long as he kept saying what they liked hearing. Goldwater wasn't a candidate to them as much as he was a vessel for their fear of a black country. And Goldwater wasn't in much of a position to denounce them, because the other wing of his party had hurt (and been hurt by) Goldwater so badly during the primaries and convention.

What does this have to do with 2008? We have another self-styled maverick Arizona senator representing the GOP in a presidential campaign, and again race is a big factor in this election. The nominee (who has called Goldwater a political hero of his, though the feeling might not have been mutual) has seen his longshot candidacy falling apart with dropping poll numbers and has resorted to stoking fears of the scary black man. Like Goldwater, McCain's rallies are filled with people who see him as less of a candidate and more of a sounding board for them to speak on the "Arab terrorist" who makes them "fearful to raise their children in America." Sarah Palin makes speeches that only encourage these attitudes, and "kill him," "terrorist," and "off with his head" have been heard at McCain/Palin rallies.

While McCain, like Goldwater, isn't a racist in my opinion, he hasn't done much to try and stop the vitriolic crowds. And, as his Friday rally (the one where he was booed for calling Barack Obama a decent man) in Lakeville, MN showed, maybe there's nothing he can do. But this is an atmosphere of hatred, where the opponent is seen not as a rival, but an enemy. Like Goldwater, McCain has been swept up by this movement and had its own goals projected on to him. Like Goldwater, it has people within his own party questioning not just the candidate, but the state of the party as a whole. Chris Buckley wrote an excellent piece about how his disappointment in the McCain campaign's tone has him ready to vote Obama. In 1964, the Johnson campaign ran this ad, where a Republican in the Buckley tradition explains his uneasiness with what Goldwater has brought to the Republicans.



The lessons from 1964 unfortunately have not been learned by John McCain. Like Goldwater, he will likely go to bed on November 4 disappointed. Like Goldwater, much of this is beyond his control. But this could be bigger than any one campaign. The fears Wallace and Goldwater helped encourage would last throughout the 20th century. McCain had an opportunity to not go down that same road, to lose with his dignity intact, but his willingness to feed into the fears of America's most ignorant in a desperate attempt at victory will at best taint his legacy. At worst, it will hinder American progress.


Thanks to Gary Donaldson's Liberalism's Last Hurrah for teaching me damn near everything I could ever learn about the 1964 election.

The Sound of Desperation

This video of a McCain rally in Wisconsin is the talk of the day.

The media has become increasingly disturbed by the feverishly angry tone taken at Republican town hall meetings.

The monochromatic color scheme of the meetings (read: all shades of white) and the rage is conjuring up images of Klan rallies that end in the lynching of a black man, in this case one Barack Hussein (his middle name has been used to subliminally invoke a terrorist connection) Obama.

On more than one occasion McCain has been asked to "take the gloves off" in reference to Obama.

What is causing concern is the fact that McCain and Palin aren't doing anything to calm these people down, which could lead to violence as the election gets closer.

In my opinion the rage of these meetings means one thing: the Republican electorate feels this thing slipping away, and they're desperate.

If the Republicans don't reign it in soon, they could have a situation like this on their hands:

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

As if 10 months of ads, debates and rallies wasn't enough, Barack Obama just bought a 30-minute prime-time slot on CBS a week before the November election.

The LA Times reports that he has also bought spots on NBC and Fox, but the Fox ad might not air if a World Series game takes place on that day.

According to the Times, this will be the first time a candidate has bought prime-time airtime since Ross Perot did it in 1992.

No word on what the program will contain (*prays for Barack and Michelle doing showtunes*), but most likely it will be a repeat of everything he's said to this point, and we will watch it.

The Aftermath: Going for the Kill

After Tuesday's debate that seen Barack Obama declared the winner by every opinion poll i've seen, the Obama camp is going on the offensive again in new ads.

This new ad, called "Tested" builds off of statements McCain made during the debate:



McCain is responding with an internet-only ad connecting Obama to Bill Ayers:

And that was the second debate

Another week, another debate, another slight maybe win for the Democrats. People asked questions, absolutely no surprising answers were given, Tom Brokaw kept yelling at the candidates to stop ignoring the rules only they totally still did and CNN's "Republican Strategist" Alex Castellanos gave more points than any other judge and declared Obama his winner.

If a debate where McCain promised to "take the gloves off" that featured questions the candidates had no idea were coming couldn't produce some fireworks, what will? For all the talk about how many people would tune in for this year's debates, how many have had their beliefs swayed one way or the other?

All of this stagnation is helping OBama, because the default focus is on the economy, which plays to his strengths. Without some kind of large distraction, the economy is going to remain the biggest issue on November 4. If McCain wants to change people's minds he needs something big, effective, and not a cheap stunt.

Town Hall Brawl

Don't worry John, I won't let them capture you again!

Barack Obama and John McCain square off later tonight at Belmont University in Nashville in what will be the last debate before the November election.

The topics are supposed to be foreign policy and the economy, but given the fact that the stock market has dropped over 10 percent in one week, the economy will most likely dominate the debate.

Tom Brokaw will moderate the town hall-style debate, and the candidates will have two minutes to answer questions from the audience along with questions that can be sent in here.

I wonder if somebody will ask McCain how this economy is different from the one he faced as a middle-aged man during The Great Depression.

So Much for the "Rescue Plan."

One business day after the passage of the "rescue plan" (which is now up to a possible $850 billion after Congress added some tax breaks) by the House that was supposed to restore confidence in the financial industry, The Dow Jones Average is nose diving by the second (down 728 points as I type this).

This is only one week after the 777 point drop after the plan failed the first time.

The Dow Jones Average is all but guaranteed to close under 10,000 points for the first time since 2004, and foreign markets are tumbling as people scramble to pull their money out of banks and investments before it's all gone.

What does this mean to you?

Mike Spector of the Wall Street Journal reported in the Baltimore Sun that only 64 percent of car loan applications were being approved.

According to the article, even people with near-perfect credit and 20 percent down-payments are having trouble getting loans.

I think the government needs to find out what the interest rate is on some sense... but it probably couldn't afford the payments anyway.

Meet the Keating Five

The Keating Five (from left:) Sen. Alan Cranston (D-CA,) Sen. John Glenn (D-OH,) Sen. John McCain (R-AZ,) Sen Donald Riegle (D-MI) and Jermaine.

Well, it looks like John McCain will take the gloves off in tomorrow night's debate. We don't know exactly what that refers to, as the Arizona senator wasn't even wearing any gloves when he said it, but we do know what Barack Obama's response is going to be.

He's going to bring up the Keating Five.

The Keating Five were five senators in the late 80's who were accused of taking gifts and essentially working for Charles Keating, the chairman of Lincoln Savings & Loan, to keep the Savings & Loan industry deregulated. The deregulation of the S&L industry allowed companies like Lincoln to grow, while also allowing them to make increasingly risky moves with their client's money. When this blew up in everyone's face, an investigation was launched, Keating went to jail and the five senators (including McCain) were dragged down, too.

While Senator McCain was ultimately found guilty of nothing more than "showing poor judgement," his reputation still took a hit. He was able to recover, and no one really talks about the Keating Five stuff anymore. Both the media and Obama's campaign has largely ignored it.

But now, the Obama campaign, in the midst of a financial crisis that has some eerie similarities to the S&L crisis, is coming out with a 13 minute "documentary" highlighting McCain's role in the scandal. And here it is.

Wait, OJ was on trial? And he was found guilty?

WE WON!

Congress Be Helpin

They Happy!


The House Of Representatives bowed to mounting pressure from the President and the Senate to pass the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (aka the Bailout, aka the "rescue plan," aka Operation Hookup).

The New York Stock Exchange is already reacting positively to the news, going up about 100 points since the announcement.

The final vote was 263-171...its amazing what a small change in words can do.

The FDIC Assbets with Your Money

There is nothing in there people.


Assbet: When a person engaged in a 'hood dice game places bets with money he or she doesn't have...if discovered, this usually results in a beating.

As you already know, the Senate passed a modified version of the "rescue plan" (the new terminology that's been introduced after the public got outraged about the bailout) that included a raise in the deposit amount the FDIC would insure from $100,000 to $250,000.

Sounds great right? If you're balling like that, you can consolidate a few accounts and have more of your money protected against a bank failure, banks have a little more money on hand, everybody's happy.

But Eric Dash of the New York Times reported something you may not know about the FDIC.

Dash wrote that the FDIC only has $45.2 billion in its fund...to insure $4.5 TRILLION in deposits. Now i'm not that good at math, but even I know that doesn't remotely add up.

Why is this fund so small? According to Dash, the FDIC decided to waive the insurance premiums for banks between 1996 and 2006 when the economy was booming.

Apparently the people who are paid to be paranoid said "Eh, nothing's going to happen, money is raining from the sky like manna, you don't have to pay for insurance."

Now the FDIC plans to try to collect these premiums to generate the money it would need to cover the $150,000 increase if it is passed....from banks that are praying from the "rescue plan" to survive.

Somebody is in line for a beating.

The Scramble to Ride Shotgun

Who's good enough to be Second Best?


The campaign train rolls into the campus of Washington University in St. Louis tomorrow with the long-awaited VP debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden.

Gwen Ifill of PBS will ask the candidates questions pertaining to foreign and domestic issues over the 90-minute debate to see who is worthy of being the person we won't care about in a few months.

Questions are aplenty leading up to this square-off:

~Will Biden have to be gagged in order to stop him from contradicting Obama's campaign?

~Will the Republicans trot Sarah Palin out in a teacher outfit complete with a ruler and textbooks to distract the audience?

~Can Palin answer any question with a straight answer?

~Can Biden restrain himself from answering any question with a straight answer?

~Will either candidate know who shot JR?

You can count me tuned in.

Bailout bill to rise from the ashes in the Senate today

Pictured: The Bailout Bill (top, above Colossus)

Monday the House defeated the initial bailout bill, but it has since been slightly revised and will be voted on in the Senate later today. Also, Barack Obama, John McCain and Joe Biden have all SUSPENDED THEIR CAMPAIGNS to go to Washington to vote on it today. Or they didn't, because that would be a pointless stunt. Biden still plans on showing up to debate Sarah Palin tomorrow night, because he's not putting Country First.

So how is this bill different from Monday's failed legislation? Let ABC News tell it.

The new Senate version of the bailout was sweetened Tuesday night by additions that would allow the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to raise the amount of bank deposits it insures from $100,000 to $250,000, a move expected to help small businesses.

The Senate bill also includes tax breaks for businesses and the middle class, something the Senate has been trying to pass for the past several years and which the House has rejected because the Senate does not include corresponding cuts to make up the difference in the budget.

So we got the FDIC cap raised (something both candidates said they favored yesterday) and some additional tax breaks. This is supposedly to get more Republican support for the bill, even if it loses some Democratic support. It's expected to pass, but that's what they said on Monday. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, . . . can't get fooled again.