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.