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To: i-node who wrote (421010)	9/30/2008 9:31:09 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1571762

McCain-Palin Launches Pre-emptive Attack on Media Tue Sep 30, 1:50 AM ET The Nation -- John McCain and Sarah Palin are both drowning in messes of their own making. He looks foolish for his grandstanding on the economy, the campaign "suspension" that never was and finally his failure to convince Republicans in the House to get behind the bailout compromise bill he inaccurately claimed credit for singlehandedly making possible. She is still trying to live down her profoundly embarrasing interviews with Katie Couric. Even as the smoke clears from their most recent segment, word has leaked that a yet to be aired segment shows Palin unable to name a single Supreme Court case besides Roe v. Wade. So what does the McCain-Palin ticket do in response to this adversity? Why suggest that the media must be up to something! Check out this odd segment from the most recent Couric sit-down. This time Palin is joined by McCain who shows that Obama is not the only politician he is shockingly condescending towards: How on earth is a question asked by a completely sensible voter a "gotcha question?" Apparently now American voters are in the same boat as Maureen Dowd and numerous other "media elites" who shouldn't dare ask Palin about basic foreign policy. If you ask Palin a question you're apparently out to get her and her family too! This interview wasn't the only oddity of the day. Sarah Palin's much anticipated vice presidential debate with Joe Biden is this Thursday and her interviews with Couric has raised serious questions about what kind of performance she will deliver. McCain aides have reportedly said Palin was a disaster in practice debates. And in an odd change of pace, instead of playing the usual expectations game--McCain surrogates seem to be preemptively criticizing the questions that Gwen Ifill may choose to ask. Skip to about the 2:15 mark: Again with the "gotcha questions" claim! Even by Fox's standards, this is ridiculous. No one knows what Ifill will ask, we only know that she is a consummate pro who deserves more respect than this. Basically the GOP seems to be saying that if Palin bombs on Thursday it will be because the media wanted her to, not because she simply, obviously is wildly uninformed on national affairs. Hey, casting herself as a martyr for her during her debut speech at the RNC but I think it will backfire this time. Here's why...I just saw Bill Maher on Conan O'Brien's show and he was asked about Palin and he made a point that I thought was very profound. What if Sarah Palin was president right now. As the Dow fell 800, what would a President Palin do? Would we feel remotely comfortable? It's a terrifying thought and I think the American people will have that in mind when they watch her this week--and if the polls are accurate they've endured one McCain maverick maneuver too many.

To: i-node who wrote (421010)	9/30/2008 9:34:03 AM
From: tejek	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1571762

It is time for you all to take responsibility for the disasters you have created. Anything less than that is unacceptable. Ted, seems like the economy was running just fine until the Democrats took control of Congress. All of a sudden, everything collapsed. It really is a significant point. The Dems, not Bush, not the GOP, are responsible for this mess. In 2004 the Republicans on the banking were clearly proclaiming, "IF YOU DON'T ELIMINATE THE REQUIREMENT THAT WE LEND MONEY TO THE POOR WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A PROBLEM." Meanwhile, Dodd & the rest were on CSPAN saying, "THERE IS NO PROBLEM." This problem rests squarely on the Dems policy of requiring the funding of loans for people who cannot afford to repay them. Thhis isn't complicated.

To: i-node who wrote (421010)	9/30/2008 10:05:29 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571762

The Beltway Crash Congress lives up to its 10% approval rating. America has survived a feckless political class in the past, and it will again after this week. But Monday's crash and burn of the Paulson plan on Capitol Hill reveals a Washington elite that has earned every bit of the disdain that Americans have for it. This crowd can't even make sausage. The 228-205 defeat reflects badly on all concerned, starting with the Democrats who run the House. The majority party is responsible for assembling a majority vote, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi failed in that fundamental task. Her highly partisan speech on the floor -- blaming "right-wing ideology of anything goes, no supervision, no discipline, no regulation" for the financial distress -- is no excuse for Republicans to vote no. But it is indicative of the way she has governed for the past two years -- like Tom DeLay without the charm. The cynics are saying Ms. Pelosi deliberately tanked the bill by giving 95 Democrats a pass, knowing failure would hurt John McCain, and given her track record we can see why people would believe it. House Republicans share the blame, and not only because they opposed the bill by about two-to-one, 133-65. Their immediate response was to say that many of their Members turned against the bill at the last minute because Ms. Pelosi gave her nasty speech. So they are saying that Republicans chose to oppose something they think is in the national interest merely because of a partisan slight. Thank heaven these guys weren't at Valley Forge. Crash Course The vote is also a rebuke for Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, who could barely explain how his securities auctions would work even as he showed disdain for House Republicans. President Bush did his best to provide cover for the Members, but he is a spent political force. One GOP Member who supported the bill told us that before Mr. Paulson spoke to House Republicans last week, the whip count in favor was about 70; afterwards, it was closer to 20. You can't ask Congress for $700 billion without more modesty and a better explanation for how it would be used. Given this historic abdication, we're surprised financial markets didn't melt down more than they did yesterday. Equities nonetheless took the worst bath in percentage terms since the aftermath of 9/11, with the Nasdaq falling more than 9%. But that was a sideshow compared to the credit markets, which staged another flight from all risk. The three-month Treasury yield had sunk to 0.132% the last we checked, which means investors will accept essentially no return as long as they can avoid further financial losses. Safe in their think-tanks, some of our friends have claimed that talk of a financial crash is merely a political invention. Perhaps we'll now test their theory. A financial panic isn't an academic seminar, and a flight from all risk isn't something any free-marketeer should want. A recession now seems certain, as falling commodity prices are telling us, but the point is to prevent systemic financial collapse. Maybe the Members who voted "no" figure at least they'd still have jobs. What next? One option is that Democrats will tell Mr. Paulson that they can pass his plan with more liberal votes, but that their price has gone up. This would mean more of the tax, spend and regulate provisions that House GOP leaders stripped out before their rank-and-file headed for the exits. These would only raise the price for taxpayers of the Treasury rescue and, if the equity provisions were too onerous, make the Paulson plan far less workable. If Mr. Paulson wants to be a statesman, he could offer a Plan B that avoids giving Treasury such a big blank check. Instead, he could propose more public capital for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which would do more of the creative financial plumbing it has done over the last week. (See here.) This will have to happen next year anyway, and the FDIC has long experience protecting taxpayers for public capital injections through preferred stock and warrants. At the same time, the Secretary could salvage his own proposal by promising that while Treasury would start the purchase of toxic securities from banks, he would quickly (within weeks) turn the process over to a new and separate resolution agency. Congress could make this part of the legislation. This would remove Mr. Paulson as the political lightning rod he has become, and also give the rescue process the political insulation it needs. Such an agency could also work closely with the FDIC to protect taxpayers. Members may not believe Hank Paulson, but they ought to pay attention to markets. The financial system has a huge capital hole due to losses on mortgage securities and other assets, and private capital won't begin to fill it without the life preserver of public capital. Before it leaves town to campaign, Congress needs to act to defend and restabilize the financial system. After the last two weeks, and especially after yesterday, the Members also need to act to redeem their own reputations, to the extent they are still worth redeeming. online.wsj.com