Finest moment

Juan Cole (and others) have dubbed Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama Powell’s “finest moment.” Er, doesn’t that imply that he has had other fine moments?

Pie fight

McCain at a campaign rally today: “Senator Obama is more interested in controlling who gets your piece of the pie than he is growing the pie.” Mmm, pie.

At another rally he said he was campaigning “on behalf of Joe the Plumber and Rose the Teacher and Phil the Bricklayer and Wendy the Waitress” and other gender-based occupational stereotypes.

A lot of strange things going on in this campaign

This morning John McCain was interviewed on Fox by Chris Wallace.

WHAT JOHN SENSES: “I’ve been in too many campaigns, my friend, not to — not to sense that things are headed our way.”

Much of the interview seemed to be a preview of his excuses for losing the election, with many dark insinuations about scandalous money-raising practices by Obama. “$200 million that — that we don’t know where the money came from — a lot of strange things going on in this campaign.” Let me help: it comes from contributions under $200, too small to trigger the legal requirement for reporting. Perhaps if you’re a Republican, following campaign laws seems like a “strange thing.” He brought up Watergate a lot: the flood of contributions to Obama are, he said, “completely breaking whatever idea we had after Watergate to keep the costs and spending on campaigns under control — first time, first time since the Watergate scandal.” Yes, this is just exactly like Watergate, except for the burglary and breaking the law part.

Just like Watergate, it will create a scandal: “And I can tell you this, that has unleashed now in presidential campaigns a new flood of spending that will then cause a scandal, and then we will fix it again.” Er, what exactly is this scandal of which you speak, John? “The dam is broken. We’re now going to see huge amounts of money coming into political campaigns, and we know history tells us that always leads to scandal.” So a hypothetical future scandal.

LEAST BELIEVABLE LIE YET: “But what I worry about is future elections, too, not only mine.”


He said his robocalls linking Obama and terrorism are “legitimate and truthful.”

MEET JOE THE PLUMBER: “And Joe the Plumber — of course, Joe the Plumber is the average citizen, and Joe the Plumber is now speaking for me and small business people all over America.”

GET TO WORK ON THAT, JOE THE PLUMBER: “redistribution of the wealth? I don’t believe in it. I believe in wealth creation by Joe the Plumber.”

The bailout of the financial sector, however, just isn’t the same thing as the socialism or redistribution of wealth McCain is decrying: “That is reacting to a crisis that’s due to greed and excess in Washington.” So that’s okay, then.


WHAT SARAH PALIN IS: “She is a direct counterpoint to the liberal feminist agenda for America.” Sadly, he did not elaborate.

SARAH PALIN IS A FLOOR WAX AND A DESSERT TOPPING! “She’s a reformer. She’s a conservative.”

MR. HAPPY IS AROUSED: “And when I see the enthusiasm and I see the passion that she has aroused, I am so happy.”

WHAT AMERICANS ARE BEGINNING TO LEARN ABOUT SARAH PALIN: “And the fact is Americans are also beginning to learn that she ran a state.”

First they came for the talk radio hosts, and I did nothing, because I was not a talk radio host...

An email from Orrin Hatch for the National Republican Senatorial Committee warns darkly of the Democratic agenda “to force its radical agenda on American families” should they win 60 seats in the Senate:

• Crippling new taxes
• Staggering new government spending
• Outrageous paybacks to labor bosses
• Liberal censorship of talk radio

(Update: evidently this is a new campaign line. Newt Gingrich on a Sunday talk show said that Obama will try to eliminate freedom of speech for Hannity and Limbaugh.)

The pro-America areas of this great nation

A sign of the opacity of Barack Obama: I have no real idea what his feelings are about McCain. Contempt? Pity? And is it based on Obama’s reactions to his views, his campaigning style, his intellect, his character? Does he see him as a doddering relic, a tragic hero who has given in to overweening ambition, a reactionary, a threat to the future of the country? You always knew exactly what Gore thought of Bush and what Bush thought of Gore and Kerry, and we’ve got a pretty good idea what McCain really thinks of Obama, which of his attacks he genuinely believes in and which he knows are campaign b.s. Obama, not so much.

I’m making no particular point there, just observing. Obama’s reserve may well prove an asset in actually running the country.

---

And then there’s Sarah Palin, whose contempt is always right out there for all to see. And just when you think your opinion of her can’t go lower, she talks about the “pro-America areas of this great nation.” I wonder how large a percentage of this great nation, in land and population, constitute the pro-America areas. Just curious.

---

In an interview with Al Arabiya, Condi Rice points to the many changes in the Middle East which she attributes to the Bush admin. For example, women can vote in Kuwait now, and “You have a situation in which throughout the Middle East, people talk about popular rule”. Oh, sure, these conversations take place in prison cells...

On Iran’s interventions in the US-Iraqi negotiations over a status-of-forces agreement, she said, proving once again that the irony fairy completely passed her cradle by, that Iran “is an external power and it should act as an external power,” and she engaged in some good old fashioned race-baiting, trying to stir up Arab-Persian animosities: “Iraq is, first and foremost, an Arab state. It is a founding member of the Arab League. It is a state that has always had a voice within the Arab world, and that is a voice that is regaining within the Arab world”.

Joe the Florists?

From an email from the McCain campaign: “He’ll fight for the ‘Joe the Plumbers,’ ‘Joe the Florists’ and ‘Joe the Carpenters’ of America to reduce taxes and allow more men and women to realize the American Dream.”

I don’t think the moose loves it

Sarah Palin, campaigning in New Hampshire (is NH in play?), on why Alaskans are exactly like New Hampshironians: “We all love good moose hunting.”

---

A John Travolta movie due to start filming in Paris was called off after ten of the production’s stunt vehicles were torched overnight. The movie’s title: From Paris with Love.

---

In the 1960 presidential debates, famously, people who listened on the radio thought Nixon won while people who watched on tv thought Kennedy won. In 2008, though, we have many more options, and I’m curious about the effect of that balkanization on perceptions. I was doing the blog thing, so I was watching, writing and reading the online CNN transcript simultaneously, which meant I was listening more than watching and managed to miss most of the visuals, such as Sarah Palin’s winks during the veep debate and McCain’s air quotes last night around “health” of the mother, which make his callous, dismissive words so, so much more offensive – let’s look at that again now (20 seconds):



Wow, what a dick.

I watched the first debate on CNN but was so distracted by the constant movement of the audience reaction squiggles on the sides of the screen that I switched to uncluttered PBS for the later ones. I’m thinking now that that was a mistake, because PBS also mostly eschewed the split screen, which means I missed McCain fuming, smirking, twitching and rolling his eyes while Obama was speaking, and failed to get a full sense of just how irritable and petulant, undisciplined and unpresidential, he was being, like radio listeners in 1960 didn’t see Nixon’s flop-sweat and shiftiness. Of course there’s YouTube now, and embedded video clips like the one I just used, but it’s not quite the same as the cumulative effect over the course of 90 minutes.

But how many other versions of the 2008 debates were there? What did CBS or NBC, Fox, the BBC and MSNBC do? What other forms of “helpful” screen clutter were there, and how did they shape how viewers perceived Obama and McCain? What did Obama do while McCain was speaking – and do you think he practiced it? Share your viewing/listening experiences and thoughts in comments.

The last presidential debate: We’re talking about Joe the Plumber

Transcript.

Bob Schieffer opened with a plea to the candidates: “By now, we’ve heard all the talking points, so let’s try to tell the people tonight some things that they haven’t heard.” McCain: “My left ball is bigger than my right ball.” Obama: “My left ball is bigger than McCain’s right ball.”

McCain: “It’s good to see you again, Senator Obama.” Obama: “Dude, you didn’t see me last time. Eye contact, dude!”

Okay, I’ll stop making stuff up now. Maybe.

McCain: “Americans are hurting right now, and they’re angry.” Dude, you are so totally projecting.

Okay, I’ll stop saying dude now. Maybe.

McCain falsely blames Fannie and Freddie for the housing crisis. Wants the bailout to put homeowners first.

Obama: We haven’t seen a rescue package for the middle class.


McCain: “a couple days ago Senator Obama was out in Ohio and he had an encounter with a guy who’s a plumber.” Cue porn music. Evidently Obama wants to raise the taxes of “Joe the plumber,” but “I want Joe the Plumber to spread that wealth around.” “The whole premise behind Sen. Obama’s plans are class warfare”. And that’s not warfare you can believe in, you know, the good kind of warfare McCain likes.

Seriously, how many times can both of them say “Joe the Plumber”?


McCain deployed a statistic: 50% of small business income taxes are paid by small businesses. Er, right.

McCain: “We need to encourage business, create jobs, not spread the wealth around.” Heaven forbid we spread the wealth around.

McCain on the budget: “I would have, first of all, across-the-board spending freeze, OK? Some people say that’s a hatchet. That’s a hatchet, and then I would get out a scalpel, OK?” An angry old man with sharp objects? Um, OK.

Another thing McCain knows how to do: “I know how to save billions of dollars in defense spending. I know how to eliminate programs.” Oh, John, is there anything you don’t know how to do?


Yay, the $3 million planetarium projector makes an appearance! How we missed you, $3 million planetarium projector.

Why does Obama never defend the $3 million planetarium projector?

McCain informs Obama, “I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”

After McCain trots out the “Obama wanted to increase taxes on people with incomes of $42,000” line, Obama says even Fox News doesn’t believe that shit.

McCain: “But it’s very clear that I have disagreed with the Bush administration. I have disagreed with leaders of my own party. I’ve got the scars to prove it.” Somebody should remind him he got the scars from the North Vietnamese, not the Republicans, before there’s an embarrassing incident on the Senate floor.


Schieffer: are you two willing to say to each other’s faces what your campaigns have been saying about each other?

McCain: well, if he had agreed to the town hall meetings... And John Lewis hurt my feelings by comparing me to George Wallace, and Obama didn’t repudiate those remarks, even though, “Every time there’s been an out-of-bounds remark made by a Republican, no matter where they are, I have repudiated them.” He’s done what now?

And the Obama campaign has had the highest spending than any time since... gratuitous reference coming up in 3..2..1... Watergate.

Joe the Plumber again. How we’ve missed you, Joe the Plumber.

McCain says that people have shouted nasty things at Obama rallies too and there are “some t-shirts that are very unacceptable.”

Obama is talking about the shouts of terrorist etc at McCain-Palin rallies, but he is completely incapable of even faking outrage, like McCain just did. Interestingly, he mentions Palin’s remark that he “palled around with terrorists,” which means he brought up William Ayers before McCain did. McCain then says that he doesn’t care about an old washed-up terrorist but darkly demands that he reveal “the full extent of that relationship.” Oo, sinister.

And ACORN is “now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.” Maybe ripping a hole in the space-time continuum, creating a vortex that will consume us all.


McCain on Palin: a “bresh of freth air.” She “understands special-needs families... better than almost any American that I know.” Trig is, what, six months old?

Obama refuses to say if Palin is qualified to be president. Notes that McCain’s across-the-board spending cut would screw special-needs families.

McCain: “why do we always have to spend more?”

McCain on nuclear power: “Sen. Obama will tell you, in the -- as the extreme environmentalists do, it has to be safe.” Oh, those extreme environmentalists, always wanting things to be safe. Fortunately, says McCain, “We can store and reprocess spent nuclear fuel, Sen. Obama, no problem.” For 40,000 years. No problem.

McCain: free trade with Colombia is a “no-brainer,” but you’ve never traveled south of the border, so you wouldn’t know that.


Insurance. McCain: Joe the Plumber doesn’t want to pay a fine for not giving his employees health insurance. Obama tells Joe the Plumber he won’t pay a fine. Joe the Plumber must be very relieved.

Could you nominate any judge who disagreed with you on abortion? McCain: “I would consider anyone in their qualifications. I do not believe that someone who has supported Roe v. Wade that would be part of those qualifications. But I certainly would not impose any litmus test.” Er, right.

Obama brings up the attempt in Congress to overturn the Ledbetter ruling on equal pay. McCain: “It was a trial lawyer’s dream.”

Obama, defending his vote in Illinois: “With respect to partial-birth abortion, I am completely supportive of a ban on late-term abortions, partial-birth or otherwise, as long as there’s an exception for the mother’s health and life, and this did not contain that exception.” Dammit, he just legitimized the medically bogus concept of “partial-birth” abortions. “[N]obody’s pro-abortion. It’s always a tragic situation,” Obama says. I beg to differ.

McCain poo-poos the idea of exceptions for the health of the mother: “You know, that’s been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything. That’s the extreme pro-abortion position, quote, ‘health.’” Oh, those extremists.


On education, McCain says vouchers vouchers vouchers. Also, we should reward good teachers. Oh, and we should let people who have served in the military “go right to teaching and not have to take these examinations which -- or have the certification that some are required in some states.”

Obama thinks America’s youth aren’t an interest group, they’re our... wait for it... future.

McCain, in an unwonted display of self-control, managed to say “My friends” only once, although he did address one remark, “if you’re out there, my friend,” to... Joe the Plumber.


This, by the way, is Joe the Plumber.

A lack of confidence that must be conquered

Today Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson announced his latest plan for spending that blank check Congress gave him: buying equity in banks, including more or less healthy ones, in the hope that they’ll use the money for the greater good. What do we get for the $250 billion he’s planning to spend in this endeavour? Confidence! “Today, there is a lack of confidence in our financial system, a lack of confidence that must be conquered because it poses an enormous threat to our economy.” So it’s time for another episode of Everything You Need To Know About How Confident You Should Be In The Economy You Can Tell By the Expression on Henry Paulson’s Face.



I FEEL MORE CONFIDENT ALREADY: “Government owning a stake in any private U.S. company is objectionable to most Americans, me included.” Because the past record of Bush appointees running government programs to whose existence they have ideological objections is just so confidence-inspiring.


REALLY, JUST SO MUCH MORE CONFIDENT: “We are acting with unprecedented speed taking unprecedented measures that we never thought would be necessary.” Because having the people who never saw the problem coming beforehand acting with “unprecedented speed” in responding to it is just so confidence-inspiring.


Meanwhile, George Bush picked out an appropriate cup to fill with tequila to “build mah confidence until ah puke.”

A hundred percent sure and positive

Today, Bush has been hosting Silvio Berlusconi. Normally, as you know, I would be focusing on stupid things Bush said, but the cruise ship crooner said, “And I’m a hundred percent sure and positive that history will tell -- will say that George W. Bush has been a great, very great President of the United States of America.” And nothing even George Bush might say could be as stupid as that.

Unfortunate Metaphor of the Day

McCain told campaign volunteers that he will “whip his you-know-what in this debate”. Yes, senator, we know what. We surely do.

I can marry a princess!

Sarah Palin says the Blanchflower Report cleared her of “any hint of any kind of unethical activity there” and insisted that Todd Palin was merely doing “what the state’s Department of Law Web site tells anyone to do if they have a concern about a state trooper.” So that’s okay then.

Here’s one of the Prop. 8 (anti-gay marriage) ads running in California.



So don’t give upstart commoners like this little oik ideas above their station.

You got to read the report

The Palin position, at least as enunciated by her lawyer, is the Bushian tactic of defining the concept of “ethics” downwards, just as the Bushies did with “torture”: she did not violate ethics laws because her goal was not personal financial gain. Alaska law defines illegal unethical behaviour as “any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action.” Revenge, evidently, is ethical, unless you consider destroying your enemies utterly to be a personal interest (like stamp-collecting).

Sarah herself chose not to directly contradict the report, but to misrepresent it, saying, “If you read the report, you will see that there was nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member. You got to read the report.” She isn’t saying that the report says she did nothing unlawful or unethical, although she is hoping that is the implication you take away from her words (she is also hoping that even though you “got” to read the report, you won’t). Rather, she is saying that “you will see” that she did nothing unlawful or unethical if you read a report that concludes the opposite.

Hockey puck

Off the shores of our great, you know, nation (updated)

After addressing the nation this morning, calming the markets and dispelling our economic fears through the power of oratory alone, George Bush was able to wing his way down to Coral Gables and hang out with Cuban-Americans at Havana Harry’s.

BOY THOSE “ELITES” ARE JUST A PROBLEM EVERYWHERE, AREN’T THEY? “our message is to the Cuban people, you’re being repressed by a handful of elites that are holding back your great potential.”

WHAT’S SO SAD: “It’s so sad that right off the shores of our great, you know, nation that believes in human rights and human dignity exists this dungeon.” I wonder if even the most rabidly anti-Castro Cuban exile can hear that sentence without thinking, like all of you did, of Guantanamo?



(Update: He also said that after Hurricane Ike, “my government... offered aid from the United States to the Cuban people. But that aid was rejected by the Castros, which should tell the people of Cuba and the people around the world that the Castro people are only interested in themselves and their power, and not to the benefit and welfare of the Cuban people.” So what did your refusal of the Cuban offer of medical aid after Katrina tell us?

All three Republican Cuban-American congresscritters notably stayed away from the event.)

Meanwhile, at a rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin, John McCain demonstrated his Yosemite Sam impression.

Some in the mainstream media are saying we’re taking the gloves off unfairly

Sarah Palin went on Laura Ingraham today.

She was curiously non-committal about what she’d do as vice president to get abortion banned: “I would just hope that my life can reflect what it is that we will do to usher in that culture of life in our government.”

She argued that Obama’s education policies are tarnished by his sitting with Ayers on that board: “It says that, I think Barack Obama’s position on that, thanks to his association with Ayers and the radicalism there with an education-- an education system that Bill Ayers, anyway, supports, I think shows you too that Barack Obama is so far out of mainstream America.” The logic is impeccable.

WHY THAT DOG WON’T HUNT (BECAUSE IT’S GONE): “Doggone it, he fails to tell the American people with candor and with truthfulness, what his associations are, and we have to know.”

AT LONG LAST, ACORN, WITH YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVES, AT LONG LAST, HAVE YOU NO SHAME? “It’s- it’s fraud that the connection there to ACORN and fraud has...I mean, that-- that too, it’s another thing that’s absolutely atrocious and you think, ‘Geez, doesn’t anybody have a conscience anymore?’” Funny, I was just wondering the same thing (although I may have used a different word than geez).

TAKING THE GLOVES OFF UNFAIRLY: “some in the mainstream media are saying well, we’re taking the gloves off unfairly.”

Unfortunate Metaphor of the Day

Manhattan Judge Larry Stephen, convicting Al Sharpton and seven others of disorderly conduct in protests at the acquittal of the cops who shot Sean Bell on his wedding day, told
them “My view is, if you decide to take a bullet for the team, you should not complain about the consequences that flow from that act.”

In this case, perhaps the phrase he was groping for was “take 50 bullets for the team.

Have fun

WaPo headline: “Military Justifies Attack That Killed at Least 33 Afghan Civilians.” I think we should all be proud to live in a country with a military that can do the impossible. Because “justifying” the killing of 33+ civilians is fucking impossible. The military inquiry determined that the air strikes that killed 33 civilians that they’re admitting to, including 12 children, were in self-defense and... wait for it... proportional. Proportional to what?

SHE’S THE REMINDERER: (AP): “‘We all need to remind Sen. Obama that Sen. McCain served our nation in uniform for 22 years,’ Palin said during a rally in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville.”

McCain and Palin were lovingly interviewed by Sean Hannity yesterday.

What advice did they give each other before their respective debates? “Have fun.”

PALIN: And it was helpful though that you called me right beforehand, and you said those two words — you said —

MCCAIN: Have fun.

PALIN: — have fun.

McCain praised Palin: “Second, obviously, she has been a great reformer. I still don’t think a lot of Americans appreciate what it’s like for a Republican to take on an incumbent sitting governor of your own party. It almost never happens. They wait until they retire or whatever it is — so it’s clear that she’s got a great record of reform.” So it’s clear that she has a great record of reform because she... ran against a governor from her own party. See, to McCain, being a “maverick” is exactly the same as effecting reform. And he accuses Obama of being style over substance.

So what role would Palin play in a McCain administration? According to McCain, and I’m not making this up, it would be to “find what’s causing autism, find a cure for it.”

Sarah Palin recited a devastating attack on Obama which somebody got paid good money to write for he: “So, I think last night, coming away from the debate, too, one of the things that I got out of it was, I think Barack Obama was drilling for votes. I don’t think that he’s too keen on drilling for those source of energy that we need.” Get it, get it? Because he’s drilling for votes, not drill- (baby drill) -ing for oil. It’s funny because it’s true.

McCain says that Palin is “so persuasive” that if she ever got him up to Alaska, she might just convince him to drill in ANWAR. Hannity asked if they’d go moose hunting. McCain said, “moose hunting is fine.”

McCain insisted that Obama’s plan to reduce taxes for 95% of Americans must be a lie: “Well, first of all, it’s not truthful in the respect that 50 percent or 40 percent of the American people — of taxpayers — American citizens don’t pay taxes, federal income taxes.” This is a weird lie that anti-tax conservatives tell themselves to justify all their tax cuts going to the rich – you just can’t cut taxes for the poor, why they don’t even pay them. Not only does it ignore payroll taxes, but isn’t even true for income taxes.

IF SARAH EXCITES YOUR “BASE,” KEEP IT TO YOURSELF, WILL YA, FELLA? McCain: “But I saw this as a real breath of fresh air that would sweep across America, give people inspiration, which Sarah Palin has, which would excite our base.”

SERIOUSLY, DUDE, NO ONE WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR KINKY S&M ROLE-PLAY: McCain: “We are glad to be in the underdog role here. It excites and motivates our supporters. It gives independents another look at us and I’m very happy with where we are, Sean. I couldn’t be happier.”

Ana Marie Cox interviewed McCain, eliciting from him a statement I hadn’t expected to hear on the campaign trail: “A lot of those zombie movies are political, you know.”

Speaking of political zombies:

Presidential debate: There were others who took a hike

There should be more transparency in the process by which debate rules are decided. For tonight’s “town-hall” debate, who was it who insisted on no follow-ups, going so far as to require that the questioners’ mikes be cut off immediately after they ask their question, and that cameras aren’t allowed to show their faces while the candidates respond to their question? Indeed, in previous debates, did the campaigns dictate where the cameras could and could not point?

Well, let’s see how that works.

Transcript.

McCain: “Let’s not raise taxes on anybody today.”

More items on the ever-growing list of things McCain “knows how to do”: “give some trust and confidence back to America,” “get America working again”.


Who would McCain appoint treasury secretary? Not you, Tom. Ha ha. No, seriously, “the first criteria, Tom, would have to be somebody who immediately Americans identify with”. Oh good, another hockey mom.

Some black dude named Oliver asks how the bailout will help the people he knows. McCain corrects him: it’s not a bailout, it’s a rescue. And for a little extra condescension (McCain loves telling black people that they don’t understand things), he tells Oliver that he probably never heard of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae before this crisis. He adds that Freddie and Fannie (which he seems to think were responsible for the Great Crash of Ought Eight) were making risky loans “with the encouragement of Sen. Obama and his cronies and his friends in Washington... There were some of us -- there were some of us that stood up against it. There were others who took a hike.”

Obama actually tries to explain to Oliver how the bailout would affect him, answering his actual, you know, question. Oops, spoke too soon; he quickly changed to returning McCain’s fire in kind, mentioning Rick Davis’s lobbying for Fannie Mae. Then said “but, look, you’re not interested in hearing politicians pointing fingers.” Technically, pointing fingers doesn’t make a lot of sound.


McCain’s new favorite example of pork barrel earmarks, now that we’re all tired of the bear DNA, is an overhead projector for the Chicago planetarium. Who doesn’t like planetariums?

McCain keeps talking about how he reaches across the aisle to work with Joe Lieberman. Dude, if you want to touch Joe Lieberman, you just have to reach under your desk.

Asked what sacrifice they’d call for from the American people, McCain said many good projects – not crap like that overhead projector for groovy astronomy shows for stoned teenagers – would have to be scrapped. Medicare, Medicaid, that sort of thing. Okay, he didn’t specify Medicare and Medicaid, but that’s what he means. Obama suggested we need to save energy in our homes. Oh, and the Peace Corps, “so that military families and our troops are not the only ones bearing the burden of renewing America.” How exactly are our troops renewing America?


McC: Obama wants to raise taxes – just like Herbert Hoover!

Brokaw asks an alarmist question about the “ticking timebomb” of Social Security. McCain says “Social Security is not that tough”: all we have to do is just “sit down together across the table.” And it’s just “a little tougher” to fix Medicare: “have a commission, have the smartest people in America come together.” “And let’s have the American people say, ‘Fix it for us.’” See, and you thought this shit was complicated.

He’s calling for “a whole bunch of” nuclear plants, for the third time this debate. But he accuses Obama of “say[ing] that it has to be safe or disposable or something like that.”


Obama twits McC for voting against alternative energy 23 times, so McC responds about one, which was loaded down with pork, and who voted for it? “That one,” pointing at Obama. That one?

McCain insists his $5,000 tax credit will more than make up for taxing health benefits except for those with “these gold-plated Cadillac kinds of policies, you know, like hair transplants.” Somewhere, Joe Biden sheds a tear.

Is health insurance a right, a responsibility or a privilege? McCain: a responsibility, “in this respect, in that we should have available and affordable health care to every American citizen, to every family member.” How is that a responsibility? Obama: a right, except for the people my plan doesn’t cover.


Both agree that America is a force of good in the world. So at least that’s settled.

Asked about intervening in humanitarian crises where US national security is not at stake, Obama asks, “If we could have intervened effectively in the Holocaust, who among us would say that we had a moral obligation not to go in?” Pat Buchanan? Also, pretty much everyone in power in the 1930s and ‘40s.

Asked about invading Pakistan to get bin Laden, Obama says we have to change our policy to Pakistan, we can’t coddle a dictator. This is his first un-adept response, since I assume he knows that Musharraf is out of power. He adds that “We will kill bin Laden, we will crush Al Qaeda.” McCain accuses him of failing to carry a big stick like Teddy Roosevelt. “Senator Obama likes to talk loudly.” He does?

Obama says that McCain suggests that Obama is “green behind the ears,” which is an interesting image, but that it was McCain talked of annihilating North Korea, and sang of bombing Iran. McCain says that was a joke. A hilarious, hilarious joke.


Obama drops the name Gen. McKiernan, just to prove he knows the name, unlike whatshername.

Is Russia an evil empire? (Brokaw amusingly insisted this question only required a yes or no answer). Obama: they do some evil things. McCain: maybe.

Q: if Iran attacked Israel, would we invade it before or after going to the UN Security Council? McCain: bomb, bomb, bomb... Obama ignored the Israel part, and talked about the unacceptability of Iran having nuclear weapons.

Last question: “What don’t you know and how will you learn it?” Obama: ask Michelle, she’ll tell you what I don’t know. McCain: “what I don’t know is what the unexpected will be.”

Oh, I didn’t mention, Obama came with a prepared response to McCain’s predictable “you don’t understand” theme, a long thing about yes, you’re right, I can’t understand why you’re such a dick. Something like that, I’m tired.

Oh, and evidently we’re not rifle shots here, we’re Americans.

Also, my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends my friends.

And Obama should really see a doctor about that green behind the ears thing.

And that concludes the second McCain-That One debate.

It makes you wonder about the forthrightedness

Sarah Palin chatted with reporters today. She explained that the William Ayers issue was like totally relevant, in fact the key to understanding everything there is to know about Obama: “It is pertinent, it’s important because when you consider Barack Obama’s reaction to and explanation to his association there, and without him being clear at all on what he knew and when he knew it, that I think kinda peaks into his ability to tell us the truth on, not only on association but perhaps other things also. ... It makes you wonder about the forthrightedness, the truthfulness of the plans that he is telling America in regards to the economic recovery because that is first and foremost on American’s minds. ... It comes down to one ticket’s proposal that can be trusted and another ticket’s proposal to deal with some of these issues and maybe questioning the truthfulness, the intention. I think it is very relevant.” And so on, at considerably greater length.

MORE ABOUT THEIR SEX LIVES THAN WE REALLY NEEDED TO KNOW: “You know, I’ve been in an underdog position quite often in my life and so has John McCain”.

ON TINY FEY: “She’s a hoot”. [CORRECTION: Tina Fey. I can't believe no one pointed out this typo.]

WHAT THE TROOPERGATE INVESTIGATION IS: “kind of a goat rope”.

Where will she watch the presidential debate?: “Looking for restaurant. I know I just don’t want to be in my hotel room with campaign staffers, etc.” That’s what she can contribute to the campaign: going to a restaurant.

But no question America will emerge

Today Bush went to Guernsey Office Products, Inc. and spoke about the Wall Street Bailout and Free Cash and Fur-Lined Toilet Seat Act of 2008.

WHAT’S INTERESTING TO KNOW: “It’s interesting to know that is a trusted name throughout the Washington area.”

NO QUESTION: “No question the times are tough, but no question America will emerge.”


HE HAS AN MBA, YOU KNOW: “And that’s the definition of a credit crunch: people just are not lending.”

HE HAS AN MBA, YOU KNOW: “See, when credit runs dry in one part of our economy, there’s a chain reaction.”

HE HAS AN MBA, YOU KNOW: “When you’re building desks and selling desks, you find work and you keep work.”

IN OTHER WORDS: “There’s oversight as the bill gets implemented. In other words, people in Washington will worry whether there’s too much power in the Treasury, therefore, let’s have reasonable oversight.”

AND VICE VERSA, OR SOMETHING: “We live in a globalized world.”


OH LOOK WHO’S SUDDENLY CONCERNED WITH HAVING WELL-THOUGHT-OUT AND WELL-DELIVERED PLANS: “It’s going to take time for these actions that I’ve described to you in the bill to have full effect. You want to make sure that when we move, we move effectively. You want to make sure that the plan is well thought-out and well delivered.”

SO THE LIQUID IS FREED UP AND THEN IT UNWINDS? “The federal government moved -- Federal Reserve moved to try to free up liquidity so that this credit crisis begins to unwind.” This one isn’t of Bush’s coinage (or as Sarah Palin would put it, verbage), but “freeing up liquidity” always seems like bad English to me.

BUSH AND I HAVE VERY DIFFERENT IDEAS ABOUT WHAT’S INTERESTING: “Well, interestingly enough, when you securitize mortgages and sell them, it means that the people who originated your mortgage is -- no longer owns the paper.”

NOT THAT HE WOULD KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MAKING BAD DECISIONS AND FAILING: “And I told you, I made a decision that is really opposite of my philosophy. I basically believe if people make bad decisions in the marketplace, they ought to fail.”

WHAT GEORGE UNDERSTANDS BETTER THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY KNOW: “And, listen, I understand America’s frustrations -- better than you can possibly know.”

HOW DOES HE UNDERSTAND AMERICA’S FRUSTRATIONS BETTER THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY KNOW? BECAUSE OF SOME CONVERSATION HE HAD WITH THE VOICES IN HIS HEAD: “I went home out there to west Texas where I was raised. Some old guy said, you know, hey, man, what are you doing? (Laughter.) And I said, I’m recognizing reality, that this is a serious economic situation that requires strong government action. And that’s what we’ve taken.” Really, George, isn’t it a little late in the day to try recognizing reality?

IN OTHER WORDS: “The positive news is, long-term mortgage rates are dropping. In other words, money is becoming cheaper to buy a mortgage.”

IN OTHER WORDS: “And I really suspect that when we dig into the mortgage issue that people were buying mortgages that they had no idea they’re going to reset. In other words, somebody went out there and said, here, you got yourself low interest rates, but they forgot to tell them in two or three years’ time that interest rate was going go bump up, and it caught people by surprise.”

In the q&a, the chair of a local chamber of commerce asked what he’d advise chambers of commerce to do: “I would advise the president to make sure that which you do -- that which the -- the powers inherent in the bill, when we do something, they’re effective.” So, yeah, go and do that.