5 Million in Five Hours for McCain… In Chicago?

CHICAGO (CBS) ? Republican John McCain raised about $5 million in Chicago Monday night, or about $1 million for each hour he spent in Democrat Barack Obama’s home town.

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports the only glimpse of McCain the public got came as his motorcade departed. Like every Republican presidential nominee since 1984, McCain appears to regard campaigning in heavily Democratic Illinois a waste of time.

 

Gee, maybe not, given those numbers. That speaks to me of distatse for Obama… even in his hometown. It seems reasonable to consider the idea that the polling data we’re seeing of late seriously under-estimates how much support Obama has lost.

The polling trends continue. Rasmussen this monring, looks at their most recent polling in the five battleground states, and says:

· McCain is trusted more than Obama in all five states.

· In all five states, McCain is viewed more favorably than Obama.

· Also, in all five states, Sarah Palin draws higher “Very Favorable” ratings than any other candidate.

· In all states except Colorado, McCain enjoys a bigger margin among Republicans than Obama does among Democrats. In Colorado, they are even.

· Economic issues are the top issue in all five states with national security matters a distant second.

· The number who would not be comfortable with Obama as President is higher in every state than the number saying the same about McCain. This is consistent with national polling data showing that McCain voters are more likely than Obama supporters to be primarily voting against the other candidate.

· Obama has the edge among unaffiliated voters in three states, McCain in two. Nationally, unaffiliated voters are fairly evenly divided.

· Pennsylvania has more undecided voters than any other state—seven percent (7%). Most of these are Democrats or unaffiliated voters.

They have the tables and whatnot, of course. They are suggesting, and I concur:

The most significant thing to watch for in the coming week will be to see if McCain’s convention bounce expands or recedes.

Additionally, it will be interesting to see if Obama retains an edge in Colorado which might validate the decision to host his convention in Denver.

Well,on that last question, the Politico is saying NRSC numbers are showing McCain up by two points in Colorado. Maybe he shuld have picked somewhere else to hold the convention. Apparently the Denver thing didn’t make him too popular.

The issue at this point by my read is how much of this is simple campaign induced erosion of Obama’s numbers, and how much of this is simple convention bounce.  It’s unquestionable that Obama got far less a bounce than did McCain.

And how much of it is Palin?

Hot Air is reporting a large 20pt swing of White Women toward McCain, for example.

To our readers.

We’ve gone to WordPress 2.62 as of just now. There were a few bugfixes I wanted online as soon as possible, and since the auto-upgrade seems to be working, I went for it. Users will see some faster page build times, but otherwise, no operational changes are anticipated. All seems well.

I’m still working on recoding the comments area. Id like to get the fancier editor back online, but it’s not there yet.

Inhouse stuff;

Guys; you’ll find things much better in the ‘import image’ function.  You can call your justify commands from inside the web uploader now, where you usually set your captions and alt text. It will take care of everything for you.  Some double-block justifcations are still a little funky… I don’t suppsoe they’d planned on our traditional way of offsetting pics, but for the most part it’ll go as adversised. On the rare happening that it doesn’t simply tweak it manually, as you’ve been doing, or ask me to have a look.

The gfx size options are actually pretty cool. When you upload a graphic, uploads the original and then creates different versions of the pic by size, which will allow for a bit faster page resolution and some lighter bandwidth loads for the server.  I’ll encourage you to get to know this tool; it works very well indeed.

Obviously, the ‘add video’ function is still not working, so we’re still using the plugin to do that. THat’s more a function of my modifying the template to allow the old plugin to work as much as anything else, so we didn’t trash all the old vid links in making the new ones work. I’m working on getting BOTH working, and I’ll let you know when to switch over.

• I’d say, Billy, that there’s a major difference in the perception of justice when you involve the religious freedom component. To put that into the same context as OJ Simpson, however, …which in my view is a connection that cannot be ignored… is something else, again.   Of course this is the same point I made with Dale Franks, last January. And as I said then, Simpson’s “Jury nullification was done on moral ground, too”. Now, if you want to view murdering your wife as a religious experience… (Chuckle)  Sorry, I hold to what I said then.
  

  …regardless of which direction you chose, to avoid imposing change, you’ll have to go about changing minds, so that people are on board…….If our libertarian purist friends feel drug laws are unnecessary, then work through the system to change that problem. That is a process that involves changing minds. That also takes time.

  Now; that they seem to have some problems with the mind-changing process would seem unquestionable. Then again, looking at the exchange of insults at this place (And the links that sprang up from in iin the last 48 hrs….), one can easily develop a full appreciation as to why. But as I’ve said in these spaces previously, shortcutting that mind changing process doesn’t help us toward the goal. If government at some level… any level… is necessary, one cannot simply ignore it on the basis of a disagreement with one law or another. Because if that’s done as a matter of routine, government becomes impotent and unable to perform its function in those areas where it is necessary.

  And that assumes the purist argument that drug laws are unnecessary. That is an argument, which I do not share. Nor do the majority of the American people. Like it or not, those are the minds you’re going to have to change, if you want to get where you claim you like to be. If the goal is to keep that necessary evil in check, then minds are going to have to be changed and educated for the purpose.

  Jury nullification isn’t the way, pard. Sorry.

• Oh, speaking of Q&O, Bruce notes that the Democrats are starting to use Hillary Clinton as a foil for Sarah Palin. This is like a bad sequel…
  

  The Obama campaign’s initial reaction was to go after her directly by questioning her credentials and experience. That blew up in their face when such question created the opportunity for Republicans to redirect such questions against Obama’s credentials and experience while reminding everyone that Palin was the bottom of the Republican ticket while Obama stood atop of the Democratic ticket.Democratic smear merchants then attacked her family by spreading vicious and unsubstantiated rumors (all of which turned out to be false). That too has blown up in their face and removed from their quiver of complaints any mention of “right-wing smear” for at least the remainder of this election.

  It appears, now, that the dust is beginning to settle a bit, that the Obama campaign has decided on a new approach. First, it will back off on the Palin criticism. In addition to the problems it creates for Obama, it keeps a very attractive Republican candidate in the spotlight when they do.

  But they still have to find a way to counter the excitement Palin’s selection has created among undecided women who aren’t all that hung-up on the abortion question but are buzzed about seeing a woman included on a major party ticket.

  The simple and cynical answer? Deploy Clinton.

  Hillary Rodham Clinton has no intention of becoming a Sarah Palin attack dog — but has no qualms about going after John McCain, people close to the former first lady say.

  “She’s not the answer when it comes to winning conservative women — she never was — and we’re not going to be anybody’s attack dog against Sarah Palin,” said a Clinton insider. “To be fair to Obama’s people, they haven’t asked us to do that.”

  Slamming Palin to win back women already hostile to Obama is pointless, the insider said, because Clinton’s most loyal base is working-class voters, not women in particular. “Attacking Palin is checkers, attacking McCain on the economy is chess.”

  Clinton will continue to yoke McCain and Palin to President Bush on pocketbook issues. But sources say that Clinton, who supports abortion rights, isn’t likely to criticize the Alaska governor for her anti-abortion stance. She may, however, question Palin’s record on equal-pay issues.

  If Clinton does that, she may be effective.

  

  Hillary... a weapon that will always return at an inopportune moment

  Yeah, maybe. But I doubt it. She’s got far too much baggage for one thing. For another, every time the Obama camp has tried to attack Palin, it’s blown up in their faces. Employing Clinton as an attack dog officially attaches her to the Obama camp… and thereby any attacks she makes, sponsored or unsponsored, places the blame for such attacks at the feet of Obama. And frankly, her being something of a loose cannon makes her more dangerous to Obama’s White House chances, than Palin is, even absent the rest of it.  There’s this, too; Obama using Clinton for ANY role, seems to me a desperation move. .. a Hail Mary… and you don’t use a play like that unless you’re desperate. Obama’s people tried to keep Clinton out of it because he knows the Clintons are a danger to him. The degree of desperation was evident at the off… and now is amplified by this move to engage Clinton despite the dangers.

• About those attacks on Palin; Let’s see if we can tie together a bunch of the attacks; All of which have backfired on the Democrat party, by way of a list Chas Martin created last week:
  1. Yes, she is Governor of Alaska. No, she’s not the Lieutenant Governor. No, she’s not currently Mayor of Wasilla. Yes, she was Mayor of Wasilla, some years ago.
  2. Yes, as Governor of Alaska, she’s the Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard. And yes, her professional military subordinate is quite impressed with her in that role.
  3. And yes, the New York Times says the job of Governor of Alaska is one of the harder, and more powerful, jobs in state government.
  4. Yes, there are people in Alaska who think she’s too liberal.
  5. Yes, she did giggle when someone called Lyda Green a “bitch.” Yes, it was the same Lyda Green who tried to force a scheduling conflict that would make Palin miss her son’s high school graduation. Yes, this would also be the Lyda Green who complained no one had asked her about Palin during the vetting process.
  6. Yes, she did push for and approve the Wasilla Sports Center. Yes, it did cost a lot of money. (People keep saying $20 million, that article says $14.5 million, but then they also added a $1.2 million dollar food service/kitchen piece. This year, since Palin was out of office as Mayor.) Yes, the city went into debt to do it (how did you buy your house, bunkie?) and raised the city sales tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent to pay for it. Yes, the city is paying it off early.
  7. Yes, she did want authority to have wolves culled from the air, because they were taking too many moose and caribou. Which people hunt for food in the back country in Alaska. No, she isn’t shooting them herself. I mean, not that she couldn’t, but I’m sure she doesn’t have time. (Thanks to bluemerlin in the comments.)
  8. No, the Downs baby (Trig) isn’t Bristol’s kid, and no, the kid wasn’t born with Downs because (a) Palin flew on an airplane (b) went home to have the baby after an amniotic leak (c) because he was the result of incest between Todd Palin and Bristol.
  9. No, Track (the kid who is leaving for Iraq) didn’t join the NG because he was a drug addict. He may have joined the NG because he was tired of people saying his Mom was getting him into the good hockey leagues. (Yes, that one was original reporting. I’ve got sources in Wasilla.)
  10. No, Willow and Piper aren’t named for witches on TV. Among other things, Willow was born before Buffy came on TV, and Piper was born before Charmed.
  11. Yes, Trig’s name may be misspelled. Isn’t it usually “Tryg” as in “Trygve”? In any case, I doubt he’s named for the Secretary General of the UN (1948-1952), either. But at least that was before he was born, unlike the others.
  12. Yes, it appears that she has a Big Dipper tattooed on her ankle. She lost a bet.
  13. No, she’s never been in any porn as far as anyone can find (and God knows I get enough google hits on those very topics.) I would think the Big Dipper tattoo would be a giveaway.
  14. No, no one seems to be able to even find swimsuit pictures of her from her beauty queen days; God knows I looked. The bikini pictures that are around are photoshopped, just like the Vogue cover I have up.
  15. No she wasn’t a member of the (wild-eyed libertarian) Alaska independence Party, although her husband once was
  16. No, neither the (Canadian) National Post, nor Marc Armbinder at the Atlantic have troubled themselves to issue a correction. Yes, the New York Times did finally correct their story of September 1 — on September 5. This was after Elizabeth Bumiller was quoted by Howard Kurtz as saying she was “completely confident about the story.” Yes, that was after the New York Times’s source retracted the story. Yes, this should embarrass the Times, Bumiller, and Howard Kurtz. No, there have been no signs of embarrassment.
  17. No, she was never a Pat Buchanan supporter; even when Buchanan claims she was, she was on the board of Steve Forbes’a campaign in Alaska.
  18. No, she’s not anti-semitic. In fact, she has an Israeli flag in her office. (Contrary to popular belief, the usual Evangelical thinks Israel has a right to exist, granted by God.)
  19. No, I don’t think she’s being “indoctrinated by Lieberman and AIPAC as we speak”; I don’t get the feeling that being indoctrinated is something that Palin does well.
  20. Yes, it seems unlikely that she’s going to be in hiding for the next two weeks seeing as she’s been in rallies twice in the last two days. Or at least it’s going to be real rough, given that she has three media interviews scheduled today (6 September) alone.
  21. Yes, it does appear that Palin’s local pastor preached about an end time when God will judge everyone, even Wasilla, Alaska, and the United States. Duh. This is called the Book of Revelations, and while I don’t believe it personally, I don’t see it as a disqualifier for the hundred million or so Baptists, Methodists, Evangelicals, Episcopalians, Catholics, Assembly of God, Presbyterian, Lutherans (traditional and Missouri Synod), African Methodist, and so on Christians in the US.
  22. Yes, I do sometimes wonder about the state of Andrew’s health.
  23. No, she’s doesn’t believe that the Iraq War was directed by God. Yes, she did pray that proceeding with the war was God’s will: “they should pray ‘that our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God, that’s what we have to make sure we are praying for, that there is a plan, and that plan is God’s plan.'” (Ever hear the phrase “Not my will, but Thine, be done”?) Yes, this apparently freaks some people right out.
  24. No, Buchanan doesn’t support her now; in fact he’s supporting Obama. (Buchanan did think her speech was amazing, but then so do 80 percent of the people who saw it.) Or maybe not. Buchanan sure doesn’t like McCain though.
  25. Yes, she was apparently pregnant when she got married
  26. No, so far there’s no confirmation she had an affair while she was married, and they’ve denied it pretty strongly. No, she wouldn’t be the first Christian woman who got a little on the side, if it were true.
  27. No, she wasn’t named as a co-respondent in a divorce; there’s no evidence she had an affair with her husbands’ business partner. The partner tried to have his divorce records sealed because he was being harrassed by journalists who used them to get his phone number.
  28. Yes, barring immaculate conception virgin birth (whatever), Bristol appears to have had sex with her fiancee. No, Bristol didn’t receive only “abstinence-only” sex ed.
  29. Yes, I have it on reliable report that Sarah Levi’s mom has been heard screaming “Way to go Levi!” at her future son-in-law son. No, it doesn’t appear to have been when Bristol broke the news to her family.
      Note: I originally understood this story to be about Sarah, not Levi’s mom, in the context of hockey games. As such, it’s shouldn’t be in a Sarah Palin Rumors story, but I like the story too much to delete it.
  30. yes, her 17 year old daughter is pregnant; no, the baby’s father is not an eighth grader; no, having sex at 16 is not statutory rape in Alaska. And no, there’s no way that a 17 year old can be 5 months pregnant as a result of having sex before she was 16. Learn to count for God’s sakes.
  31. yes, she did fire the public safety guy — but he said in the Anchorage paper that, for the record, she never, and no one else in her administration ever, tried to make him fire her ex-brother-in-law
  32. and yes, the state trooper (her sister’s ex-husband) she was worried about did: tase her 10 year old nephew; drive his state patrol car while drinking or drunk; did threaten to “bring her down”; and did threaten to murder her father and sister if they dared to get an attorney to help with the divorce.
  33. yes, the state trooper was suspended when he was put under a court protective order
  34. no, the trooper wasn’t fired
  35. yes, she did fire the Wasilla Chief of Police as Mayor; yes, it was because he was lying to the City Council.
  36. Yes, she did try to cut her own salary as Mayor by $4000 a year; yes, she had voted against the $4000 a year raise while on the City Council.
  37. No, she didn’t cut funding for unwed mothers; yes, she did increase it by “only” 354 percent instead of 454 percent, as part of a multi-year capital expenditures program. No, the Washington Post doesn’t appear to have corrected their story. Even after this was pointed out in the comments on the story.
  38. No, she didn’t cut special needs student funding; yes, she did raise it by “only” 175 percent.
  39. yes, she did try, clearly unsuccessfully, to get Bristol married off to her fiancee before the story came out
  40. yes, she did ask the librarian if some books could be withdrawn because of being offensive; no, they couldn’t; yes she did threaten to fire the librarian a month later; no, that wasn’t over the books thing but instead over administrative issues; no, the librarian wasn’t fired either; yes, the librarian was a big supporter of one of her political opponents; yes, the librarian was also the girlfriend of the Chief of police mentioned above; no, this is not the first time in the history of civilization that someone has been threatened with being fired over a political dispute
  41. No the list of books she wanted to ban that’s being passed around isn’t real; among other things, it includes a number of books published after her time in office there.
  42. No, that hasn’t actually deterred people from claiming it really is true even if the list isn’t correct. For example:
      “This list might not in fact reflect the books Sarah Palin wanted banned. As more than one person in Comments has pointed out, some of them were not published when Palin was in office. It is my hope that the mainstream media will not let this story drop and that at some point an actual list will surface. The very thought of having someone who once advocated book-banning possibly occupying one of the highest offices of our land fills me with profound dread. It should fill you with dread too.”
  43. No, I don’t understand why a fake list is supposed to fill me with dread, either.
  44. no, it wasn’t a shotgun wedding; Bristol and Levi been engaged for a good while according to his mother. It was either an accident or just an unconventional order.
  45. yes, she’s an was an Assembly of God Holy Roller. No, she doesn’t attend an AoG church now. Yes, she did leave the AoG because they were getting too weird for her.
  46. No, she’s not anti-Mormon. No, not all AoG churches are anti-Mormon. (AoG is even more hard-core about allowing each pastor and congregation to make their own decisions than the Baptists are.) (Thanks to AnonAmom in the comments.)
  47. No, she’s not from another planet. No, I haven’t actually heard that one yet, but you wait.
  48. yes, she apparently believes in some variant of Intelligent Design
  49. no, she didn’t try to force the schools to teach it; she said if someone brought it up, it was an appropriate subject for debate.
  50. No, she doesn’t believe in “abstinence only” education. Yes, she thinks abstinence is an effective way of preventing pregnancy. Duh. Yes, she believes kids should learn about condom use in schools.
  51. Yes, she did smoke marijuana, when it was legal in Alaska. Yes, she apparently did inhale.
  52. yes, she kills animals and eats them, and wears their skins
  53. yes, she was a beauty contest contestant
  54. yes, she was once a sportscaster
  55. yes, she has a college degree in Journalism, but I won’t hold that against her, as she seems to have found honest work as well
  56. yes, she sometimes wears her hair up; no that’s not a “beehive”
  57. yes, her husband is Not A White Person (he’s a Yup’ik; an Eskimo but not an Inuit as my Inuit cousins have taken some pains to explain)
  58. yes, she has on occasion, as Mayor, tried to get money from the federal government.
  59. yes, she did finally turn down the money for the bridge. Yes, that meant changing her mind about it.
  60. yes, she was vetted extensively, not just in three days — I’ve got links to press reports about people coming to Wassila on 29 May, and we had her on our Veepstakes at PJM from the first day we ran it.
  61. yes, she want to a bunch of colleges before getting a degree. No, that’s not illegal. Yes, she seems to have made something of herself anyway.
  62. no, they didn’t talk to a lot of the R’s power structure during the vetting; that probably has to do with the fact that she beat them in elections and sent a bunch of them to jail.
  63. Yes, Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech was written by a speechwriter. Duh. No, none of Obama’s, McCain’s, nor Biden’s speeches were impromptu off the cuff things either.
  64. Yes, she did put the Governors plane on eBay. No, that’s not how it was finally sold. Yes, McCain did say it wrong. Bad McCain.
  65. No, Sarah Palin doesn’t have such control of Alaskans that people are afraid to say bad things about her. (What, are you nuts? Look at this list.) No, I don’t think it’s likely that she called Obama “Sambo”. (Good God, man, I’m ten years older than she and I barely remember “Little Black Sambo.”) Yes, it seems unlikely to me that she’s be real racist and marry a Yup’ik (or a part Yup’ik.) But yes, people are capable of amazing things. Yes, I’m sure there are people who don’t like her — I’ve talked with some myself. And no, I don’t think this waitress would have been thrilled to be called an “aboriginal”. And yes, if she called Hillary a “bitch”, I’m pretty confident is wasn’t the first time anyone in politics has said that.
  66. No, she’s not a “global warming denier”, and when the crush dies down remind me to explain why the very phrasing “global warming denier” is anti-scientific, anti-intellectual, and a clear sign of a desire to impose your beliefs by coercion. But in the mean time, while I do believe that she has expressed some skepticism that warming is wholly human-caused, the existence of the Alaska Climate Change Sub-Cabinet and the Alaska Climate Change Strategy work demonstrate that she’s considering the problem and has brought together people more expert than she to advise her.

Gov Sarah Palin

As Captain Ed says:

So far, they’ve made her out to be a slut, a b***h, a beauty-queen airhead, and an unfit mother.  She’s obviously not frigid, so that smear won’t work.  How many other demeaning gender-based slurs can they throw her way?

The result?

• The numbers say the Republican convention was the most watched, ever.
• Palin is more popular than Obama... or McCain, for that matter. She is now more popular than any of them. Meanwhile…
• The image the Democrats has developed to the point where it can best be described as a toilet clog.
• Obama is now in full retreat; Backing off on Abortion comments and on his proposed soaking the rich (Admitting it would hurt the economy), and is prone to shooting himself in the foot, these days.
• The Democrats have exposed themselves as helpless to answer Palin and what she stands for, and as being desperate enough to pull stunts that would get them tossed out of any run for high school class president.

Gee, Barry, that was a huge PR success. What will you do for your NEXT magic trick?  Clinton?  Yeah… get Hillary to do HER slash and burn number… yeah…  that’ll work.

• Has anyone noticed Biden playing both ends against the middle on the subject of offshore drilling? And now on Abortion? Not unlike his boss, huh?
• Seems the state of Maryland is thikning about  outlawing sex between state officials and government employees. How, pray, do they plan to enforce such a law?  Do they really imagine that simply passing a law solves the perceived problem?
• Quite a weekend for storms. Of course we didn’t get the camper out again. Those of you watching the Bills beat up the Seahawks know why. (Sigh)
• A passing thought as regards Keith Olbermann… perhaps his downfall was that given the draw of the Republican convention, someone other than the full-goose-bozo left was actually paying attention. They… many of them casual Republicans.. tuned in to see the Republicans and ended up instead being served up typical Olbermann.  What you’re seeing here, people is the result of the American people as a whole, not just the leftie fringe… watching. It’s an interesting thought that Sarah Palin, who, let’s face it, drew a goodly chunck of those viewers, ends up being an agent of change even before the first vote is cast. Change in the anchor booth at MS-NBC… and any other news org who is watching what’s happening over there.

I’ve commented elsewhere on this slip of Obama… “My Muslim faith”… etc.

But you know, we’re seeing an awful lot of pressure from various quarters for Sarah Palin to subject herself to interviews. Why do I get the feeling that they’re hoping for such a slip as Obama made, while they ignore Obama’s slip?

Let’s face it, folks… the press has a history of being openly hostile to McCain and Palin and anyone else who comes up to the right of Castro. If Obama can slip up like this, what would happen to Palin, up against a hostile press?

Looks like the left is hoping for this. And I’d say McCain’s people are dealing with this correctly.

Art, over at the Conservative Reader, yesterday:

Today US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced plans for the new Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to take Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae into conservatorship.   The power to do this was provided in HR 3221 which was passed in July.

The move includes replacement of the CEO of both organizations, and an infusion of about $200 billion.  In return, the Treasury gets $1 billion in preferred stock from each company without providing the cash for it up front (I’m assuming this will work like a stock option).

From the Wall Street Journal:

It is unclear how much the government’s intervention will ultimately cost taxpayers. In exchange for agreeing to provide as much capital as needed to the companies as they cope with heavy losses on mortgage defaults, the Treasury will acquire $1 billion of preferred shares in each company. It has obtained warrants that give it the right to a stake of 79.9% for a nominal sum. The Treasury’s preferred shares will be senior to those earlier issued, meaning the government will have the first right to receive dividends.

The new overseers will also eliminate dividends on billions of common and preferred stock, moves that are expected to drive down the price of those shares, which have already dropped precipitously this year. The issue of additional preferred shares will dilute common shares.

And now the government gets to cover the bad debt, which means you and I cover the bad debt, and presumably the dividends from the preferred stock will go into the treasury.

Although I recognize the fact that the potential of these companies failing would have a devastating affect on the US and world economies, the deal smells to me.

Art is correctly worried about the growth of government, but I think loses sight of the fact that the things are government entities to begin with, much the same as Conrail was at it’s onset. (Shrug) I’m not overly worried. (Ed- I’m certainly less than convinced this outcome itself marks a growth of government… that Rubicon was crossed at the conception of Freddie and Fannie)

Matter of fact, I view the removal of the two CEO’s to be a hugely good thing in this case. The grey area between public and private corporation is where these two have been making themselves money for some time. And while I don’t like the government stepping in, there seemed little choice in the matter. During the gravy, the two could be run in the fashion they were and not many could say anything, inclduing, give the makup of the companies, sharewholders. With somewhat harder times, the ‘companies’ could no longer be mismanaged so. Combine that with the effects of them failing and Paulson’s hand was forced.  The bottom line is that the mismanagement of Freddie and Fannie have had effects far deeper in our enonomy than many are saying just now. If proof is desired, look closely at the result of the action; We’re now being told that prime interest rates will be falling somewhat, causing people to refinance at a lower rate and the effect of that on our economy can only be a postive one.

USA Today:

In the new poll, taken Friday through Sunday, McCain leads Obama by 54%-44% among those seen as most likely to vote. The survey of 1,022 adults, including 959 registered voters, has a margin of error of +/— 3 points for both samples.

This is a far better than predicted bounce.  The question becomes, of course maintaining it. Momentum, though, for the moment appears to be on the side of the Republcians.

Remember what I said about ‘it’s all about ideas, and not the messenger’? Case in point, from the comment section at Talk Left… a rare bit of agreement:

Atrios links to Media Matters complaining that Tom Brokaw incorrectly stated that Oprah hosted Obama after he announced his Presidential candidacy. Of course Oprah did much more than that, she endorsed and campaigned for Obama. And this was a big Media story at the time. It is disingenuous to now pretend Oprah is not a big story this campaign season. Oprah has a perfect right to act in a partisan way, but please stop with the whining when that is pointed out. Oprah injected herself into the political campaign. And now she has to take her lumps for it, as would any other media figure who did what Oprah has done.

hehheheh….Say, Olbermann for example.

Just a reminder:

“In fact, the world oil shortage is political, not geological.”  –John Utley

if ever there was a car made for the times, this would seem to be it: a sporty subcompact that seats five, offers a navigation system, and gets a whopping 65 miles to the gallon. Oh yes, and the car is made by Ford Motor (F), known widely for lumbering gas hogs.

Ford’s 2009 Fiesta ECOnetic goes on sale in November. But here’s the catch: Despite the car’s potential to transform Ford’s image and help it compete with Toyota Motor (TM) and Honda Motor (HMC) in its home market, the company will sell the little fuel sipper only in Europe. “We know it’s an awesome vehicle,” says Ford America President Mark Fields. “But there are business reasons why we can’t sell it in the U.S.” The main one: The Fiesta ECOnetic runs on diesel.

So reports Business Week. 

Why is that a problem?

Taxes aimed at commercial trucks mean diesel costs anywhere from 40 cents to $1 more per gallon than gasoline

Work the math, folks. Once again, government isn’t the solution. Government is the PROBLEM.

Word from ABC News:

Gov. Sarah Palin will sit down with ABC News’ Charlie Gibson for her first interview since winning the Republican vice presidential nomination, the network’s news division confirmed today.

Forgive me, but where are the retractions from the frothing left on this one?

Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post:

MSNBC is removing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as the anchors of live political events, bowing to growing criticism that they are too opinionated to be seen as neutral in the heat of the presidential campaign.

Gee, ya think?

And was this driven internally? NO… it was the viewers.

The move, confirmed by spokesmen for both networks, follows increasingly loud complaints about Olbermann’s anchor role at the Democratic and Republican conventions. Olbermann, who regularly assails President Bush and GOP nominee John McCain on his “Countdown” program, was effusive in praising the acceptance speech of Democratic nominee Barack Obama. He drew flak Thursday when the Republicans played a video that included a tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, saying that if the networks had done that, “we would be rightly eviscerated at all quarters, perhaps by the Republican Party itself, for exploiting the memories of the dead, and perhaps even for trying to evoke that pain again. If you reacted to that videotape the way I did, I apologize.”

Keith Olbermann

The man should have been fired outright on the spot and severed from all connections to the network, though I can’t say I’m much surprised that he was not. Indeed, I’m amazed MS-NBC reacted at all. Is this a sign sanity is being recovered at NBC?

Olbermann is still gainfully employed by te network, so there’s some cause to doubt sanity has taken over. We’ll see.

There is a point here, though, to be made about the backlash againt the whole of the leftist Dinosaur media, of which Olberman is the poster child… there’s a backlash going on, that I doubt is over yet.  When even The New York Times notes:

MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election.

That experiment appears to be over.

… you know there is intense pressure from Joe and Jane Lunchbox…

“The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming,” said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin.

Well, the first clue should have been the foam below the nose. This explosion was totaly predictable, people.  And totally avoidable.

The success of the Fox News Channel in the past decade along with the growth of political blogs have convinced many media companies that provocative commentary attracts viewers and lures Web browsers more than straight news delivered dispassionately.

Actually, no. The pressure from the viewers on MS-NBC but not on Fox tells a different story: Left-leaning doesn’t sell. That’s the one equation the Dinosaur media hasn’t figured out yet.

Message to MS-NBC. Time to pull the plug on “Countdown”. Let’s get back to news, and out of the land of leftist promotion, shall we?

Michelle Malkin has a great post on this, this morning, too.

Addendum:  (Davld L)

Bath Tub Boy and Tingles have not been fired, but merely demoted.   Keith Olbermann’s hissy fits have been good for the MSNBC’s cable rating, of which before they had none.   However the antics of Bath Tub Boy have been tarishing the grown up network, NBC    NBC/Universal wants Olbermann’s antics to boost their anemic cable ratings, but without damaging the parent network.    Unlike Olbermann, Tom Brokaw has freinds outside of Alice in Wonderland the Daily Kos.

Look at this as an attempt not to drain Olbermann’s bathtub, but merely turn down the temperature.  I mean it is not like Olbermann’s replacement, David Gregory, is actully noted for being sane. just lucid.

Addendum II:  (Bit)

It’s true; I’ve gotten feedback, aside from David’s note, which suggests that the title of the post has overstated the case somewhat. But I’m not so sure.  As both David and I have suggested, both of them are still gainfully empoyed by MS-NBC, The question to my mind is ‘For how long?’

Consider, please… With ever tightening budgets, it not out of line, I think, to suggest that someone with less than full trustworthyness and utility… in other words, someone who can’t do faithfully any job given them… likely doesn’t have long remaining in their employment.  That both Olbermann and Matthews are seen as being exactly that… less than fully trustworthy by their employer, and unable to take on these important assignments without mucking them up, seems beyond question. One does not pull the plug like that, lightly. That tells me that their continued employment is shakey at best… particularly given a change in the MSNBC management, which also doesn’t seem far out of line, given what we are hearing of arguments between MSNBC and their parent companies…

Oliver Willis entitles a post “GOP Has Buyers Remorse” and claims the GOP is upset that Palin is on the bottom of the ticket instead of the top.

Not really. Possibly in fantasy land, but unlike the “reality based community” most on the right live in the present. Even if they don’t particularly like it, I think most of the GOP see McCain as a much better match up for Obama in this cycle than just anyone else.

So says Bruce.

And ya know what? He’s right in the circle on this one. As one of his commentors says over there… What the heck is it with Democrats and projection anymore?

In answer, I guess when its the only defense you have left you use it, even if you know for the most part it ain’t workn’… And Willis seems to be going to some lenths to sheld himself from reality, in any event. I guess it’s the only way he can recognize the wingnut in the mirror.

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin has been compared to Ronald Reagan is a dress;:

Michael Reagan, 63, said watching the vice-presidential hopeful was like seeing “my dad reborn – only this time he’s a she”.

Palin’s stirring speech at the Republican convention on Wednesday night was watched by 40million people across the US.

Annie Oakley:

Palin’s big speech in St. Paul last week offered an electrifying blend of Annie Oakley with a spoonful of Roseanne’s blue-collar

Margaret Thatcher:

American conservatives have reacted with near ecstasy to the Republican convention speech by Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, comparing John McCain’s running mate with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

Hockey Mom:

Sarah Palin’s neighbors saluted their hometown girl with Alaskan Amber brew and testaments to her small-town integrity as she accepted the Republican nomination for vice president Wednesday

And now Muhammad Ali:

Palin floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee

The Democrats are in trouble. Sarah Palin has totally changed the dynamics of this campaign.

Period.

Like Tiger Woods is the first coming of himself, and not the second coming of anybody, Sarah a first and not a second.   And that’s good enough for me.

A live performance from Guitarist Pat Metheny

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