Around The Campaign 2008 Sphere

Debate grows over the Bush administration Wall Street meltdown bailout, a sharply divided electorate seems more divided, a crucial debate grows closer and Palinmania breaks out in Florida. Our linkfest guide takes you to weblogs of varying opinions as the news cycles get more dramatic in financial and political terms.

WHY SOME PEOPLE HATE “THE ELITES”: It’s because the best and the brightest sometimes turn out to be neither, in practical terms..

THE CANDIDATES AND THE CREDIT CRUNCH: Are both uninspiring? Dick Polman thinks McCain in particular showed himself to be outside his “comfort zone” last week.

PALIN MANIA BREAKS OUT IN FIERCELY-CONTESTED FLORIDA where she drew 60,000.

BUT ANTI-PALIN MANIA LIVES TOO as some anti-Palin ads are reportedly traced to a P.R. firm with links to Barack Obama and some conservatives are livid.

THE BAILOUT, POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY AND POLITICAL NEED is the focus of a MUST READ post by Dave Schuler. Here is just a small part of it:

As a brief digression I’ve seen quite a bit of chortling about the prospect of a conservative taking steps as apparently socialistic as the Bush Administration seems to be proposing. If Republicans are under the misapprehension that GWB is a fiscal conservative they’re as deluded as some Democrats were who thought that Bill Clinton was a liberal. What’s the evidence that President Bush is a fiscal conservative? The quotas on steel imports? The multiple tax rebates? The unbalanced budgets?

Anyone who opposes taking the dramatic move proposed needs to make their case either on the grounds that the action is not needed or that it will be ineffective. There’s actually a case that the action is unnecessary. As the WSJ pointed out the other day, the crisis in the financial sector really hasn’t translated into problems in the general economy. Anybody who makes that case needs a pretty dispositive explanation for why that’s the case and why it’s not just a matter of time.

There’s a lot more so read it in its entirety.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE TOOK A SWIPE at Sen. John McCain for his ads in a skit that comedy writer/Senate candidate Al Franken helped write. Details and video HERE.

WHO IS WISER? BARACK OBAMA OR SARAH PALIN? The view at Pajamas Media.

McCAIN HAS A NEW OBAMA ATTACK STRATEGY according to Marc Ambinder:

We’ve heard for months that Barack Obama was an empty-handed, idealistic neophyte. Now, John McCain’s election strategists in Arlington want to transform him into a scheming insider-urban-machine politician. Beginning with a television “ad” that questions Obama’s relationship to machine fixtures and continuing with surrogate attacks and research hits, the goal is to undermine Obama’s reformer credentials during the economic crisis and to situate his ambition, putting him alongside corrupt Chicago politicians. The McCain campaign claims the ad will run nationally, but they’ve scheduled a conference call with Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis to pound home the point.

Yes, and McCain’s point in interviews is that only he puts the country first when he takes a position and makes thoughtful decisions (such as when McCain selected Sarah Palin to be in next-in-line to oversee foreign policy and the economy as Vice President should he should die in office…presumably…). Yet, perhaps in 21st-Century-America voters are prepared to buy the argument that only ONE candidate in a given race has ambitions and the other operates purely from an altruistic plane.

ANOTHER CONTROVERSY BREWING regarding McCain and an adviser who got big bucks (from Fannie and Freddie) for access to the Senator some years ago? You decide…

IN THE POLITICAL RACE there is the race race….

BUT BOTH CANDIDATES face some interesting obstacles and be pioneers, of sorts…

BARACK OBAMA AND SOCIAL SECURITY: Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey sees several things that raise questions…