ROFL! Thanks!

Well the circus has cunning stunts.

Just the same, be prepared if need be to hear that word: “F A M I L Y” (as in values!).

It would be funny (ha, ha, ha) if the wedding and broadcast of it were paid for and sponsored by a few “rescued” financial institutions. Ha, ha, ha.

* * *

Incidentally, McCain can beat Obama on issues (beginning obviously with foreign policy). Except — health care. Does McCain realize what he's doing, imposing an unfunded (I suspect) mandate on the states by requiring them to take out-of-state insurance subscribers (who will flood the states with the best plans for the money). Does McCain realize that the high-risk pools often refuse admission to people now, within the states, already, and that even if they admit people, they typically exclude pre-existing condition coverage for periods such as a year? (That is the case for one person's situation as described this morning on NPR.) Then, of course, McCain is seeking to do something a few conservatives want and a few liberals want, too (in lieu of publicly-provided or -financed health care, both being effectively the same): He wants to subject the value of employee health benefits to income taxes. Health care is one thing Obama has neglected this year, not only with the details of his plan (including how to pay for it, especially now that money will be scarce after the big bailout of the financial industry) but with the details of McCain's plan that he (Obama) could attack.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/28/the-sh…

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/16/mccain…

The New England Journal of Medicine, which is notoriously liberal, has been doing a better job of criticizing McCain than Obama has.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMp0…

Such issues are more important than any cheap publicity stunt with the marriage. Health care has receded into the background because the economy is now #1, but this subject should not be neglected. Doesn't Obama want to win?

http://www.nephronline.com/features.asp?F_ID=381

http://health-insurance-carriers.com/blog/healt…

If there was ever a time for a good use for the 527s, this would be it… those groups could point out (rightfully) that McCain is playing politics with Palin's children and using the marriage as a distraction.

Also, didn't Jenna Bush have a low-key wedding in Crawford because there was concern that Americans did not want to see a high profile wedding in a time of war? Well, we have a war and an economic crisis so… at least Bush had the common decency not to have a big Rose Garden wedding….

I'm sure that McCain is happy that both he and Palin have large families…. When Russia or Iran (or some other crisis) starts saber-rattling, McCain can trot our one of the kids to have a wedding as a distraction. I'm sure Russia will be more than happy to wait for one of the children to be married before invading Ukraine (or wherever)…

If McCain is so gung-ho on suspending his campaign (for the bailout) or ending the race, then why doens't he just come out and end his campaign?

Country first? Hardly and I think the American people will see through this ploy.

And no matter when it's announced, I think it still won't be a net positive. Given the lousy economic situation, a lot of voters are less impressed by peripheral issues related to personality that they would have been a few weeks ago.

Can you say cheap, tawdry political trick? The thing is, if the press were still on McCain's side, maybe this would work. But as it is, blood is in the water and the sharks are writing their narratives…..