From my position on the fence, I’ve really been looking forward to tonight’s debate. In spite of having followed both Obama and McCain for months, there’s something clarifying about hearing their visions in a direct (and mostly polite) format, and there’s really no replacement for observing them side-by-side. So let me start by saying that while there were some odd moments, there were...

I usually don’t post more than once in a day but this was too good to pass up. Anyone remember this little picture… If I only had a picture of McCain leaving the failed negotiations on the bailout at the White House. Mission (Not) Accomplished…time to get back to campaigning.

UPDATE: Blaming Barack Obama and Congress, in other words everyone but himself for the failure of his latest and boldest attempt to game voters, John McCain has announced that he will be in Mississippi tonight for the first presidential debate. McCain reversed field after having declared that he couldn’t face off against Barack Obama unless a deal was reached on the Wall Street financial aid bailout. A campaign...

John McCain will debate Barack Obama in Oxford, Mississippi tonight after all. No, there was no deal passed or final agreement to do so. McCain’s condition for debating was not, in fact, met. But John McCain sure did get a whole lot of attention. And, hey, he’s already won tonight’s debate. His website says so: In the real world, McCain’s stunt failed. It was transparently bogus;...

There is a man who on several occasions has admitted that he “doesn’t really understand economics.” There is a man (he happens to be a U.S. Senator) who for the past five months has not attended a single meeting of his legislative body, nor has participated in a single debate, nor has cast a single vote on our nation’s critical issues—including the recent economy stimulus package. There...

Earlier I quoted Fred Wilson. Wilson is A VC I respect and admire. He’s taken to calling the proposed bailout “The Splurge” (a locution I may adopt myself). Today he humbly weighs in on To Splurge Or Not To Splurge. Short version: If this money is not coming back, then it’s an expenditure and we should not do it. If the probability adjusted return on this investment is $1.5bn then we...

Parenting is a tough job. One has to find a balance between letting kids learn life’s lessons through painful experience (natural consequences), and keeping them safe. The parental path through the child-raising wilderness is not always well-marked. Fire is hot. Should we let little Janey touch a flame so she learns that it’s dangerous? Guns can kill people. Do we teach little Johnny how to...

John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune

I’m a historian of 19th century America and I specialize in the Civil War era. The political crisis that led to war did not begin with the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860, but had its roots decades earlier. Nevertheless, a series of horrible miscalculations by political leaders in all parties, particularly after the Compromise of 1850, led the nation on a path toward secession and war. It’s...

At the risk of saying something blasphemous… During this whole financial crisis, which seems to be getting worse by the day, the Parable of the Prodigal Son. I’ve always been fascinated by the two sons; the younger one, who demands his inheritance and goes off and spends it wildly and the older son who stays and is the “good son.” There is always a lot of sympathy for the younger son...

The coverage of McCain’s desperate stunt earlier tonight on Anderson Cooper was just atrocious. Although the word “stunt” was used, the overall tone was positive. McCain is risking everything, it seems, to suspend his campaign, a huge “gamble” that is well worth taking. There was no mention of what he actually contributed to the proceedings, if anything, and much of the segment...

Deal or no deal? Though using that TV show name has now become trite when referring to emergency bailout talks in Washington between the White House, Congressional leaders, and presidential candidates Republican Sen. John McCain and Barack Obama, it’s the best description of news reports about the day of high political drama. Or would the real TV title of the day be “Lost” — as in lost...

UPDATE: It now appears that Washington Mutual was actually closed by the government because regulators felt it was unsound and it was then sold to Morgan. According to news reports customers withdrew $ 20 billion in deposits over the past week. One of the other shoes has dropped as JP Morgan buys out Washington Mutual for a reported price of $ 1.9 billion. It looks to be a pretty good deal for Morgan as WaMu...

The skepticism of fellow The Moderate Voice blogger Polimom is understandable. All the pieces are in place for John McCain to, sometime tomorrow, be portrayed as the hero who brokered a resolution to the financial crisis acceptable to The White House, Congressional Democrats, and recalcitrant conservative Congressional Republicans. It seems so pat, so obvious, and it just might be true. But I don’t think...

Playboy publishing giant Hugh Hefner is being urged to lay off the Playboy bunnies. In an employer sense, that is. His experts are saying that even the Playboy empire feels the crunch and that he needs to get rid of some of the bunnies on his staff. And since this is related to Hefner’s image, the question is whether laying off the bunnies will make Hefner a big boob: Tycoon Hugh Hefner has been advised...

RJ Matson, Roll Call

The two most recent occupants of the Oval Office were in prime time last night, while aspirants to succeed them prepared to go to the White House today in a bizarre interactive TV reality show that will affect the financial survival of millions of Americans. George W. Bush, who was voted off the island two years ago but refused to leave, looked voters in the eye and talked about panic and recession with a straight...

Every now and then you read something that (to borrow two tired clichés) cuts through the clutter and calls a spade a spade. Victor Davis Hanson offers such a read this morning at RCP. Granted, I don’t agree with everything Hanson posits in this piece (e.g., his suggestion that 40% of the population “should stick to renting”) — but, on balance, his essay is a good wake-up call …...

First 5 minutes of a 13 minute, 42 second speech delivered on March 12, 1933. History Matters has the full transcript: When President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, one in four Americans was out of work nationally, but in some cities and some industries unemployment was well over 50 percent. Equally troubling were the bank panics. Between 1929 and 1931, 4,000 banks closed for good; by 1933 the number...

The familiar frat boy smirk was absent when George Bush went before the nation last night to cry wolf. The man speaking from the White House had recently managed the feat of polling disapproval ratings lower than Richard Nixon during the week before he resigned, while the people objecting most vociferously to the $700 billion taxpayer-funded bailout plan being engineered by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson,...

You know, after spending $700 billion to help the American economy not sink into Depression 2.0 … $25 billion for the Big Three is like the change you find under the couch: With Congress preoccupied with the massive, $700 billion bailout plan for the financial industry, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have finally secured Part One of their own federal rescue plan. A bill set to be passed by Congress...

Did he basically play the 911 card with a different design all over again? The Washington Note’s Steve Clemons has some thoughts. What are yours?

So now GOP Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, pointing to the Wall Street meltdown and the chance that Congress will balk at the Bush administration’s crucial bailout solution, has suspended his campaign — and reportedly won’t show up at Friday’s debate even if Democratic Sen. Barack Obama does. In terms of the impact on Campaign 2008, the next few days will be critical as a new...

There are three ways you can succeed with a political stunt: 1) The people don’t realize it’s a stunt and you look selfless on the face of it. 2) The attention given to the event at issue actually helps a substantive problem get solved. People see it as a stunt but one that “raises awareness” of an important issue and gets things done. 3) The opponent overplays his hand and falls into...

I’m really saddened by my reaction to McCain’s maneuver statement that he’s suspending his campaign in favor of rushing off to lead the country into the sunrise. I’ve discovered a truly deep well of cynicism about all things political lately. And he wants the first debate postponed until the “crisis is over”? LOL! The elections could very well be over before we’re...