McCain didn't say "everyone who makes less than $5m/yr is middle class"; he said that $5m/yr makes you rich. The reason that sort of thing bugs me is OK, maybe you could argue he meant $4m/yr is middle class (as Obama is doing), but you can definitively state that McCain thinks $4.5m/yr is "not rich".

You're certainly right on the logic--- saying "$5 million makes you an apple" is NOT the same as saying "Less than $5 million makes you an orange" since it only makes you a non-apple--- but I'm not sure you're right on the "optics" (as they say) or acoustics, or whatever phrase is appropriate for a sound bite.

If we only have three classes (for political rhetoric purposes), rich, middle-class, and "struggling to make it" then $4 million don't make ya' rich (using McCain's words) and it don't make ya' poor (using common sense), and the Middle Class is the remaining option. I doubt even McCain would argue that $4 million per annum makes you poor.

But, it's Friday so I'm going to put away the Organon.

Cheers.

Three quick thoughts:

1. McCain picked somebody who can help him win an election, but not govern effectively. Potentially good for McCain, Palin, and the Rove gang, but bad for the country. (E.g., the drilling debate will front and center, with Palin somehow an "expert" because she's from Alaska.) The point? Rove's people are the GOP, and the GOP is/are Rove's people. McCain has become one of them, and Palin just signed up. Rove's focus is on the success of the GOP elite, not on the success of the average American. Please, Senator Biden, point this out.

2. Clinton (Bill) and Obama both spoke about the failure of the GOP (especially neo-Con) ideology--- for my money Bill's brief case against the whole Neo-con project was one of the most important, and over-looked, items from the convention--- and the choice of Palin as VP seems to demonstrate that McCain is even further into that quagmire than before. The Dems should focus on this and never, ever, mention gender.

3. I love Joe Biden, but somebody, please, please, please, tell him to shut the hell up if he even thinks about thinking about considering, maybe, making a gender-based joke. Please. Seriously. No mention of her beauty queen past. Nothing. It is not relevant and would bring nothing but sorrow for the Dems. So, Joe: Shhhhhh!

Dang, people. Where is the Dems' foresight?

Plan passes: Bush and GOP save economy.

Plan doesn't pass, nothing happens: House GOP averted national disaster of wasting $700b tax-payer dollars.

Plan doesn't pass, economy really does melt down: The Dems held Congress and didn't pass the Bush-administration's Bill, ergo the Dems caused the Second Great Depression.

In all three scenarios, the GOP win.

Obama's (well, Obama's surrogates') talking points should be...NOW, before the debate:

"The President and the GOP promised us that a deal had to get done within days or we would face the collapse of the economic system. Once again, they used fear to cover up the fact that the Senator McCain's party was misleading the American public to the advantage of the wealthiest people in America.

"It has become clear that one of two scenarios is true: Either the Republican administration lied about the extent of the crisis and the speed with which action must be taken, OR the Congressional Republicans are risking the nation's economic future for the sake of Senator McCain's grandstanding efforts this week.

"Either way, the Republicans have proven that they are willing to sacrifice America's economic security for the sake of an election. It is sad. And, just as the American people are outraged about the mess created on Wall Street by an economic philosophy that rewards greed and pubishes hard-working Americans, men and women across America are outraged that the Republicans treat this situation like some sort of game, complete with time-outs and Hail Mary passes.

"America deserves better."

Not the best points I've written, but probably enough to prevent the inevitable "The Dems are to blame" crap we'll see from the GOP between now and the VP debate.

The GOP is going to blame the Dems, if for no other reason than to shift the focus off Palin next week. Removing that line of attack should let the media focus on how inane Palin is as a potential VP pick.

1. Get Joe Biden to take a long rest and/or give him a script from which he is not to stray, ever, at all, for two weeks. Message discipline is starting to fade.

2. Assume that massive voter suppression and vote stealing will take place. Assume Ohio will go GOP, as will Nevada, NC, FL, all as a result of GOP voter fraud. Even in states that go blue, massive suppression by the GOP will diminish the national popular vote and serve as fuel for the inevitable "The GOP would have won except for the economy/Palin/media bias" crap that we will hear. That crap is easy to spew at 49-51, less so at 44-56.

As a corollory to #2, begin fighting vote supression now. Make it front page news, document it, point to FL in 2000, make suggestions about how to avoid it in the future (e.g., a separate, simple, piece of paper for Presidential election that says "Check Here for Candidate X"), and so on. Election fraud=Bush=GOP=wrong, wrong, wrong. This would have the double effect of fighting voter suppression (which should be a good fight to engage in, right), and also prevent the GOP from dominating the news cycle for 12 or 13 days.