Was to force McCain to spend money he can barely afford in states that he would not have normally needed to. Yes Obama will probably still lose those states but he may win some and McCain will have financial difficulties.

That being said as far as the outcome of the General election it must be taken into account the fact that the republicans are relatively demoralized, democrats are energized and young people are expected to vote in larger numbers than ever before.

Palin behaves like a poltician! *GASP*

More red meat (and thats all it is) for the McCain campaign to feed their base to rile them up for election day.

Thanks Salon!

Now that is a hard-bitten piece of journalism.

Thanks for keeping me 'informed'.

By the way, ironically there was some genuine Palin news: Palin Bans Reporters From UN Meetings, CNN Pulls The Plug (link in the sig. Of course to another site)

Didn't even read the article but seriously, are there even facts to check? Campaign propaganda that is blatantly false doesn't deserve the temporary til immediately disproven title of 'fact'.

Come on Salon. Articles on why Obama's positions on the issues and why he'd be better for American than McCain is what is needed.

Since the next president will have to deal with the repercussions and consequences of the current administration's failed economic policies it is more important than ever that the American people get a chance to hear what the candidates have to say before making their choice. While I applaud and of course agree with Senator McCain's enthusiasm for helping to fix the country's economic problems, I see no reason why we cannot debate.

Why? Because they want to buy ALL the bad debt. Absolutely no mechanism for determining which institutions can weather the crisis and which cannot.

Why not put burdensome conditions on receiving federal money that would make only the institutions that really really need it, accept it? Perhaps encourage institutions that think they can get by without being bailed out forgo the handout?

The fact the the plan calls for us to buy ALL the bad debt with no oversight just proves something other than fixing the economy is going on.

Lets also not forget that the last 2 days seem to be a coordinated effort by the President, McCain campaign, and congressional republicans to make the situation also look as if McCain is saving the day.

Its too much BS. Screw wall st. Its about time this country dealt with some consequences. We'll be better off in the long run.

But this isn't a straight up business transaction. The gov't is using other people's money to rescue people who shouldn't be rescued simply only because of consequences to everyone should those people fail.

Given that, there is no reason why there shouldn't be a market driven mechanism to limit who gets fed money to those that truly need it. To me the fact that the default option coming from supposed free-market fiscal conservatives is to buy all the bad debt without thought to whether the institution in question is in some kind of dire need without ANY oversight indicates that more than an attempt to 'fix' the situation is going on.

Ok, I got one argument left against the plan: Its a bush admin plan.

Isn't that enough? Have these people been right on anything? Have they carried out any plan successfully?

At this point, I'd rather suffer through the loss OR wait for the next admin to fix.

I wouldn't let bush admin plan a b'day party for 4 year olds.

Leave the white power elite alone!!! *SOB*

China just got busted for the same thing when a news article about their space launch about how successful the launch was with quote from the astronauts during the launch was released accidentally onto the web before the actual launch.

I guess you can teach an old dog, new tricks.

A better description would have been Plaintive vs. Presidential.

"And this is a moment of real high anxiety, a little bit like 9/11, when people look to Washington for comfort and leadership and want to know that people in charge know what they are doing."

I think after 8 years, Americans have learned how to get used to knowing that the people in charge don't know what they are doing. In fact it would seem there is a significant % that prefer it.

She's taken it upon herself to accept a position that would grant her almost unimaginable power over her fellow country-people. I'm worried she was picked, I'm relieved she reveals herself inept BEFORE the election.

No pity. If you feel sorry for her, lock yourself in a room to re-examine your priorities until you get them straightened out.

Correct me if I'm wrong here but the need for the bailout stems in part from banks being irresponsibly, if not negligently lax in their scrutiny of whom to give home loans. One would think that bailout or not, that is going to change. So even with the bailout banks are going to be much less generous with their loans. As they should be! So blow some other smoke up my ass for the bailout, cause the 'credit crunch' smoke aint doing it for me.

I think the kernel idea here is that Biden should attack McCain during the debate, not Palin. And its a great idea.

"There is going to be a lot of Sarah Palin focus at the War Room today"

Just attack McCain and his policies constantly. Force Palin to either defend McCain, which I can't imagine her doing coherently, or to not respond to the attacks which equates to not defending McCain.

Palin herself requested a large sum to study crab reproduction in Alaska. I was surprised Obama didn't bring it up as a rebuttal to McCain when he whined about the 3 mil.