Firing the FEC Chairman is the best idea you've ever had, and I agree with you totally. So very many of us would love for the Election Committee, in your case, to go belly up. Justice at last. And you'd better put a muzzle on your girlfriend, Sarah. Hard to tell which of you lies more outrageously or more often. Of course, God makes Sarah say what she does, right? Yeah.....

Stop embarrassing Democrats by trumpeting this nonsense. I don't like McCain, but your posts on this subject are stupid. THE PRESIDENT CAN CHOOSE WHICH COMMISSIONER SERVES AS CHAIRMAN. Also, in real life, the chairman - effectively, if not technically, the appointee of the Administration and a loyal mamber of his or her party - would resign if asked by the President. Being asked to resign is the same thing as being FIRED.

And now, he accidently says an "F" instead of an "S" and you jump on it??? Please, real stuff is happening in this campaign. Stuff like the biggest bailout ever - taking on the finanancial system's bad debt etc. And a slip of the tongue is what you write about!??

Stop enabling a frail old man by discounting his inability to sort out who serves at the pleasure of the president...and who can't be fired just because he wants it to be so...

in any case, blaming this mess on Cox is bullshit.

You are the one embarrassing Democrats by excusing stuff which if Obama did it would be flogged by every Republican shill on the innertubes.

Yeah, we can see what overreaching has done for their credibility. This approaches lipstick nonsense.

Hit him on how feable a response to the crisis the idea of firing Cox is, and how it amounts to a flip flop on McCain's part (Cox has only doing the Republican's bidding of non-enforcement/pre-business etc.). The technicalities of "firing" are a ridiculous and weak angle of attack.

You are absolutely wrong.

Fact 1: But while the president nominates and the Senate confirms the SEC chair, a commissioner of an independent regulatory commission cannot be removed by the president.

Fact 2: you are as misinformed as John McCain.

http://www.stephenbainbridge.com/punditry/comments/massive_misinformation_on_the_web_the_president_can_fire_the_sec_chairman

One seems to be terribly confused about what criticism comes from the Obama campaign, and what comes from fact checkers and those who are actually listening to McCain.

One seems to be part of the old Democratic guard which worried more about be criticized by Republicans than actually winning.

One might want to find another hobby.

From time to time, presidents have attempted to remove commissioners who have proven "uncooperative." However, the courts have generally upheld the independence of commissioners. In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt fired a member of the Federal Trade Commission, and the Supreme Court ruled the president acted unconstitutionally. Precedence baby, precedence, that is what law is precedence.

Although Chairman can resign, even Harvey Pitt in 2002 resigned because the President couldn't fire him. He knew he'd lost the confidence of the president and yet still could not be fired. Hmmm.

And too bad today McLame said he would fire the head of the FEC.. he doesn't even know what he is talking about.

McCain had every opportunity to oppose the Cox nomination in 2005 for the SEC chairmanship. He said and did NOTHING.

It's more than a little odd for him to call for Cox's resignation now amidst an unfolding financial crisis. This seems like the kind of issue that a proactive leader would have flagged years ago. McCain is not a proactive leader. He is demonstrating either shameless opportunism, reckless judgment, or perhaps some combination of the two at this stage.

McCain's actions would be a bit like firing Eisenhower during the middle of the D-day invasion. Even if a person doesn't agree with what Cox has done, it's hard to see how his removal at this late stage improves the situation.

Yes.

McCain is flailing and is not as sharp as he used to be. Add them all up and its not a pretty picture.

He is not fit to be president.

Oh, and didn't you see, in his interview with George Stephanopolous he talked about his MUSLIM FAITH!! Oh no!

Who cares? So he said an F instead of an S.

I couldn't care less what republicans think.

I do care what independents and swing voters think, however, and would prefer not to have our "fact checkers" ignore facts and therefore lose such potential votes for Obama because we look like overreachers just like the alternative. We ought to look different, we ought to be better, and we damn well ought to care about the truth.

What if Obama had made Spain an enemy, called on the firing of Cox, confused the SEC and the FEC all within 24 hours? And then there is Sarah, stonewalling the trooper gate.

Gee, I remember a lipstick comment about nothing lasting for days, and the Republicans are still screaming about it, every chance they get.

Don't tell me the media isn't biased. For the conservatives.

The narratives for the final act of the campaign have now been set.

Obama has this week displayed the cool temperament, sound judgment, intelligence and gravitas to be president. His insights about the complex recipe needed to start fixing our ailing financial and economic structures have been remarkably accurate ever since he first ennunciated his proposals in four major speeches over the past nine months.

In contrast, this week the flip-flopping McCain has shown himself to be both a deregulator and a regulator, a cheerleader for the "fundamentals" and an hysteric tearing his hair out over the "crisis." He foolishly wanted to fire the SEC chair, when the president can't do that. He impotently wanted to set up a "911 commission" to study the financial collapse. He lied yet again about Obama's tax-cut program. He hid behind the flimsy glamour of Sarah "President" Palin. He offered a major snub to a major NATO ally, Spain. And oh, yeah, he invented the Blackberry.

McCain is in serious mental decline. Quite simply, he is not fit to be president.