Cool.  Thanks.

Keep in mind pretty much nobody saw the current problems and it is not because they were stupid.

When the media latches on to things like CDS and short selling as the root of the current crisis (not saying you're doing it, just saying it has been done a lot lately), they are missing the point.

Lack of transparency, ratings agencies rating securities they had no rationale for rating,  bankers incented to close deals and move on are what we should be focused on.

.. what exactly?

Exactly right.  If reality matches the the poll within the margin of error why should we care?

Well, maybe we'd care if the margin of error was, oh, 25% or sumthin.

FP posts like this are making me wonder why I show up here at all anymore.

:-)

OK, so progressive sites have been a little boring lately, cuz mainly we're just freaked that things look so good for us (i.e. DON"T GET COMPLACENT).

Anyhoo, was over at RedState last night, just cuz, well, rightwing paranoia can be rather amusing. OK, sad, but still.

They were having great fun with the interview. "Proved" that Biden was worthless, etc.

Bottom line, it is in the eye of the beholder. If you like Obama/Biden, you'll view this (justifiably) as a hit job. If you think Biden is a tool, it is one more piece of evidence of his, ummm, tooldom.

Gonna be interesting times in the months ahead. Conservatives already jumping ship from being labeled "conservative." Time for them to get a taste of the old "Liberal" medicine.

Well, uglier.

Ya never know though.  McCain might take the "Walter Mondale" advice and start campaigning in a manner he wishes his grandkids to remember him by.  Or somesuch as some talking head said on Sunday.

OK, that is about as likely to happen as, well, ummm, the most unlikely unlikeliest thing you can think of.

No complacency.  This thing is not over til (hopefully) Nov 5.

$50 on the way...

Exactly.  I mean, if he were a true leader, he'd get Saddam Hussein 99.9% of the vote kinds of numbers.  Wait, did I just tie Barack Obama to Saddam Hussein?  Nothing intentional, just pointing out his "obvious" character flaws here.  Another one, he clearly has no executive experience cuz no bipartisan commission has ever found he abused his power to help his family.  

I'm guessin' this is a pet rock issue (see, I can drop my G's too!).

I doubt someone is going to choose to vote against Palin (umm, I mean McCain) cuz she followed bad tax advice.  If this were a Wesley Snipes kinda thing, then yeah, but not what seems like a pretty esoteric issue.

In wacko anti-tax world, this could actually turn into a positive.

Forgiveness comes after the election.

"Whoa, things got a little out of hand there. Trust me, my sense of honor is the most important thing to me.  If I lose that, life is not worth living.  I did not always conduct my campaign as I wish I had.  I failed to live up to the high standard I set for myself.  Can I get back on Letterman now?"

I think "don't look in the past" combined with "i've only been here 5 weeks" are not going to win many votes for McCain.

52,384

Big room.

Her response was, "John McCain and I are mavericks".

Didn't see the whole debate live, but Biden talking about his family, his dad, struggling as a single parent was the key moment for me.  I think Palin is very genuine when speaking about being a "regular" person and that is also her weakness from an experience standpoint.  Biden has plenty of faults but it is clear he has not forgotten his roots and he has dealt with some tough things in his life.  

well, palin will be out here shortly.....

It is amazing how so often in politics, Occam's razor just does not apply.  I'm sure if we decode John McCain's blinks during the Des Moines Register interview, we'd find he is signalling "2012 is our year, give them this pyrrhic victory"