Wall Street Journal: McCain to pay for health care plan by cutting Medicare/Medicaid

From the Wall Street Journal, no less:

John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs....

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. McCain's senior policy adviser, said Sunday that the campaign has always planned to fund the tax credits, in part, with savings from Medicare and Medicaid. Those government health-care programs serve seniors, poor families and the disabled.

I mean, it's not like seniors need health care. Look at McCain, he's 72 and fit as a fiddle. Well, an erratic angry fiddle that's had cancer 4 times and can't remember what he just said, where he's going, or what continent Spain is located in. Read the rest of this post...

After six years in the Senate, Norm Coleman can't (or won't) answer simple questions

How hard is it to answer a simple questions? Very hard for Minnesota's Republican Senator Norm Coleman. He really is a smarmy character. Always has been.

One question Coleman won't answer is whether a really rich friend bought clothes for Coleman and his wife at Neiman Marcus. Is it that hard a question? I tend to remember who bought me clothes. Why won't Norm Coleman give a "yes or no" answer to a "yes or no" question. Harper's Ken Silverstein asked the questions and still doesn't have the answer:

I’ve been told by two sources that [Minnesota businessman Nasser Kazeminy, a big donor to the G.O.P. and to Coleman] has in the past covered the bills for Coleman’s lavish clothing purchases at Nieman Marcus in Minneapolis. The sources were not certain of the dates of the purchases; if they were made before Coleman joined the Senate in 2003, he obviously would not be required to report it under senate rules. But having a private businessman pay for your clothing is never a good idea if you’re a public official (Coleman was mayor of St. Paul from 1994 to 2002).

Kazeminy did not respond to a request for comment. I’ve been trying unsuccessfully since last week to get Coleman’s press office to give me a direct answer about the matter.

Here’s my most recent email exchange (with a few typos cleaned up):

My email to LeRoy Coleman:

Wanted to run this by you one last time: Two sources have told me that Nasser Kazeminy has paid for clothing for Senator Coleman and his wife at Nieman Marcus… Seems like a pretty straightforward question, and [I] was hoping I could get a response to it. If it’s not accurate, please let me know. [I] am planning to write an item about this over next day or two; if Senator Coleman disputes the accounts I have heard, I would like to know.

Coleman’s response:

As required, any gift Norm Coleman has received from his friends has been fully reported.

To Coleman:

Sorry to be so persistent, and maybe I’m missing something here, but I am still hoping you can just give me a direct “yes or no” answer: Has Nasser Kazeminy paid for clothing for Senator Coleman and/or his wife at Nieman Marcus? If, so, when were the purchases made? Was he already in the Senate [then], or was it prior to his joining the Senate? Saying he’s reported any gifts “as required” does not necessarily mean Kazeminy has not paid for Coleman’s purchases at Nieman.

Coleman’s response:

As required, any gift Norm Coleman has received from his friends has been fully reported.

Still waiting for a “yes” or a “no.” I’ll update this post if I receive any further response.

Then, watch this video of Coleman's press secretary who can't answer the simple question of whether Coleman supports John McCain's health care plan. This isn't a hard one -- or shouldn't be:


Al Franken is, of course, the Democratic candidate. Read the rest of this post...

John McCain has a domestic terrorist problem

John McCain voted against protecting women and their doctors from anti-abortion terrorists. Twice, McCain voted that way. This wasn't based on a perceived threat. Anti-abortion terrorists were killing doctors. Talk about sending the wrong message to terrorists:
Read the rest of this post...

Caption that photo!

Read the rest of this post...

LA Times: Mishaps mark John McCain's record as naval aviator

The point of the very long investigation by the LA Times seems to be that John McCain has always been brash, headstrong, and prone to erratic behavior that ends up getting him into trouble. But I'm sure he'll be fine handling two wars and an economic crisis. I mean, who hasn't crashed a bank or two? Or 1,000. Read the rest of this post...

'Kill him!', Palin supporter says of Obama in her presence. She says nothing.

On the heels of a McCain supporter yelling that Obama was a "terrorist" today - and McCain said nothing in response to admonish the supporter - the Washington Post reports (via ThinkProgress) that a Palin supporter at one of her rallies today yelled for Obama to be assassinated after Palin, again, told the lie that some of Obama's best friends are terrorists:

"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said.

"Boooo!" said the crowd.

"And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.

"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Palin went on to say that "Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers's living room, and they've worked together on various projects in Chicago."

Palin went on?

Just like she did when speakers at her church said that terrorist attacks against Israelis were "God's judgment" for Jews having the audacity not to embrace Christianity. Just like she did when a visiting witch doctor at her church lamented the fact that, as he claimed, Jews control the banking industry and that's why Wall Street is so corrupt. Not a word from Sarah Palin when her supporters talk of killing Barack Obama. Not a word from Sarah Palin when her own church talks of the propriety of launching terrorist attacks against Jews in Israel.

In one day, McCain's supporters are so enraged by McCain's new rhetoric, calling Obama an un-American terrorist sympathizer, that McCain's supporters are now labeling Obama himself a "terrorist" and calling for him to be killed.

And McCain has no problem with this. Nor does Sarah Palin. Read the rest of this post...

Approval of John "I did everything I could to get him elected and re-elected" McCain's president is at 25%

McCain can try to hide Bush, but this is really ultimate association in 2008 - he voted with George Bush over 90% of the time. Today, Gallup reported that Bush's approval had hit the lowest new low yet:

McCain and Bush are inextricably linked:
Read the rest of this post...

McCain strategist: "If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose." Dow drops 370 closing under 10,000. We're talking about it.

After a rocky day on Wall Street and in markets around the world, sure looks like we're going to keep talking about the economy. That's not good for the McCain campaign according to the McCain campaign. As noted earlier today, the NY Daily News reported:

McCain's course correction reflects a growing case of nerves within his high command as the electoral map has shifted significantly in Obama's favor in the past two weeks.

"It's a dangerous road, but we have no choice," a top McCain strategist told the Daily News. "If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose."

Just about every news website has some major article about the stock market losses today. So, yeah, we're going to keep talking about the economic crisis because it's still a damn crisis, not a political issue to be swept away by negative campaigning.

Someone over at McCain HQ is going to have to write something about the economy on Sarah Palin's Starbucks mocha cup to get her up to speed on the crisis.

UPDATE: Bonddad has a post at DailyKos titled "Economy In Shambles; Markets Crashing." Yikes. This really is a crisis and we'll all be talking about the economy for awhile. Read the rest of this post...

McCain does nothing as supporter calls Obama a "terrorist"

ANOTHER UPDATE from Joe: We'll hear it said that McCain can't be held responsible for what people in his audiences say. Right. Cause it's never happened before. Oh wait, it did. When an audience member asked, speaking of Hillary Clinton, "How do we beat the bitch?" McCain said it was "an excellent question." McCain fosters hatred and negativity by not standing up to it. He should know better. It's appalling and is destroying whatever is left of his reputation.

UPDATE: Ambinder heard it too. I'm just wondering what McCain's supporters are going to do next, now that McCain and Palin have convinced them that Obama is a terrorist. A reader writes in our comments:

This is dangerous, very, very dangerous. There are nutjobs out there, with just a little bit of encouragement, will do something very bad. The Secret Service needs to take action to put a stop to this type of behavior now.

McCain was speaking today in New Mexico, doing his usual personal attack on Barack Obama, as the stock market plummeted (you can see the ticker next to McCain on the screen, an apt reminder of what McCain and his fellow Republicans represent), and McCain asked the crowd "who is Barack Obama?" Immediately you hear a supporter yell "terrorist." McCain pauses, the audience laughs, and McCain continues on, not acknowledging, not chastising, not correcting. Oh, but McCain does say in the next sentence that he's upset about all the "angry barrage of insults." Is McCain losing his mind, or just a liar?

NB It's particularly ironic calling Obama a terrorist when it's Sarah Palin's church that preaches that terrorist attacks against Israel are "God's judgment" on those awful Jews for not accepting Christ.

Read the rest of this post...

I didn't know John McCain was on the board of an organization with ties to anti-Semites

From Ben Smith at Politico, quoting Paul Begala:

And I think Governor Palin here is making a strategic mistake. This guilt by association path is going to be trouble ultimately for the McCain campaign. You know, you can go back, I have written a book about McCain, I had a dozen researchers go through him, I didn’t even put this in the book. But John McCain sat on the board of a very right-wing organization, it was the U.S. Council for World Freedom, it was chaired by a guy named John Singlaub, who wound up involved in the Iran contra scandal. It was an ultra conservative, right-wing group. The Anti-Defamation League, in 1981 when McCain was on the board, said this about this organization. It was affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League – the parent organization – which ADL said “has increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and anti-Semites.”

Let's not forget: John McCain voted against the Martin Luther King holiday. He likes to call himself a maverick, but 95% of the time he's a right-wing Republican, the kind of guy who sat on the board of groups associated with Jew-haters. And I'm sorry, I don't care if this was in the 1980s. It's not like it was okay to be a racist and an anti-Semite in the 1980s. It wasn't. This isn't ancient history. McCain was already in his mid-40s. He wasn't a young man. If you're associated with racists and anti-Semites in your 40s, it's not a youthful indiscretion. More on John McCain's troubling history of ties to anti-Semites here and here. Read the rest of this post...

Global markets are collapsing today

UPDATE: Dow closes down 369.88.

If there were any doubts about whether this would be a US recession or a global recession, I think the markets spoke today. Asian markets crumbled and European markets ranged from 7.07% in Germany to 9.04% in Paris. The Brazilian Ibovespa market has fallen hard today and Wall Street is not pretty in any way. The Chinese Shanghai market is well over 50% down from its peak and India is worse and let's not forget about the Russian exchanges being halted three times in the last few weeks due to rapid declines.

This is going to take a while to correct but even thinking about recovery is a distant dream this week. The US is trying to broker a coordinated approach in the markets but considering how badly the EU failed over the weekend in their Eurozone attempt, I doubt this effort will do much better. Read the rest of this post...

Sarah Palin just called herself an anti-Semite

I've written before that Palin is not a very bright person, and that she and John McCain have very disturbing ties to anti-Semitism. And she proved it again today, in a way that made her own anti-Semitism fair game.

Don't get me wrong - Sarah Palin knows how to make love to the camera. The thing is, she isn't very smart. They're different skills, seducing an audience and actually having an intellect (and with my 401k in the balance, I'm gonna go with brains over winks). I say this because McCain made a mistake by designating Palin his attack dog. She reads a good script, but when she speaks her mind, as she did yesterday trying to attack Obama over Rev. Wright, she causes more trouble for her own campaign than Obama's.

Yesterday is a perfect example, and perhaps her most damaging yet. Palin did an interview with right-wing commentator Bill Kristol. Palin took it upon herself to talk about Rev. Wright:

“To tell you the truth, Bill, I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that — with, I don’t know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn’t get up and leave — to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up.”

Yeah, you see, Sarah Palin's inner idiot came out again on that one. If Sarah Palin thinks not getting up and leaving when your pastor says something outrageous in church says something about your character, then Sarah Palin just called herself a rabid anti-Semite.

Sarah Palin sat in her conservative evangelical church, twice, and said nothing when her visiting pastors and speakers attacked another great nation and another great people - Jews and Israel.

Just three years ago, Palin sat in church and did nothing - nay, she went up on stage and joined a rather out-there evangelical preacher minutes after he said that the reason we have so much corruption on Wall Street is that it's run by Jews. Yes, she really did. Here is what Sarah Palin's guest preacher said, in her presence, minutes before she joined him in front of the entire congregation:

"The second area whereby God wants us, wants to penetrate in our society is in the economic area. The Bible says that the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. It's high time that we have top Christian businessmen, businesswomen, bankers, you know, who are men and women of integrity running the economics of our nations. That's what we are waiting for. That's part and parcel of transformation. If you look at the -- you know -- if you look at the Israelites, that's how they work. And that's how they are, even today. When we will see that, you know, that the top transporters (?) in the lands, we see, you know, the bankers, we see the people holding the parts (?), they are believers, we will not have the kind of corruption that we are hearing in our societies."

Did you catch that? Sarah Palin's guest preacher says that if only good Christians could take control of the banking industry away from the wicked Jews we would "not have the kind of corruption that we are hearing in our societies." Nice. And she "didn't get up and leave," she got up and joined the anti-Semite on stage moments later.

Then there's the time, this past August 17 - just six weeks ago - that Sarah Palin sat in church and listened to (and may have even given a donation to) a Jews for Jesus founder David Brickner who, in Palin's presence, said Palestininian terrorist attacks on Israelis are God's "judgment" on Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.

Did you catch that? According to Palin's friend the guest-preacher, it's the Jews' own fault that the terrorists blow them up in Israel. If only Jews would convert to Christianity, and stop being so Jewish, nobody would have to kill them, says Palin's guest-preacher with her in attendance.

Sarah Palin sat there, didn't say a word, didn't leave, and according to one report may have even donated money to the man after he basically said that Jews in Israel deserve to get blown up. Here is what the Jews for Jesus executive director had to say:

Brickner also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.

"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."

Palin was in church that day...

Sarah Palin was there. Sarah Palin didn't leave. She may have given a donation to one man preaching anti-Semitism, and she got up and stood alongside a second man preaching anti-Semitism. Under her own standard enunciated today, Sarah Palin just admitted that she's an anti-Semite. Read the rest of this post...

Dow is plummeting

Down 800 at 2:46PM Eastern.

Down 727 at 235PM Eastern.

Down 627 at 2:10PM Eastern.

Read the rest of this post...

Listen to McCain's lawyer say today that the Keating Five investigation was simply a partisan smear campaign against John McCain

"Senator [George] Mitchell [D-ME] was the [Senate] majority leader and [Democratic Senator] Howell Heflin [D-AL] was his stooge and he was doing what he was told because they had, the rest were Democrats in the hearing. So it's sort of a classic political smear job on John."

- John Dowd, lawyer for John McCain, on McCain campaign conference call to discuss the Keating Five Scandal, October 6, 2008.

McCain campaign conference call, today - McCain's lawyer is doing most of the talking.

Read the rest of this post...

McCain just obliterated the Straight Talk Express. Admits it was built on a lie.

As the stock market tanks yet again (it's down 540 points as I write this), it's only appropriate that we revisit that other banking scandal, the one John McCain had an intimate role in.

John's post below contains the stunning admission from the McCain campaign that the Keating 5 investigation was an attempt to politically smear John McCain. For years, we've been hearing that McCain's "reformer" image came from his claiming to have made amends for that scandal, which sunk 1,000 banks and cost taxpayers billions of dollars. But, now we know that McCain's reform mantle is a fraud. McCain isn't sorry for what happened. He's sorry he got caught.

McCain's many friends in the political punditry were most willing to give him a pass on the Keating scandal because they fell for the scam. Remember when the king of the pundits, David Broder, wrote last June:

McCain benefits from a long-established reputation as a man who says what he believes.

Not true. McCain actually believes that the Keating 5 scandal wasn't about his lack of ethics, it was simply a political witch hunt conducted against him by "stooges." How can McCain make amends for something when he doesn't think did anything wrong. McCain's whole reformer image is built on a lie.

McCain had a long, intimate relationship with Charles Keating. Jonathan Singer at MyDD provided a concise and informative overview of the McCain-Keating relationship last January:

McCain has done a great job of courting the media, not only over the past 8 to 10 years but throughout his entire career, and on the basis of this close relationship with the establishment press he has been able to position himself as a true champion of clean government. But is he? Is this something that Democrats should be conceding to him?

The only reason why McCain took up the mantle of campaign finance reform was that he was intimately caught up in the Keating Five corruption scandal back in the 1980s -- a scandal that could have strong legs in a general election this year even though it occurred so long ago. In short, the scandal entailed Charles Keating, the head of a Savings and Loan institution that went belly up, and the steps he took -- including trying to call in favors from Senators to whom he and associates had given trips and donated campaign money -- to try to get Congressional investigators off of his back. In an era when the federal government is faced with the possibility of having to bail out billions or even trillions in bad debt resulting from the subprime lending industry, a politician's involvement in a corruption scandal linked to a similar boondoggle -- in the case of the savings and loan crisis, the federal government picked up a tab of close to $125 billion -- isn't necessarily going to be a positive.

And just how closely was McCain tied to the Keating Five scandal? Very. Though McCain might try to downplay his involvement, his campaigns received $124,000 from Keating and his associates during the 1980s (AP, 3/2/91), and McCain was described as being personally closer to Keating than any of the other members of the Keating Five (Roll Call, 1/20/92). What's more, McCain accepted more than $15,000 in free trips from Keating, including vacations to Keating's resort in the Bahamas -- trips that McCain failed to disclose at the time (New York Times, 2/28/91; San Francisco Chronicle, 12/3/90).

McCain is not a reformer. He's a whiner -- an angry whiner. And he's also a man who just reopened the entire history of the Keating 5 scandal. Read the rest of this post...

If McCain is recanting his Keating Five confession then he's recanting his entire status as a reformer

Ben Smith weighs in on the shocking news that McCain is now saying the Keating Five investigation was a set-up, a witch hunt, a partisan smear job, and that he did nothing wrong. But if mcCain did nothing wrong, then why did he admit all these years to making a giant mistake during the Keating Five fiasco, a mistake that supposedly made McCain the maverick he is today? Or was McCain's giant mistake admitting guilt and taking ownership of his character flaws?

From Ben at Politico:

I'd always thought McCain's great strength in defending the Keating affair was that he'd acknolwedged making a huge mistake, and spent his career repenting by recasting himself as a reformer.

So when his campaign puts his lawyer on the line with reporters to contest the details of a congressional inquiry that, largely, let McCain off the hook, doesn't that cloud the sin-confession-atonement dynamic a bit?

In Halperin's account, McCain lawyer John Dowd described McCain's "former relationship with Charles Keating as 'social friends,'" and called the situation a "classic political smear job on John."

Dowd also "thinks that the committee went too far in suggesting that McCain’s intervention with regulators was poor judgment," Halperin writes.

But if so, what's this giant mistake that transformed McCain into a reformer?

And as Ben noted earlier, McCain's Keating Five admission is the ENTIRE basis of his maverick brand:

[I]n his 2002 autobiography, "the worst mistake of my life." He remade himself as a reformer in reaction to the scandal. McCain's case isn't that you should ignore his sin, or that it isn't a sin; it's that he's expiated it.

Not any more. It's George Bush all over again. Don't own up to anything. Deny everything. There are no facts that can' be disputed - even 20 year old facts that you've already copped to. Amazing. Read the rest of this post...

McCain campaign: Keating Five investigation was 'a political smear job' on John McCain

Holy crap.

I'm listening to the McCain campaign conference call about John McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal. McCain's lawyer just said that the Keating Five investigation was "political" as it concerned John McCain. He shouldn't even have been admonished by the Senate, his lawyer says.

Then McCain's lawyer dropped the real bomb.

The Keating Five Investigation was "a political smear job on John [McCain]." WTF? He called Howell Heflin, who led the hearings, a "stooge" of the Democratic machine out to get poor, innocent John McCain.

This opens up the entire question of McCain's supposed contrition. If McCain thinks he did nothing wrong, and that it was wrong for the Senate to scold him for his actions during the Keating Five Scandal, then he isn't contrite at all, he isn't sorry at all. He's learned nothing. You can't turn a new leaf when you don't think you did anything wrong. This is one hell of an admission. Get more on the Keating Five Scandal at the new Obama campaign Web site, KeatingEconomics.com And here is the Obama campaign's new documentary about McCain's involvement in this ethics scanda (if the video isn't loading well, it may be because of the absurd amount of traffic trying to watch it - use this link instead if you're having a problem):

Read the rest of this post...

McCain's VP: I kinda know people want to hear about issues but I'm just going to attack and smear Obama anyway

This morning, Sarah Palin admitted voters wanted to hear about issues, but then, she got back to her script continued her non-issues related smear attack on Barack Obama:

An unintentionally ironic moment just now at Palin's rally in Clearwater, Florida. Teeing up her Ayers/patriotism attack on Obama, she went off script and recalled her recent interview with "mainstream media" (also known as Katie Couric).

Palin lamented that she had been asked gotcha-style questions instead of about those issues that the voters wanted to hear about, mentioning the war, education and the economy.

I have no doubt Sarah appreciates the irony. Read the rest of this post...

McCain strategist to NY Daily News: "If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose."

The McCain campaign just does not want to talk about the economy. In their world view, it's a bad political issue that with some political maneuvering can be side-stepped. But that ignores the fact that in the real world, the economy is THE issue. Seriously, there is no comprehension on the GOP side over how the failing economy is directly affecting the American people. The Republicans think by going negative they change the subject:

McCain's course correction reflects a growing case of nerves within his high command as the electoral map has shifted significantly in Obama's favor in the past two weeks.

"It's a dangerous road, but we have no choice," a top McCain strategist told the Daily News. "If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose."

Stop talking about the economic crisis and you're going to lose, too.

And, as I write this, the Dow is down over 500 points, so I think, and this is just a guess, that people are still going to be talking about the economy for the next couple weeks... Read the rest of this post...

"What I hear is she's an awful anti-Semite," George Friedberg said

Salon:

"I was leaning towards McCain," growled Marvin Weinstein, 74, as he strode to an appointment in a doctor's office. "But I think his choice of her has turned me off."

"What I hear is she's an awful anti-Semite," George Friedberg said as he sat curbside in his Escalade. "She won't be getting my vote." Friedberg's wife, Florence, appeared at the passenger-side door, shopping bags in hand. "I was leaning towards McCain, but after he selected her I've ruled him out completely. I find her offensive."

More on Palin's anti-Semitism here. Read the rest of this post...

Young voters are engaged and voting for Obama by a 2 to 1 margin

From Gallup:

America's youngest voters are mindful of history and the impact on their own lives as they prepare to cast ballots on Nov. 4. Among 18- to 29-year-old registered voters surveyed for a USA Today/MTV/Gallup poll, 61% support the Obama-Biden ticket, versus 32% who prefer the McCain-Palin ticket, with Obama's voters being far more likely to be certain about their vote than McCain's.

The survey includes cell phone respondents.

Gallup's "bottom line":

A majority of 18- to 29-year-olds are registered to vote in this election and have given it a lot of thought. They prefer Barack Obama, both as an alternative to John McCain, but also as the candidate who is the most likely to understand their problems and to bring positive change to their own lives. Casting a ballot for Obama also carries the excitement of making history. Nearly 8 in 10 consider this election to be more important than other elections, if not the most important in the past 50 years. What remains to be seen is how many of this highly sought-after demographic will in fact turn out and vote on Election Day, and thus help to determine the winner.

Young voters do seem especially engaged this year, at least on the Obama side. And, the Obama campaign is making an unprecedented effort, using all the new tools in the technological toolbox, to insure they vote. Read the rest of this post...

Rove thinks the economic issues will just ebb and flow away

Republicans really don't get the horrible shape of the economy. They think it's just an issue that people only focused on because of the near collapse of the country's financial system. Everyday, families are facing the near collapse of their own financial systems. That's why people are focused on the economy. It's personal and people are very worried. It might not be true for John and Cindy McCain or Karl Rove and their friend, but it is true for most people.

The Republicans really think they can change the subject from the economy. Rove sounds convinced:

But Karl Rove, a former political strategist for President Bush who twice pulled off victories in Ohio, told The Washington Times: "It is not slipping away: Watch the polls in the Buckeye State over the next couple of weeks."

"Remember, the campaign ebbs and flows," he said Sunday morning on Fox News. "What we're seeing here is a result of the focus of the American people, voters, on the economic problems that have dominated the news the last several weeks. What's happened then is a shift to Obama."

Mr. Rove noted on Fox that "this race is susceptible to rapid changes and we're likely to see, in the remaining four weeks, more changes."

Still, the Republican faces a herculean task after a perfect storm has blown into Ohio.

Rove barely eked out a victory in Ohio in 2004 when Bush made national security the dominant issue. It's a different world. It's the economy. And, John McCain and the Republicans are stupid about the economy.

Although the punditry swoon whenever Rove speaks, the GOP's guru has clearly lost his touch. Two years ago, in late October as the signs were building that the Democrats would take the House and possibly the Senate, Rove confidently predicted the GOP would retain both the House and Senate:

SIEGEL: I'm looking at all the same polls that you are looking at.

ROVE: No, you are not. I'm looking at 68 polls a week for candidates for the US House and US Senate, and Governor and you may be looking at 4-5 public polls a week that talk attitudes nationally.

SIEGEL: I don't want to have you to call races...

ROVE: I'm looking at all of these Robert and adding them up. I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math but you are entitled to your math and I'm entitled to THE math.

SIEGEL: I don't know if we're entitled to a different math but your...

ROVE: I said THE math.

THE math is going to work the same way in 2008. Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

29 days.

Big debate tomorrow night. It's the town hall meeting. Tom Brokaw is the moderator. We need to keep reminding everyone that Brokaw has been busy smoothing relations between NBC and the McCain campaign. The pressure is on Brokaw to prove he hasn't become a toady for the GOP.

Also, has anyone seen George Bush lately? Usually, by this time in the campaign, the incumbent president would be out on the trail, rallying the base. But, he's missing. Just nowhere to be seen. McCain wants to make an issue of "associations," which seems quite risky for him given his very close association with George W. Bush. Very close. Third term close.

And while we're on the subject of McCain's associations, check out: KeatingEconomics.com. Yes, John McCain's good friend and vacation buddy, Charles Keating, who cost the taxpayers billions. Has anyone clued Sarah Palin in on the whole Keating 5 scandal and McCain's role in it? Some McCain campaign aide needs to write it up on her next Starbucks cup.

Let's get it started.... Read the rest of this post...

Regulators in China planning next stock market bubble

While the rest of the world is adding tougher regulations to curb the abuses of unregulated stock exchanges, China is going in the opposite direction. Allowing short sales on the market could help pump extra money into the system (though I would be concerned with the long term end result) is one change but the more dangerous move is allowing margin sales, as in requiring less cash to buy stocks. In a growing market, everyone is usually fine but in a declining market such as China's Shanghai exchange (which has lost 70% since last October) this could lead to an even more dramatic decline.

The introduction of short-selling in China would contrast with regulatory moves in much of the rest of the world. In response to the global crisis, U.S. and British regulators last month temporarily banned short-selling of financial stocks, while Australia, Singapore and Taiwan restricted the practice.

But the commission said, "The launch of margin trade and short-selling is an important step in the reform and development of our capital markets, and will inject new vitality into the securities market."

China has been considering since 2006 starting margin trade, in which investors borrow money from brokerages to buy shares, and short-selling, where they borrow stocks from brokers and sell them in the hope of buying them back later at lower prices.

Its launch of the reforms has been delayed by massive market volatility: a bull run that boosted the Shanghai Composite Index sixfold between mid-2005 and last October, and then a bear market which took the index down more than 70 percent.

Read the rest of this post...

Asian markets fall hard, Europe drops 4% at opening

Painful. Asia fell due to fears in the banking sector and overall global economy after the US experienced it's worst week in seven years. German bank Hypo Real Estate required urgent financial assistance and countries across Europe have started to guarantee all savings and not just limited portions as in the past. Ireland started the trend of 100% guarantee and that has since been copied by Greece, Germany and late last night, Denmark. In an effort to prevent runs on the bank and money shifting from an unprotected to a fully protected banking country, other countries will surely follow soon.

In Europe, heads of state gathered as more financial problems arrived in the banks. Attempts were made to build a US-like rescue package though they were unable to agree on a coordinated plan. The bank guarantees only highlighted the banking problems and at opening, Europe has fallen over 4%. This is going to be the first real test of both the euro and the European Central Bank (ECB, which is like the Fed) as the Eurozone economies head into recession. Read the rest of this post...

Bill Maher on 'France'

From a year ago, but still great.

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Video of the re-entry of the Jules Verne ATV space vehicle

Very cool video. (Kind of hard not to have Challenger flashbacks, however. Actually, a reader corrected me, I'm thinking Columbia, though Challenger was far more tramautic.)

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