Politico: Some House Republicans would rather see the market crash

Politico:

According to one GOP lawmaker, some House Republicans are saying privately that they’d rather “let the markets crash” than sign on to a massive bailout.

“For the sake of the altar of the free market system, do you accept a Great Depression?” the member asked.

Putting that little bit of horror aside, here's a quote guaranteed to make you chuckle:

President Bush’s lame duck status, and his heavy hand in dealing with lawmakers in his own party for the last seven-plus years, is also coming back to haunt the White House, as House Republicans grumble that Bush is “trying to tear up the Constitution” by committing the federal government to such a massive intervention in the U.S. financial markets.

Yeah, Republicans caring about the Constitution. Seven years too late, you jerks. They only care about the Constitution when money is involved - their money.

Ok, this is interesting too:

[Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio)] reiterated that Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) — who, as ranking member of the House Financial Service Committee participated in talks on the compromise — "wasn't empowered to negotiate" any agreement on behalf of other House Republican.

So the top House Republican on finance issues isn't empowered to negotiate for House Republicans on finance issues. Now tell me who is in disarray and mucking up the entire process. It sounds like there's a bit of chaos in Republican-land.

“The Republican Party right now is fractured," said one GOP member who didn't want to be named. “’Fractured’ is not even the right word...Human nature is taking over."

This Republican lawmaker said that "there are two or three groups trying to write their own bill, which is virtually impossible. Six or seven of these guys get together and think they can write their own bill.”

Read the rest of this post...

More on the Washington Mutual failure

Tonight has seen the biggest bank failure in United States history. From the New York Times:

Washington Mutual, the giant lender that came to symbolize the excesses of the mortgage boom, was seized by federal regulators on Thursday night, in what is by far the largest bank failure in American history.
...
Washington Mutual is by far the biggest bank failure in history, eclipsing the 1984 failure of Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust in Chicago, an event that presaged the savings and loan crisis. IndyMac, which was seized by regulators in July, was a tenth the size of WaMu.

How does a bank fail? Well, there is a run on the bank and depositors pull out their money leaving the bank with more debts than assets and insolvent. From WSJ:

Federal regulators said WaMu has suffered an exodus of $16.7 billion in deposits since Sept. 15, leaving the Seattle thrift "with insufficient liquidity to meet its obligations." As a result, WaMu was in "an unsafe and unsound condition to transact business," according to the Office of Thrift Supervision.

After the FDIC took possession of the bank, J.P. Morgan Chase purchased the assets of WaMu and for everyday depositors, it'll be business as usual. For the rest of us? Yet another sign of the mounting economic woes that the next President will face. The American people deserve to hear from both Barack Obama and John McCain on how they're going to handle this crisis - the American people deserve a debate tomorrow night.

One interesting side note, JPMorgan had tried to buy WaMu earlier in the year for $8 a share - the deal fell through on price and in part because WaMu's CEO was going to lose his job. Today WaMu shareholders are left with nothing. That's the price of greed for shareholders and taxpayers are left holding the bag. Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING: Washington Mutual seized by feds, biggest bank failure in US history

WSJ:

In what is by far the largest bank failure in U.S. history, federal regulators seized Washington Mutual Inc. and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Pedestrians walk past a Washington Mutual branch in downtown Seattle.

The closing represents the demise of what once was the largest U.S. thrift but came to symbolize many of the worst excesses of the mortgage boom. Federal regulators said WaMu has suffered an exodus of $16.7 billion in deposits since Sept. 15, leaving the Seattle thrift "with insufficient liquidity to meet its obligations." As a result, WaMu was in "an unsafe and unsound condition to transact business," according to the Office of Thrift Supervision.

Reuters:

The transaction ends exactly 119 years of independence for Washington Mutual, whose predecessor was incorporated on September 25, 1889, "to offer its stockholders a safe and profitable vehicle for investing and lending," according to the thrift's website. This helped Seattle residents rebuild after a fire torched the city's downtown.

AP:

For all depositors and other customers of Washington Mutual Bank, this is simply a combination of two banks," Bair said in a statement. "For bank customers, it will be a seamless transition. There will be no interruption in services and bank customers should expect business as usual come Friday morning."...

Washington Mutual ran into trouble after it got caught up in the booming part of the mortgage business that made loans to people with bad credit, known as subprime borrowers.

Troubles spread to other parts of WaMu's home loan portfolio, namely its "option" adjustable-rate mortgage loans. Option ARM loans offer very low introductory payments and let borrowers defer some interest payments until later years. The bank stopped originating those loans in June.

Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING: House Republicans walk out, refuse to attend emergency meeting about bailout

On Rachel Maddow's show on MSNBC right now. Read the rest of this post...

McCain has been campaigning all day -- even if Wolf Blitzer doesn't think so

On CNN, Jeff Toobin called out the idea that McCain has suspended his campaign noting that McCain had been campaigning all day. Then, just to show how gullible the media is, Wolf Blitzer listed all of McCain's campaign activities today to prove McCain wasn't campaigning. It's a classic moment because Wolf has no clue how ridiculous he looks:



But, according to Wolf, if John McCain says something, that's all that matters. Pathetic. And, gullible, very gullible. Read the rest of this post...

CBS releases most damaging Sarah Palin clip yet

FYI - it's a joke. It's a spoof of this infamous YouTube video that now has 29 million views :-)

Read the rest of this post...

CBS: McCain offered last-minute new proposal with fewer regulations and more corporate tax cuts

KATIE COURIC: And, Bob, I understand that John McCain actually floated an alternative plan. What can you tell us about that?

BOB ORR: We're told at the White House Senator McCain offered an alternative plan that would include fewer regulations and more corporate tax breaks for businesses, kind of a private solution. But we're also told those ideas angered and surprised Democrats like banking chairman Chris Dodd who now says he thinks the White House summit was more of a political stunt for McCain.

Read the rest of this post...

McCain has now jeopardized the bailout deal

Nice stunt our hero pulled. Now things are worse. McCain reckless fratboy rashness politicized a deal that was almost done. Compete freaking moron. Don't believe me, read Politico:

A high-profile White House meeting on Treasury’s $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan ended Thursday on a sour, contentious note, with no joint endorsement by the two presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama.

Democrats complained of being “blindsided” by a new conservative alternative to the plan first put forward by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. And the outcome casts doubt on the ability of Congress to move quickly on the matter, even after leaders of House and Senate banking committees reached a bipartisan agreement Thursday on the framework for legislation authorizing the massive government intervention.

It was McCain who urged President Bush to call the White House meeting attended by House and Senate leaders as well as Obama, his Democratic rival. But the candidates left without commenting to reporters outside, and the whole sequence of events confirmed Treasury’s fears about inserting presidential politics into what were already difficult negotiations.

Wall Street had posted a gain of 197 points earlier in the day, buoyed by hopes of an agreement. The markets had closed by the end of the White House meeting, but Friday could bring turmoil, and there will be immense pressure now by Treasury to get back on track before Monday.

Read the rest of this post...

Will McCain chicken out tomorrow night?

On CNN a few minutes ago, Jeff Toobin said if McCain is a no-show at the debate, the Republican nominee looks like a chicken:



That kind of talk will drive McCain crazy...or crazier. The truly crazy thing is that McCain is known as a very good debater. He won a number of the GOP debates. Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING... AP: McCain didn't suspend his campaign as promised

Busted. McCain's campaign specifically said they'd stop appearances, rallies, and TV advertising. But they didn't. Liars.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain vowed Wednesday to suspend his campaign to focus on the nation's financial crisis, but there were plenty of signs of activity on Thursday — including an apparently live fundraising link on the campaign's Web site.

On Wednesday, McCain said: "Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me."

He offered no details, but senior campaign adviser Steve Schmidt later told reporters, "We're just not going to engage right now in the back and forth of the campaign," adding that meant appearances, rallies and TV advertising would be canceled. In an e-mail to reporters, spokesman Brian Rogers added that fundraising would be halted.

McCain appeared that evening in an interview on CBS' newscast, but canceled a planned appearance on David Letterman's "Late Show." His vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, made a highly visible visit to ground zero in New York on Thursday morning. McCain spokeswoman Nicole Wallace appeared on NBC's "Today" show....

E-mail messages continued to trickle out from the campaign, but at a far slower rate than normal. And the Huffington Post, a left-leaning Web site, said it had called 15 McCain campaign offices in battleground states, and none said it was suspending operations.

Read the rest of this post...

Palin channels Bush & Cheney: Blames Iraq for 9/11

Brandon Friedman at VetVoice has the report and the video:

AP REPORTER: Do you think that our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan--our continued military presence there--is inflaming Islamic extremists?

SARAH PALIN: I think our presence in Iraq and in Afghanistan will lead to further security of our nation. Again, because the mission is to take the fight over there, do not let them come over here and attempt again what they accomplished here. And that was some destruction. Terrible destruction on that day. But, since September 11th, Americans uniting and rebuilding and committing to never letting that happen again.

Sarah Palin thinks she's foreign policy-qualified because she lives close to Russia. And now we know that she thinks Saddam did 9/11. At least she's up front about it.

And, doesn't she make you feel safe? Read the rest of this post...

Blithering Idiot, Part II

AP lets Sarah Palin hang herself. Why does this matter? Because John McCain is 72 years old, has had 4 bouts of recent and very serious melanoma, has suffered repeated bouts of confusion over the past year, and if he dies in office the bumbling novice in the video below will become our next president and be in charge of the bailout and the war in Iraq:

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin defended her remark that the close proximity of Russia to her home state of Alaska gives her foreign policy experience, explaining in a CBS interview airing Thursday that "we have trade missions back and forth."

Palin has never visited Russia and until last year the 44-year-old Alaska governor had never traveled outside North America. She also had never met a foreign leader until her trip this week to New York. In the CBS interview, she did not offer any examples of having been involved in any negotiations with the Russians.

Palin's foreign policy experience came up when she gave her first major interview, on Sept. 11 to ABC News. Asked what insight she had gained from living so close to Russia, she said: "They're our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."

....
In the interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric, Palin said: "It's funny that a comment like that was, kind of made to ... I don't know, you know? Reporters ..."

Couric said, "Mock?"

"Yeah," Palin said, "mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah."

When Couric asked how Alaska's closeness to Russia enhanced her foreign policy experience, Palin said, "Well, it certainly does because our ... our next-door neighbors are foreign countries." Alaska shares a border with Canada.

Palin didn't answer directly when Couric inquired about whether she had been involved in any negotiations with the Russians.

"We have trade missions back and forth," she replied. As she continued, Palin brought up Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where — where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is — from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to ... to our state," she said.

You can watch the video here, it's horrific. Read the rest of this post...

There will be an event tomorrow night in Oxford, Mississippi with or without John McCain

Sam Stein:

Barack Obama is committed to hosting a public, televised event Friday night in Mississippi even if John McCain does not show up, an official close to the Obama campaign tells the Huffington Post.

In McCain's absence, the Senator is willing to make the scheduled debate a townhall meeting, a one-on-one interview with NewsHour's Jim Lehrer, or the combination of the two, the official said.

Such a course of action could make life incredibly difficult for McCain, who has called for the suspension of the debate in light of the current economic crisis. Should he stay in Washington D.C. -- if a bailout is not completed by then -- and let Obama alone reach tens of millions of television viewers?

A lot, of course, depends upon what the debate commission decides to do. At this point in time, there is no indication that they are going to postpone the affair, as the McCain campaign has asked.

This gambit from McCain didn't work either. Read the rest of this post...

Stop saying John McCain suspended his campaign

Until the traditional media types can show some shred of evidence that John McCain suspended his campaign -- besides McCain saying it -- the traditional media types should stop saying McCain suspended his campaign. He didn't.

Evidence abounds that McCain's campaign is operating at full speed. We've been able to document here and here and here. Think Progress found five instances of McCain campaign flacks on t.v. spinning their message. There's active campaign underway in Virginia. And, by doing some actual investigating, Huffington Post confirmed that the McCain campaign is very active today in key battleground states:

Across the country, McCain campaign offices are up and running, accepting volunteers, conducting phone banking, literature dropping and over GOTV activities. This held true on a local, state, and even regional level. The Huffington Post called up 15 McCain-Palin and McCain Victory Committee headquarters in various battleground states. Not one said that it was temporarily halting operations because of the supposed "suspension" in the campaign. Several, in fact, enthusiastically declared the continuation of their work. Others hadn't even heard that the candidate for whom they were devoting their time had officially stopped campaigning.

Here's a little hint for the political press corps: If you can keep reporting on Palin/McCain campaign events and if you keep having McCain staffers on your networks, the campaign ain't suspended.

John McCain tried to dupe the American people. He got a lot of help from the traditional media. If they actually reported what was going on and not what McCain said, this sham would be exposed. Read the rest of this post...

Blithering idiot

Horrific, horrific, horrific excerpt of Palin explaining why living close to Russia and Canada makes her a foreign policy expert. She comes across as a blithering idiot. At some point, Republicans have to ask themselves why they're willing to risk our national security, should McCain die in office, on someone who is quite clearly not ready to lead our nation in a time of crisis. Watch this video, then email this link to your friends: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4478156n The transcript follows the video below.



From Ambinder:

COURIC: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?
PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land-- boundary that we have with-- Canada. It-- it's funny that a comment like that was-- kind of made to-- cari-- I don't know, you know? Reporters--
COURIC: Mock?
PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.
COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.
PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our-- our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia--
COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?
PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our state.

Read the rest of this post...

Dems and Republicans reach preliminary deal on bailout plan without McCain

McCain was AWOL today while the real deal was being negotiated. What a surprise. But I'm sure McCain will show up for his photo opp at the White House later today.

Read the rest of this post...

Palin's preacher: Jews control the economy, that's causing all the corruption, and we need to have Christians take over business and banking

Video finally works, sorry about that - it's at the bottom of this post.

KagroX from DKos discovered last night that a new video of Sarah Palin experiencing a laying of hands at her church in Wasilla shows Sarah Palin's preacher telling the congregation - with Palin present and about to join him on stage - how Christians need to take over control of the business world, especially banking, just like the Jews (Israelites) have done. He then goes on to say that the fact that non-Christians are running the banking industry is the cause of all of the recent scandals. Hmm... so, Palin's solution to the economic crisis, run the Jews into the sea?

I've excerpted the "Jews control the world" party of the video, then showed about a minute of the part where Palin comes up (which actually takes place a few minutes after the comments about Jews. Here's a transcript, and following that is the video:

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.

< Read the rest of this post...

Palin is campaigning at Ground Zero today

So much for suspending the campaign. And John McCain couldn't just lie about putting America first and suspending his campaign, when he did no such thing, but now Sarah Palin is campaigning and doing a press event at Ground Zero. Yes, using Ground Zero as a press event, and doing it on the day that supposedly the McCain campaign has suspended their campaign. I'd say it takes real chutzpah, but when you see our next post, you won't want to be using any Yiddish to describe Sarah Palin ever again. Read the rest of this post...

While Palin warns of Great Depression if no bailout, her running mate is scheming to vote NO despite all of his drama

Are we dealing with an elaborate scam from the McCain campaign? Is McCain going through all this drama just so he can vote NO on the bailout package? That's a developing theme. Taegan Goddard writes:

Democrats fear this morning that McCain is setting up a scenario in which he will vote against the bill, rally conservatives to his side and, most importantly, distance himself from both President Bush and Congress before the election.

Marc Ambinder has this:

My colleague Nora McAvalnah tells me that sources close to Senate Democratic leadership now fear that McCain's true motivation for calling off his campaign and coming back to DC is simply to cast a "no" vote against the bailout, despite his private statements to the contrary. And it's a smart maneuver: nothing says "maverick," like voting against Bush and standing with the American public, who remain very wary of the proposal.

Gee, no one could have predicted that. McCain puts politics first.

But, wait. Yesterday, the top of the Palin/McCain ticket, the one who is campaigning today in Pennsylvania, said if the bailout package doesn't pass, we're heading for another Great Depression. Yes, she did. On CBS, via AP:

Asked whether there's a risk of another Great Depression if Congress doesn't approve a $700 billion bailout package, Palin said, "Unfortunately, that is the road that America may find itself on."

Palin said the answer to the financial crisis doesn't necessarily have to be the bailout plan that the Bush administration has proposed, but that it should be some form of bipartisan action to reform Wall Street.

When McCain votes against the bi-partisan bailout, according to his V.P., he's voting for a Great Depression. Read the rest of this post...

A hero's arrogance

I've written before about how John McCain has his staff and his own campaign Web site refer to him as a "great hero." I've always thought hero status was something others called you (people you don't pay), not something you call yourself. Now fast forward to John McCain's decision not to let Sarah Palin do interviews or press conferences. In today's Washington Post, Howie Kurtz reports that McCain's people say Palin may do one - ONE - press conference before the election. And in the mean time, it's not really clear if she's going to do any interviews at all between now and the election, says McCain's staff.

Think about that.

McCain is 72 years old, has had 4 bouts of serious melanoma (one of the deadliest cancers), and was tortured for 5 years. Any 72 year old would be at risk of showing signs of his age - confusion, forgetfulness, and even possibly senility and dementia. But throw in 4 serious bouts of a deadly cancer and 5 years of torture, and your 72 year old quickly becomes a heck of a lot older. And in fact, this is exactly what we're seeing with McCain. He only holds one event a day, he takes "naps" while Obama plays sports, he suffers bouts of confusion - thinking Spain is in Latin America, forgetting where Pakistan and Iraq are located, thinking Al Qaeda had ties to Iran (and making the mistake again and again), thinking the surge troops had been removed from Iraq when they hadn't, thinking Czechoslovakia is still a country (and saying it four times), thinking the Georgia/Russia conflict was the first serious international crisis since the Cold War (forgetting the first Iraq war, the current Iraq war, September 11, the war in Afghanistan, and the overall war on terror), thinking Vladimir Putin is the president of Germany, thinking he invented the Blackberry, and more - and he shows signs of physical infirmity (the droopy eye).

John McCain is willing to risk the stewardship of our country, should he die in office, to a person who is unqualified and untested, and who has already shown outward signs of being something of an idiot. Nothing is less honorable, less heroic, than that.

And today, McCain's staff made clear to Howie Kurtz that it wasn't going to change.

"I know the media is throwing a temper tantrum about this," [McCain spokesman Michael] Goldfarb said. But, he said, "she was so beat up the first week when she came on and this campaign has had fraught relations with the media ever since. There's just not a tremendous amount of concern. The campaign is resolved not to allow the media to dictate her schedule. . . . This is mainly an inside-the-Beltway issue."

So vetting our possible future president, testing whether she even has a brain, let alone is qualified to lead America during war time and economic crisis, is "an inside-the-Beltway issue."

Thus is the arrogance of the self-defined hero. Read the rest of this post...

Senior McCain staffer doing campaign event at 11am

It's not a suspension of your campaign when you continue to do everything you already had planned for that day. Yesterday, McCain continued to meet with Her Royal Highness Lady de Rothschild and Sir Bono the Good, then this morning, rather than returning to DC to work on the crisis, McCain continued his campaign schedule in NYC sucking up to Clinton voters at Bill Clinton's global initiative. Mind you, while McCain keeps to his schedule in NYC sucking up to Clinton voters, the actual meeting with Republicans about the economic bailout plan is taking place in Washington - McCain won't be there, just like he wasn't there for pretty much any important vote this year (it's true, he can't multi-task). Then at 11am, McCain's senior economics advisor is busy doing a campaign event with the uber-conservative Washington Times (she's not there as a private citizen). It isn't a suspension of your campaign when you continue to do everything you were going to do anyway.

By the way, isn't that Her Royal Highness Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild to the right? Read the rest of this post...

More lies from McCain about campaign manager Rick Davis, who is still an officer at his lobbying firm

Good lord. At some point, we have to ask: What does John McCain owe Rick Davis? This is crazy. Michael Isikoff at Newsweek figured out that Davis is still an officer at the lobbying firm -- even though McCain and his operative repeatedly avowed Davis cut those ties:

In its initial statements to reporters this week, the McCain campaign said that the disclosure of the payments from Freddie Mac was irrelevant because Davis, who was never a registered lobbyist for the troubled housing corporation, had severed his relationship with Davis Manafort in 2006, and was no longer drawing any income from it. Jill Hazelbaker, the campaign's communications director, said in an e-mail Tuesday that Davis "left" Davis Manafort in 2006. In a statement attacking The New York Times, posted on the campaign's Web site on Wednesday, campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb said that Davis "separated from his consulting firm, Davis Manafort, in 2006." (A senior campaign official, in an e-mail statement to NEWSWEEK that was not for attribution on Tuesday night, said "Rick is no longer affiliated with the firm.")

But those statements appear to have overstated the extent to which Davis had severed his relationship with his lobbying firm. Filings made by "Davis Manafort Partners" with the Virginia Corporation Commission as recently as April 1, 2008, show that Davis was still listed as one of only two corporate officers and directors of the firm, according to records on the commission’s Web site [pdf] reviewed by NEWSWEEK. That filing records Davis as the "treas/clerk" of the firm; his business partner, Paul Manafort is listed as the president and chief executive officer.

Another filing by “Davis Manafort, Inc.” [pdf] (with the same Alexandria, Va. address, and recorded on Oct. 17, 2007) also lists Davis as an officer and director of the firm, reporting his position as "T/Clerk," a reference to his formal title as corporate treasurer and clerk.

Why is John McCain doing so much to protect Rick Davis? And, it really is stunning how much the campaign lies when those lies can be proven false. Read the rest of this post...

First debate will have economic focus -- and the campaigns knew that last week

Further evidence that this is all just a political stunt by McCain:

How could Jim Lehrer, a newsman, not ask about the economy?

Well, he will.

A senior Obama adviser says that the CPD has told both campaigns that there will be questions about the economic crisis during Friday's debate.

They were told this last week...

Last week. McCain knew last week that the first debate would give the candidates a chance to discuss the economic situation on national t.v. with a huge audience. He doesn't want that. He prefers the drama.

McCain's erratic behavior gets more disturbing by the hour. Read the rest of this post...

While McCain is in NYC, Congress is wrapping up a deal

Let's review the timeline for today. As you can see from this photo, McCain is in NYC, not DC. CNN's chyron is wrong. McCain is giving a campaign speech in NYC, not working on the bailout.

UPDATE: McCain started speaking at 9:16 a.m. At 8:45 a.m., Ben Smith tell us John McCain will be addressing the Clinton Global Initiative. Following his speech, McCain will apparently finally head to D.C. McCain didn't really suspend his campaign yesterday. He just said he did.

At 10:00 a.m., Congressional leaders are meeting to work on the bailout deal:

Congressional Democrats and Republicans on key committees are nearing agreement on a Wall Street bailout package and will sit down Thursday morning to craft a final bipartisan plan, according to a Democratic source.

The aide said that “not too many” issues remain unresolved for the 10 a.m. meeting

Because John McCain is campaigning in NYC, he won't be there. But, most of the Congressional leaders really don't want him there anyway.

At 4:00 p.m., (ABC News reported via email) George Bush, whose approval rating on the economy is at 16% with a 76% disapproval, will be hosting the White House photo-op (that's what Barney Frank is calling it). John McCain will be there for that session.

Let's be clear: McCain will miss the meeting about substance. But, McCain will be there for the grandstanding. You know the Palin/McCain campaign is secretly hoping there is no deal. For them, no deal means no debates. Read the rest of this post...

Barney: “We’re trying to rescue the economy, not the McCain campaign.”

Barney Frank has had some of the best lines:

“All of a sudden, now that we’re on the verge of making a deal, John McCain drops himself in to make a deal," Frank said. "I really worry about this politicization of it."

"Frankly, we’re going to have to interrupt a negotiating session tomorrow between the Democrats and Republicans on a bill, where I think we’re getting pretty close, and troop down to the White House for their photo-op, and then come back and get on to it," Frank said.

“We’re trying to rescue the economy, not the McCain campaign,” he added.

Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Dear Traditional Media: Please report the facts. Stop saying McCain suspended his campaign. That's not true. John McCain has not suspended his campaign. McCain is in New York City right now, fully 17 hours after he made the dramatic announcement that he was suspending his campaign to get back to Washington. If McCain was serious, he could have been in D.C by 4 PM yesterday. It's not like he had to look for a cab to take him to LaGuardia so he could get the shuttle -- or had to wait for the train. He's got a motorcade and a plane.

Yesterday, McCain met with Her Royal Highness Lady de Rothschild (she called blue collar Americans "rednecks" last week) and made time for one of the BIGGEST CELEBRITIES in the world: Bon0 (who thinks all candidates must kiss his butt. McCain showed up on CBS News last night. And, this morning, he's at Bill Clinton's Global Initiative.

McCain just said he suspended his campaign. Just because he said it doesn't make it true. McCain is desperate and this was a desperate stunt.

Okay, needless to say, this should be another wild day. Read the rest of this post...

Germany: "US will lose its superpower status in the world financial system"

That's what Republican economics will do. We know Republicans prefer to burn books rather than read them, but had they read history they would have known that their theories had all been proven to be false in the 1920s. But no, deregulation and let business be business is all we heard out of them for decades. How do they like the end result now that's not that different from the last time they tried? By failing to provide the most basic oversight and regulation, the McCain-Bush economic theory has managed to topple a once proud and strong system. It's no wonder McCain is running for cover and avoiding a debate.

"The world will never be as it was before the crisis," Steinbrueck told parliament. "The United States will lose its superpower status in the world financial system. The world financial system will become more multi-polar."

In stark language, Steinbrueck lay the blame for the crisis squarely on the United States and what he called an Anglo-Saxon drive for double-digit profits and massive bonuses for bankers and company executives.

"Investment bankers and politicians in New York, Washington and London were not willing to give these up," he said. "Wall Street will never be what it was," Steinbrueck added.

Read the rest of this post...

Poll: more than 60% believe McCain would follow Bush economic policies

McCain is more of the same Bush policies but with a bit more theater and make-up too.

The economy has become the most important issue for American voters ahead of the presidential election, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

And the numbers speak for themselves: Nearly six out of 10 voters are worried about their current financial situation, 77 percent believe the country is in a recession and three-quarters of those respondents believe the worst is yet to come.

This situation seems to benefit Democrat Barack Obama, who, according to the poll, holds a substantial advantage over Republican John McCain when it comes to economic matters.

The survey also finds that nearly half of voters don’t believe that McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Pain, is qualified to be president should the need arise.

Additionally, more than 60 percent of respondents believe that McCain would “mostly” follow the agenda and policies of President George W. Bush, whose approval rating is mired at 30 percent.

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Only 31% approve the bailout

Looks like Bush & Paulson have done a pretty poor job of explaining to America why we need this and how it's going to help everyone outside of Wall Street. The problem is that the US has already been bamboozled by Bush with his WMD claims so the nation thinks he's a liar and he is. Maybe instead of implementing a Rove plan of lying for political points wasn't such a good idea after all. That's precisely why the poll numbers on this issue are so bad.

Americans can rally for a good cause, but not after the lies of Iraq and then the lies of a strong economy. This time, the American public wants more and a fair shake. Tax cuts for the wealthy during a supposed time of war showed us how Bush lacked all seriousness just as welfare for Wall Street sounds ridiculous as we look at the financial burden and the financial payouts to crooks. Read the rest of this post...

Obama Dramatically Ramping Up Overall Ad Spending; Now Outgunning McCain

This is great news. This is what your donations to the Obama campaign do. They let them buy ads. Lots of ads. Lots and lots and lots more than John McCain can afford. And ads work. They really work. Please give again to Obama if you can, and if you haven't reached the limits by law yet (you can give a maximum of $2300 for the primary (which is over) and then another $2300 for the general election (which is now), by clicking on the box to the left.

From TPM Election Central:

In a sign that the Obama campaign is getting serious about tapping his financial advantage over McCain with six weeks to go, Obama's overall spending on TV ads has jumped 50% in the last two weeks, while McCain's has held steady -- and Obama is now outspending his rival even as he's up on the air in more states.

In the week ending Sept. 21, Obama spent $9.4 million on TV ads in roughly 15 states, up from $6.5 million in the week that ended two weeks ago, Evan Tracey, who tracks national ad buys for the Campaign Media Analysis Group, tells me. Tracey's analysis is based on fresh data he obtained this afternoon.

Obama's increased spending -- which has gone up at the rate of over 20% per week over the past three weeks -- is largely fueled by boosts in spending in Florida, Colorado, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, according to Tracey.

"They're ramping up," Tracey says. "They're cranking up the volume."

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TIME's Joe Klein: Gimmicks 'R' Us

TIME's Joe Klein:

McCain suspends his campaign because of financial crisis? Oh please. Given today's poll numbers--even Fox has him dropping--it seems another Hail Mary (like the feckless selection of Palin) to try make McCain seem a statesman, which is difficult given the puerile tenor of his campaign's message operation.

Perhaps, if he's really interested in this financial stuff, McCain should propose that he and Obama change the topic from foreign policy to economics this Friday night--they could even stage the debate in Washington, so they wouldn't have to stray far from the bailout negotiations. I'm sure their fellow members of the Senate won't mind if McCain and Obama spend a few hours enlightening the public on this crucial subject.

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Democrats claim Wall St. bailout breakthrough

Funny, they did it without the help of John McCain suspending his campaign, which he doesn't do until tomorrow anyway (yes, as Joe noted previously, the crisis was so grave that McCain was continuing to politic today and wasn't going to suspend his campaign until tomorrow). From Reuters:

Democratic Rep. Barney Frank said on Wednesday Democrats had reached an agreement to stem one of the worst U.S. financial disasters in decades, and that there would be enough votes to pass the measure and send it to President George W. Bush to sign into law.

"We now have between House and Senate Democrats an agreement on what we think should be in the bill, and we have a meeting scheduled at 10 a.m. tomorrow to meet with the Republicans," said Frank, chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee....

Frank took a dig at Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who interrupted his campaign to return to Washington on Thursday to help work on a Wall Street bailout.

"All of sudden, now that we are on the verge of making a deal, John McCain here drops himself in to help us make a deal, Frank said.

He expressed fear that McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona who has spent much of the year away from the Capitol campaigning, could end up slowing down work on the bill.

The Massachusetts Democrat noted that a meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday will be interrupted for a "photo op" at the White House with congressional Democrats and Republicans as well as Bush.

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