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By Moshe Adler
$16.47
By Stanley Kutler
$13.57
$35
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By Eugene Robinson — John McCain was telling the truth when he said that economics wasn’t his strong suit. In response to what many economists have called the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Republican nominee has sounded—and let’s be honest here—totally, embarrassingly and dangerously clueless.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — If he carries Michigan, many routes to victory are open for Barack Obama. Without Michigan, he’s got a big problem.
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commons.wikimedia.org / Ramy Majouji
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Truthdig’s editor in chief warns against thinking about the economic crisis as an “act of God,” saying “this is man-made” and that the individuals responsible are well known and entirely too influential in the current election.
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Flickr / buddhakiwi
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Radio Iowa has a great play-by-play of a McCain-Palin rally in Cedar Rapids. With the “Top Gun” soundtrack heralding the arrival of the ticket (seriously), the crowd was pumped—for Sarah Palin. A casual poll before the rally suggested that Palin was the event’s star, and that sentiment was backed up when the audience started filing out five minutes into McCain’s speech.
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commons.wikimedia.org / Manfred Brückels
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By William Pfaff — Karl Marx, were he still about, would surely be interested in the report that unregulated free-market capitalism has died in a flash, by its own hand; whereas it took 70 years and a Cold War to bring down the Marxist economy established in the Soviet Union following the Bolshevik Revolution.
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White House photo / Paul Morse
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Humans may be susceptible to methods of persuasion that play on the emotions and circumvent logic, but computers are another story. Enter a software program that purports to detect “spin” in politicians’ speeches by using a complex (albeit man-made) algorithm to hunt for truth-stretching words and phrases.
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Flickr / World Economic Forum
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Though it wasn’t immediately official, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won control of the country’s ruling Kadima party and, if she is successful in forming a governing coalition, will be the first woman prime minister in more than three decades. Livni is currently Israel’s lead negotiator with the Palestinians and, according to the newspaper Haaretz, was seen as likelier to reach a deal than her party rivals. Update
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Rainer Hachfeld, Neues Deutschland, Germany —
Posted on Sep 17, 2008
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By Joe Conason — With the markets in frightening turmoil and the public outraged by financial irresponsibility and excessive greed, John McCain has suddenly rediscovered the importance of strong, watchful government.
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By Ellen Goodman — Three weeks after the nomination of the Candidate From Nowhere, one week after the robo-interview with Charlie Gibson and days after the “Saturday Night Live” skit, there is still a flood tide of women choking on the possibility that Hillary Clinton paved the way for Sarah Palin.
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gawker.com
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Anonymous, an Internet-based group best known for pranking and protesting the Church of Scientology, apparently hacked Sarah Palin’s Yahoo Mail account and posted images of her inbox and correspondence on the Web. The McCain campaign condemned the “shocking invasion,” which turned up nothing of substantial juiciness.
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Flickr / World Economic Forum
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Hillary Clinton apparently would rather not deal with Sarah Palin, but she was nearly ambushed by the Alaska governor at a New York rally. Organizers didn’t tell Clinton they’d invited another special guest, and the New York senator backed out when she heard the news. True to form, Palin and friends responded with ready-made indignation.
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White House / David Bohrer
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How far was Dick Cheney (above) willing to go to get his war in Iraq? Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, quoted in Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman’s new book, says the vice president hoodwinked him during a one-on-one meeting in the Capitol.
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commons.wikimedia.org
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John McCain’s Tuesday was so filled with gaffes and bad news that no one seemed to notice when one of his top advisers held a BlackBerry aloft and declared “you’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create.” That spectacle simply couldn’t compete with former HP CEO Carly Fiorina and, more significantly, the very public failure of deregulation.
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commons.wikimedia.org (image has been altered)
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After months of conflict, Zimbabwean political rivals Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai have finally agreed to share power. One problem: The deal is so confusing and vague, even close observers are having trouble sorting out exactly how it’s supposed to work.
Posted on Sep 16, 2008
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The Obama campaign promised to toughen up in the face of John McCain’s notoriously dishonest attack ads, and has since fired off a salvo of negative spots.
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DoD / Pfc. Christopher Grammer
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Sarah Palin has energized the Republican base, but she’s also helped Barack Obama raise millions. Political insider Taegan Goddard uses a viral e-mail to explain why the moose hunter makes liberals nuts.
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We’re used to seeing Rupert Murdoch release the hounds on any number of Democratic campaigns, but here Fox News’ Megyn Kelly demands that McCain mouthpiece Tucker Bounds explain the straight talker’s lies about Barack Obama.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Americans don’t mind wealthy and even rapacious capitalists as long as they deliver the goods to everyone else. But when the big boys drag everyone else down, Americans rise up in righteous anger.
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By Marie Cocco — The great lipstick-on-a-pig campaign imbroglio, if we are lucky, will mark the moment Republicans jumped the shark with their cries of alleged sexism toward vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
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Satire by Andy Borowitz —
In this tongue-in-cheek report, we learn that pit bull lovers don’t love Palin’s “lipstick” comment.
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Flickr / tshein
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While John McCain took heat for reasserting that “the fundamentals of the economy are strong,” two of the five biggest American investment banks folded on Monday. Bank of America bought out troubled Merrill Lynch while Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. Update: Another big one stumbles
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Tina Fey returns to “Saturday Night Live” to play the Alaska governor side by side with Amy Poehler’s Hillary Clinton, who offers to lend the media a pair.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — It has been hard to remember lately that the country is in the midst of one of the most consequential presidential elections of our lifetimes.
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By Eugene Robinson — There was a time when Republicans campaigned on their ideas, programs and values. This year—lacking ideas, programs or values—John McCain and Sarah Palin are running for the White House on an elaborate fictional narrative of victimhood.
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By Rep. Dennis Kucinich — America must move from the errant, retributive justice of 9/11 to a healing, restorative process of truth and reconciliation.
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Robert Greenwald and Co. have collected some of the worst examples of John McCain’s deceptive campaign ads. Straight talk indeed.
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DoD / R.D. Ward
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John McCain has repeatedly promised “victory” in Iraq, but his personal hero and the outgoing commander of that war says he’ll probably never use the word. In a conversation with the BBC, a relatively upbeat Gen. David Petraeus foretells of a “long struggle.”
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By Joe Conason — Even cursory examination shows that Sarah Palin’s posturing is wildly exaggerated and her campaign claims veer toward fraud.
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By Ellen Goodman — Let us remember that Republicans had long targeted working mothers as the centerpiece of the culture wars. Now their heroine is the in-your-face governor who once said: “To any critics who say a woman can’t think and work and carry a baby at the same time, I’d just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave.”
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RJ Matson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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By Marie Cocco — Let this be the last time. Please, let it be the last. Let this be the last commemoration of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to be used as any sort of backdrop for political theatrics, even if the show is bipartisan.
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McCain campaign image altered for comment
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It’s time to start using the L-word when referring to John McCain and his campaign for the presidency. Misleading doesn’t quite capture the hypocritical use of distortions to make your opponent appear dishonest, as McCain’s latest ad attempts.
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In case you haven’t heard, Barack Obama has been sucked into the vortex of another absurd media storm, courtesy of John McCain’s Rovian acolytes. If he plays it right, the Democrat could turn controversy to conquest.
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Keith Olbermann began the second part of his interview with Barack Obama with a tale of two conservatives: “One guy who makes about $40,000 a year said, ‘Ask him why he’s going to raise my taxes.’ Another guy makes about a million dollars a year, said, ‘Ask him why he’s going to raise my taxes.’ ”
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iamatvjunkie.typepad.com
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While MSNBC reshuffles its anchor chairs, thanks in part to criticism from rival media outlets and a certain presidential candidate, Fox News continues to be a loudmouth right-wing spin factory. Is it a case of the boy who cried “terrorist,” or is there a double standard for Murdoch’s media empire? Truthdig contributor Elliot Cohen has more.
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Part one of Keith Olbermann’s interview with Barack Obama focused on the falsehoods of the McCain campaign. As Obama put it: “They’re not telling the truth.” The “Countdown” host followed with a question that’s been uttered once or twice around our own offices: “Why do people hesitate to use the word lie about these things?”
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — John McCain’s campaign acknowledged this weekend that Sarah Palin is unprepared to be vice president or president of the United States.
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By Eugene Robinson — John McCain is no silver-tongued orator, as he proved in St. Paul, but it’s hard not to be stirred when he speaks of wanting only to serve a cause greater than himself—until you take a closer look and see that he’s running one of the most egocentric presidential campaigns in memory.
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Flickr / aesop
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Team McCain has rejected the “vicious smear” that as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin wanted to ban books from the local library, but the campaign’s 1,615-word memo on the subject indirectly supports the accusation. As Palin’s mayoral predecessor recalls, “She asked the library how she could go about banning books.” According to the Anchorage Daily News, she also fired the library director “without warning” for “not fully supporting her efforts to govern.”
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AP photo / Matt Rourke
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By Chris Hedges — St. Paul is a window into our future. It is a future where constitutional rights mean nothing and where lawful dissent is branded a form of terrorism.
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Sarah Palin and Joe Biden will go head to head on Oct. 2, but if you can’t wait to see how McCain’s No. 2 handles herself in rhetorical combat, take a look at this 2006 Alaska gubernatorial debate. There’s a lot for Democrats to be worried about here.
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nymag.com
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Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews will no longer anchor MSNBC’s coverage of major political events, but will instead provide analysis for the network’s David Gregory, who will sit in the anchor’s chair. The network was under pressure, both internal and external, to rein in its two leading men, whose politics are well known. Olbermann himself initiated the move.
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Satire by Andy Borowitz —
The racists of America are definitely not in the undecided column in the Obama-McCain contest, according to this tongue-in-cheek report.
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Flickr / buddhakiwi
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After days of insisting that she is ready to be president but not ready to answer questions, the McCain campaign announced that Sarah Palin will, at last, be interviewed by the dreaded media. Why ABC’s Charlie Gibson was specifically chosen for the honor, we don’t know, but he’ll be flying to Alaska to sit down sometime this week with the VP nominee.
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