Top Items:
Karen Tumulty / Swampland:
McCain Plays the Race Card — When politicians interject race into a campaign, they seldom do it directly. Consider McCain's new ad, which the campaign says it will be airing nationally: This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Associated Press, The Corner, Ben Smith's Blogs, The Swamp, The Moderate Voice, Weekly Standard, Pajamas Media, Wake up America, Media Blog, Washington Post, The Raw Story, The Gun Toting Liberal, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Liberal Values, Macsmind, Patterico's Pontifications, Booman Tribune, TPM Election Central, JammieWearingFool, The Mahablog, Firedoglake, Riehl World View, The Daily Dish, Outside The Beltway, Don Surber, Marc Ambinder, USS Neverdock and Betsy's Page
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Rush Limbaugh / Wall Street Journal:
Obama Is Stoking Racial Antagonism — I understand the rough and tumble of politics. But Barack Obama — the supposedly postpartisan, postracial candidate of hope and change — has gone where few modern candidates have gone before. — Mr. Obama's campaign is now trafficking in prejudice of its own making.
Discussion:
protein wisdom, MoJoBlog, Hot Air, Salon, NewsBusters.org, The Strata-Sphere, The Corner, Hullabaloo, Confederate Yankee, Booman Tribune and JammieWearingFool
Washington Post:
‘Always for Less Regulation’? — TO LISTEN to Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain is a Johnny-come-lately to the cause of regulating financial markets. “He has consistently opposed the sorts of common-sense regulations that might have lessened the current crisis,” Mr. Obama said in New Mexico yesterday.
Wall Street Journal:
McCain's Scapegoat — John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does. But on Thursday, he took his populist riffing up a notch and found his scapegoat for financial panic — Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Michael Dobbs / Washington Post:
OBAMA'S FANNIE MAE ‘CONNECTION’ … AN ALREADY NASTY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN IS GETTING NASTIER. THE MELTDOWN ON WALL STREET HAS TOUCHED OFF FRANTIC ATTEMPTS BY BOTH THE MCCAIN AND OBAMA CAMPS TO SECURE POLITICAL ADVANTAGE AND INDULGE IN GUILT BY ASSOCIATION.
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Kurtz: Don't trust Washington Post reporting
Kurtz: Don't trust Washington Post reporting
Discussion:
Washington Post, www.redstate.com, The New Republic, JammieWearingFool and USS Neverdock
Gallup:
Gallup Daily: Obama Now Leads McCain by 5 Points — At 49%, support for Obama is near his record high for the year — PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Tuesday through Thursday finds Barack Obama with a five percentage point lead over John McCain in the presidential preferences of registered voters, 49% to 44%.
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Breaking: Paulson plan could cost $1 trillion — Congressional leaders said after meeting Thursday evening with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that as much as $1 trillion could be needed to avoid an imminent meltdown of the U.S. financial system.
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Rose Garden / White House:
President Bush Discusses Economy
President Bush Discusses Economy
Discussion:
New York Times, Crooks and Liars, The LA Times President …, Think Progress, The Swamp and CrossingWallStreet.com
Julia Hoppock / Political Punch:
Undermining McCain Campaign Attack, Republicans Back Obama's Version of Meeting with Iraqi Leaders — Earlier this week, the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., seized upon a column in the New York Post that described Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as having urged Iraqi leaders in a private meeting …
Sean Oxendine / The Next Right:
What is the Argument for Why McCain Will Win? — InTrade currently has the candidates roughly tied. As of this writing, McCain is at around 49 and falling, while Obama is at around 51 and rising. Still, that's basically a tie. The question is, where do we go from here?
Discussion:
The Campaign Spot
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Alan Fram / Associated Press:
Poll: Obama tops McCain as football-watching buddy — WASHINGTON - People would rather watch a football game with Barack Obama than with John McCain — but by barely the length of a football. — Obama was the pick over McCain by a narrow 50 percent to 47 percent, according …
CNBC.com:
Where Next for the Dollar? 18 Sep 2008 — Is the U.S. government's proposal to take on bad bank assets a good move? Sharada Selvanathan, currency strategist at BNP Paribas gives her take on how this will affect the dollar, with CNBC's Maura Fogarty & Stephen Sedgwick.
Charles Krauthammer / Real Clear Politics:
History Will Judge — WASHINGTON — For the last 150 years, most American war presidents — most notably Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt — have entered (or re-entered) office knowing war was looming. Not so George Bush. Not so the war on terror. The 9/11 attacks literally came out of the blue.
Discussion:
Wonk Room, The Daily Dish, LewRockwell.com Blog, Soccer Dad, Commentary, Eunomia and Matthew Yglesias
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Obama: ‘Panicked’ McCain's solution is ‘to blame me for it’ — At a rally in Coral Gables, Obama responds to McCain's shots: … (video from Jed Report)
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Glen Johnson / Associated Press:
McCain defends retirement accounts amid stock dive — GREEN BAY, Wisc. (AP) — Wall Street turmoil left John McCain scrambling to explain why the fundamentals of the U.S. economy remained strong. It also left him defending his support for privately investing Social Security money …
Larry Kudlow / The Corner:
Chris Cox's Terrible Idea — The decision by SEC Chairman Chris Cox to ban short selling is a terrible idea. It is an encroachment on free-market principles. In extreme, the absence of short sellers would inflate stock market upturns, probably into bubbles. Short sellers keep the market honest.
Ryan / Think Progress:
Fleischer: Bush Is Not Taking Questions From Press Because Doing So ‘Would Hurt John McCain’ — On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said that Bush has not taken questions from the press in over seven weeks because he wants to “make sure this election remains fully focused on the two candidates”:
Telegraph:
Baroness Warnock: Dementia sufferers may have a ‘duty to die’ — Elderly people suffering from dementia should consider ending their lives because they are a burden on the NHS and their families, according to the influential medical ethics expert Baroness Warnock.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Wake up America, Moonbattery, Whiskey Fire, The Strata-Sphere and Connecting.the.Dots
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
The Opportunity — If the powers that be tell me that the country needs something like the financial measures being announced today, I'm not going to disagree with them. But tactically, I think it'd be crazy to just hand this package over for the President's signature.
Discussion:
Center for American Progress
Stuart Taylor / National Journal Online:
Campaign Lies, Media Double Standards — I NO LONGER TRUST THE MAJOR NEWSPAPERS OR TELEVISION NETWORKS TO PROVIDE CONSISTENTLY ACCURATE AND FAIR REPORTING AND ANALYSIS OF ALL THE CHARGES AND COUNTERCHARGES. — Some who have been admirers of John McCain think that the war hero has debased himself …
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight.com:
12th Amendment Update: Tie Probability Continues to Increase — The latest in our occasional series informing you about the country's worst nightmare: a 269-269 Electoral College tie... As you may have noticed from our scenario chart, the probability of a tie has increased dramatically in recent days and now stands at 3.2 percent.
Mark Henderson / Times of London:
How scary is this spider? That may depend on your politics — We all like to think that our political views are shaped by our personal experiences and by deep reflection on the great issues of the day. Yet research suggests that they may also be influenced by our biology.
Randi Kaye / CNN:
Todd Palin: ‘first dude’ or ‘shadow governor?’ — ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) — He's the man Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin affectionately calls her “first dude.” — Todd Palin was introduced to the nation at the Republican National Convention as a blue-collar oil worker, a laid-back father of five and a world-record-holding snowmobile racer.
Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
Confirmed: Despite Claim, Palin's Pay As Mayor Of Wasilla Went Up — I've just obtained some records from the city of Wasilla that confirm that Sarah Palin's pay as mayor went up, despite her claim that she took a pay cut. — One thing Palin has frequently claimed as proof of her reform credentials …
USA Today:
From McCain, an erratic response to crisis — As Wall Street's roller-coaster week unfolded, John McCain's views on the economy went through about as many gyrations as the Dow Jones industrial average. Brace your neck for a quick recap. — Monday: Speaking at a rally in Jacksonville …
Christy Hoppe / Dallas Morning News:
Libertarian Bob Barr moves to keep Obama, McCain off Texas ballot — choppe@dallasnews.com — AUSTIN - Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr is forcing a legal showdown in the Texas Supreme Court to keep the names of Barack Obama and John McCain off the November ballot.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
John R. Emshwiller / Wall Street Journal:
McCain Wins Endorsement of Democrat — As Barack Obama and John McCain battle for the Hispanic vote, a leading Latino backer of Hillary Clinton is crossing party lines to support the Republican presidential nominee. — In an interview Thursday, Miguel D. Lausell, a Puerto Rican businessman …