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:
Perfunction, Weekly Standard, The Corner, Pajamas Media, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Daily Dish, Marc Ambinder, Hot Air, pw, Macsmind, JammieWearingFool, Don Surber, Media Blog, Firedoglake, TPM Election Central, USS Neverdock, Spin Cycle, Outside The Beltway, Booman Tribune, No More Mister Nice Blog, QandO, Betsy's Page, Sister Toldjah, Riehl World View, www.redstate.com and The Campaign Spot
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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.
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:
MoJoBlog, The Corner, Hot Air, NewsBusters.org, Confederate Yankee, The Strata-Sphere, www.redstate.com and JammieWearingFool
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.
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
WHAT FLAILING LOOKS LIKE.... Is it me, or has John McCain's message become completely incoherent this week? — Yesterday, he got things started by insisting he would fire SEC Chairman Christopher Cox if president, which was odd since a) Cox isn't really to blame; and b) the president can't fire the SEC chair.
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
McCain ad: “Jim Johnson” — John McCain continues attacking Barack Obama over his connections to Fannie Mae. Yesterday, Team McCain released a 30-second spot introducing voters to Franklin Raines, who has served as an informal adviser to the Obama campaign.
Discussion:
Right Wing News, www.redstate.com, Classical Values, Ace of Spades HQ and JammieWearingFool
Byron York / The Corner:
Is He or Isn't He? — The McCain has released a new ad entitled “Advice.”
Is He or Isn't He? — The McCain has released a new ad entitled “Advice.”
Discussion:
Althouse
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.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Swamp, Michelle Malkin, Ben Smith's Blogs, Economists for Obama, Reason, Bloomberg, unbossed.com and Donklephant
RELATED:
Rose Garden / White House:
President Bush Discusses Economy — THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I thank Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and SEC Chairman Chris Cox for joining me today. — This is a pivotal moment for America's economy. Problems that originated in the credit markets …
Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Drafts Sweeping Plan to Fight Crisis As Turmoil Worsens in Credit Markets — Paulson Briefs Congress on Idea to Buy Bad Assets From Banks, Insure Money-Market Funds; Stocks Rebound Sharply — WASHINGTON — The federal government is working on a sweeping series of programs …
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Crisis Endgame — On Sunday, Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, tried to draw a line in the sand against further bailouts of failing financial institutions; four days later, faced with a crisis spinning out of control, much of Washington appears to have decided that government isn't the problem, it's the solution.
Wall Street Journal:
SEC Issues Temporary Ban Against Short Selling — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday launched an aggressive assault against short-sellers, saying it would temporarily prevent investors from making bets on stock declines in an attempt to stem some of the worst stock-market slides in years.
RELATED:
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:
SEC Halts Short Selling of Financial Stocks to Protect Investors and Markets
SEC Halts Short Selling of Financial Stocks to Protect Investors and Markets
Discussion:
Megan McArdle, Paul Kedrosky's …, New York Times, Portfolio, Washington Post, Trader Mike, Buck Naked Politics, The Big Picture and DealBook
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.
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.
Fox News:
Exclusive: Gov. Palin on ‘Hannity & Colmes,’ Part 2 — This is a rush transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” September 18, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. — SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Senator McCain's son has served in Iraq, as we move to national security.
RELATED:
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 …
Amy Sullivan / Time:
Early Voting for President Starts Today — If it seems like John McCain and Barack Obama have been training serious fire on each other earlier than party nominees have in previous general elections, it's not just because passions are running so high as a result of the Iraq war or the economy's woes.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blogs
Josh Gerstein / New York Sun:
Palin Pick Puts Many Women on the Verge — Senator McCain's selection of Governor Palin of Alaska as his running mate, which was hailed in some quarters and met with skepticism in others, is sparking intense reactions from some New Yorkers, who report being driven to fits of rage and even all-consuming panic.
Washington Post:
Palin Attuned More to Public Will, Less to Job's Details — It was three days before the legislature was to go home, and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was frustrated. The state Senate was thwarting a reduction she wanted in the fee for business licenses. So the governor's aides culled records …
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
What's on the desk — In a picture supplied by Sarah Palin's family to the Associated Press, Palin appears with some rather odd reading matter: The magazine of the ultraconservative John Birch Society. — The picture, dating to 1995, when Palin was a member of the Wasilla City Council …
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Post-Lehman World — A few years ago, real estate was all the rage. Earlier this year, the business magazines were telling us to invest in Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, because those stocks were bound to zoom. Now another herd is on the march. — We're in a paradigm shift, its members say.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
Nick Werner / TheStarPress.com:
Obama fans tag local Republican headquarters — GOP chairman predicts vandalism will energize McCain voters. — MUNCIE — A vandal who apparently plans to vote for Barack Obama attacked the Delaware County Republican Party Headquarters sometime this week with a gold spray can.
Kevin Bogardus / The Hill:
Palin won't say whether veep is an executive post — Vice President Dick Cheney has said his office only partially belongs to the executive branch. Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden disagrees and Republican rival Sarah Palin isn't saying. — Sen. Biden (Del.) …
Roger Simon / The Politico:
President Bush goes AWOL — Where's George? The president, I mean. — You remember him. Dubya. No. 43. Won a second term a few years ago. It was in all the papers. — But where has he been lately? Where has he been during America's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?
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 …