The Wright Stuff  —  I spoke on the phone Sunday with Sarah Palin, who was in Long Beach, Calif., preparing to take off on her next campaign trip.  It was the first time I'd talked with her since I met her in far more relaxed circumstances in Alaska over a year ago.

Health Care Destruction  —  Sarah Palin ended her debate performance last Thursday with a slightly garbled quote from Ronald Reagan about how, if we aren't vigilant, we'll end up “telling our children and our children's children” about the days when America was free.  It was a revealing choice.

Engaging on Keating  —  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 …

McCain blasts Obama, Democrats for Fannie Mae meltdown  —  We asked John McCain to take off the gloves — and he listened.  In remarks McCain will deliver today, he blasts Democrats, including Barack Obama, for their market manipulations and defense of Fannie Mae against regulator warnings.

U.S. Treasury's Kashkari to Lead Bank Bailout Office  —  Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Treasury will name Neel Kashkari, assistant secretary at the department, to run the $700 billion Wall Street rescue program on an interim basis, according to a Treasury official.

Embarracuda  —  I'm of two minds about how to deal with the McCain campaign's further descent into ugliness.  Their strategy is simple: you throw crap against a wall and then giggle as the media try to analyze the putresence in a way that conveys a sense of balance: “Well, it is bull-pucky …

Lehman Chief Says Turmoil Overwhelmed Bank  —  Even as the investment bank Lehman Brothers pleaded for a federal bailout to save it from bankruptcy protection, it approved millions of dollars in bonuses for its departing executives, a Congressional committee was told Monday.

How did it all happen?  —  As I write this, the dow is down 430 points, below 10,000 for the first time in four years.  Tyler Cowen has published his list of what went wrong, with which I largely concur.  Another way to think about it is as a series of cognitive errors that afflicted everyone …

Not Everyone Should Own a Home  —  Even without Fan and Fred, American mortgage rules are unusually lax.  —  Maybe only a friendly foreigner could say this.  But America needs to realize that not everyone can own a home.  The American Dream of home ownership for all is a fraud.

Lagging In The Polls, Palin Shifts To Fear Tactics  —  From CBS News' Scott Conroy:  —  (FORT MYERS, FLA.) On the day when the McCain campaign released a new attack ad not-so-subtly titled “Dangerous,” Sarah Palin made a concerted effort to use words like “fearful” and “afraid” …

Gallup Daily: Obama Leads 50% to 42%  —  Obama remains statistically ahead for tenth straight day  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Barack Obama leads John McCain among registered voters across the country by a 50% to 42% margin in Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Oct. 3-5, the tenth straight day in which Obama …

Lieberman: Palin Will Win “With God's Help”  —  Via CNN streaming video, I watched Sarah Palin's event in Clearwater, Florida, this morning.  She was heartily introduced there by John McCain's pal Joe Lieberman.  The former Democrat is a very strange figure these days, far from his moorings in the Democratic Party.

Sources: Taliban split with al Qaeda, seek peace  —  LONDON, England (CNN) — Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict — and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN.

Arizonans recall run-ins with McCain  —  Opinions about temper depend on who's talking  —  PHOENIX — Frustrated that a massive telescope project he backed had hit a snag in 1989, Sen. John McCain lashed out at a U.S. Forest Service supervisor, threatening his job if he failed to help get approval for the project.