LOSING IT?  —  In most political speeches, the common refrain is “my fellow citizens”.  —  John McCain just referred to the country as “my fellow prisoners.”  —  “Across this country, this is the agenda I have set before my fellow prisoners and the same standards of clarity and candor must now be applied to my opponent.”

The worst debate ever  —  With the country at one of its most interesting — not to mention terrifying — moments in a generation, John McCain and Barack Obama met in Nashville for what was surely one of the dullest and least satisfying presidential debates in memory.  —  There have been boring debates before, of course.

Nobody's dummy  —  What a powerful letter — which I am pleased to share with Salon readers.  Yes, let us not forget the tragic series of dubious political judgments that led the U.S. to lurch into Southeast Asia after the French had prudently packed up and left.

Treasury prepares for a TARP-and-switch.  And it's a good thing, too  —  Did anybody else notice that when Hank Paulson was describing in his press conference today what the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act enables Treasury to do, the first thing he listed was “to inject capital into financial institutions”?