I haven't watched all the Couric interviews etc so I actually had reasonably high expectations for Palin tonight.  After all she was chosen by the GOP to be VP so I assumed she'd be solid and substantive.

She simply didn't show up, and Biden was terrific.

This is the end of the McCain effort.

Now, though, Obama/Biden get to deal with our little 22 trillion dollar economic issue....

1. We have to make a move
2. The salaries of those who will manage the new Resolution Trust Corp (or whatever it ends up being called) are completely irrelevant.  Arguing about caps on those salaries just means we'lll get less adept people to deal with this and waste more time which makes the situation more precarious
3.  The Wall Street executives who are 'guilty' of getting us into this mess are only part of the problem -- and have lost more proportionately than the rest of us will in higher taxes the next decade.  It's popular to deride them as evil fat cats -- the reality is their reputations and wealth have been crushed.  Move on.
4.  Plenty of blame to go around -- culture of excess but mostly that capital flows during the last twenty years have completely outpaced the regulatory system that exists -- in the context of right-wing vehement anti-regulation.
5.  Finance is at heart a confidence game. It's much more important to restore confidence now so we can continue to play the game than to assign blame.
6.  Barney Frank has a smart insight -- well-managed, the assets taken up by the new RTC over time may well be worth much more than their purchase price.  Net cost to taxpayer in that event?  Less than zero.
7.  Put Bloomberg in charge of the new RTC -- he gets it, is independent, doesn't need the money, cares about New York...

Everyone needs to take a step back and a deep breath, get this done this week with reasonable oversight and controls, and get back to business.

Oh, and throw out the idiotic GOP which is more responsible, over 25 years of ignorance and malfeasance, for creating the mess than any other entity... and do NOT let John McCain, Mr. Economic Igorance at An Advanced Age, or Ms. Sarah Palin, Ms ... ???? ... anywhere close to the joint...

... anything;

WHITEHOUSE: Gentlemen, we're in the middle of a near total mortgage system meltdown in this country. We have a health care system that burns 16 percent of our GDP, in which the Medicare liability alone has been estimated at $34 trillion. We're burning $10 billion a month in Iraq.

This administration has run up $7.7 trillion in national debt, by our calculation. And there is worsening evidence every day of global warming, with worsening environmental and national security ramifications. In light of those conditions, do any of you seriously contend that drilling for more oil is the number one issue facing the American people today?

(Long silent pause during which nobody answers.)

WHITEHOUSE: No, it doesn't seem so.

Guiliani tells Brokaw on "Meet the Press" that Palin is ready on foreign policy because the most vital attribute for foreign policy leadership is 'executive experience'.

That of course disqualifies McCain entirely, and also says  Bush, who had much more 'executive experience' as Governor of Texas (and, they argued, as one of the owners of the Texas Rangers -- remember all that??) was one of our most-prepared-for-foreign policy leaders ever... ... .

How's he managed?

The one thing he has had to manage entirely on his watch, from the choice to launch to today, is his Iraq adventure.

Woodward follows Guiliani on show and one of first quotes they read  from his new book is ;

After ordering the invasion, the president spent three years in denial and then delegated a strategy review to his national security adviser.  Bush was intolerant of confrontations and in-depth debate.  There was no deadline, no hurry.  The president was engaged in the war rhetorically but maintained an odd detachment from its management.  He never got a full handle on it, and over these years of war, too often he failed to lead.

Woodward goes on to characterize Bush' management of the war since 2006; 'He's kind of wringing his hands'.

Another striking Palinesque note -- when Pelosi reached out to Bush privately to try to find some way to work together and asked "Can't we find a way to end this diviseness and work together?' he responded with 'My views are known and unalterable'.

Frank Rich has a good column today about the GOP affirmative action program that is Sarah Palin. 

Other Palin ledes today;

Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes

Speaking of executive experience, here is the low-down on the truly tiny job that is Mayor of Wasilla in oil-subsidized Alaska

The universe of the mayor of Wasilla is sharply circumscribed even by the standards of small towns, which limited Palin's exposure to issues such as health care, social services, the environment and education.

With so many government services in the state subsidized by oil revenue, and with no need to provide for local schools, Wasilla has also made do with a very low property tax rate -- cut altogether by Palin's successor -- sparing it from the tax battles that localities elsewhere must deal with. Instead, the city collects a 2 percent sales tax, the bulk of which is paid by people who live outside town and shop at its big-box stores.The mayor oversees a police department created three years before Palin took office; the public works department; the parks and recreation department; a planning office; a library; and a small history museum. ... ...When Palin was mayor, the population was just 5,500.

...Palin limited her duties further by hiring a deputy administrator to handle much of the town's day-to-day management. Her top achievement as mayor was the construction of an ice rink, a project that landed in the courts and cost the city more than expected.

Perhaps the scariest quote of all from the piece;

"People said, 'What are you doing to my city? I liked it better when we didn't have government,' '' said Richard Deuser, the city attorney at the time. "And Sarah really pandered to that resentment, that resistance to change. Sarah became their person."

And...

..."Sarah always did and still does surround herself with people she gets along well with," she said. "They protect her, and that's what she needs. She has surrounded herself with people who would not allow others to disagree with Sarah. Either you were in favor of everything Sarah was doing or had a black mark by your name."

AP breaking;

The abuse of power investigation against Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, took a potentially ominous turn for her party today when state lawmakers voted to subpoena her husband.

Republican efforts to delay the probe until after the Nov. 4 election were thwarted when GOP state Sen. Charlie Huggins, who represents Palin's hometown of Wasilla, sided with Democrats. "Let's just get the facts on the table," said Huggins, who appeared in camouflage pants to vote during a break from moose hunting.

Obama should schedule prime time to deliver a massive 'Campaign' speech analogous to his race speech delivered in response to the Reverend Wright noise this summer.

Deliver a magnificent oration on politics in the 21st century -- what it needs to be vs. what McPain would have us think it has to be.

 Reframe the debate to the 'bigger issue', just as he did around race.

Make it about healing divisions vs. driving stakes between us.

Put McPain on the defensive -- force them to talk about why their divisive campaign of hate is the way forward for America today -- force them to respond to his frame and rhetoric vs. continuing to paint their spokesmodel as a victim...

(HT;  http://www.bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/14301  ) 

What do you all think?

Post flabbergasted at pace and volume of lies from GOP this year.  Bottom line; they will say or do anything to retain power -- immoral, unethical, un-American. (One of Bush-in-Lipstick's top 23 lies featured below  -- her taking $230 mill of taxpayer money for the Bridge to Nowhere)

 

Will America continue to be led to the slaughter by the party of lies, slander and hate?

Begala, too;

 

The media have an obligation to point out when a politician is lying about a matter of fact, but the right-wing attack machine has so cowed some of them you can almost hear them moo.

Barack;

"John McCain Says He's About Change, Too - Except For Economic Policy, Healthcare Policy, Tax Policy, Education Policy, Foreign Policy And
Karl Rove-Style Politics"

Will the country stand for it?  Mainstream media lining up directly behind hate-filled GOP, whihc has mandated 'no questions!' for Palin.  She'll have one puffball celebrity interview at home with Charlie Gibson of ABC -- that's it.

Rest of corporate media standing up and cheering for Palin 'phenomenon' -- in spite of  fact she cannot and will not address questions; has been shown to have lied on every significant 'achievment' she claims; ran every small government office she's had to date as if she were emperor; and would have the most powerful job in the world behind a 72 year-old 4 time melanoma sufferer.  Her position on issues?  Ask her Pentacostal pastor...

Can you spell FannieMae/Freddie Mac, Sarah?

We'll never know of course.

Americans -- are you better off today than 8 years ago?  Is America's position stronger in the world?

McCain is older and  less adept than Bush, and Palin is an immature wingnut.

Folks, you have no idea how bad off you will be in four years if you support this ticket spewed from the cuckoo's nest.

Palin: I hate! You suck! Drill ANWR!

McCain: Why hate? We suck! Drill oceans!

LIke watching Mad Magazine Spy vs. Spy...

... so he seems more human.

And an actual maverick as compared to the GOP's pit bull with hairpiece.

To make sure we're clear, here, the GOP :

1. fears and hates black people (that's what they meant with their 'community organizer' code word)

2. thinks women are useless objects to prop up to deliver hate speech for political purposes (best quote -- Palin is the GOP's 'new pretty face of hate').  On the self-absorbed, utterly un-self-aware Palin; 

Sarah Palin's arrogance is a sanctified, self-satisfied presumptuousness that flows from sheer naïveté about oneself and the world and manifests itself in giddy ambition.

3. stuffed their convention with the oldest, whitest, richest bunch of delegates ever (NYT source but just look at your TV screen -- they were getting very sleepy during John's talk).

4.  is completely and immorally confused. They call their own VP pick 'cynical gimmickry'. As John Stewart so artfully shows, their biggest pundits use the exact same language to praise Palin that they used to attack Hillary. http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086  Check out Rove on Palin's Wasilla mayoral experience, vs. Tim Kaine's experience as Mayor of Richmond, VA. "If you were to pick Governor Kaine (as Veep) it would be an intensely political pick which would say you know what I'm first and foremost not concerned with is this person capable of being President of the United States" 

Obama's convention ended with 90,000 people from all walks of life inspired to bring America forward into the future. (Check out the speeches the ordinary folks delivered at the DNC -- compare any one of those to any diatribe at the RNC)...

Rove's week ended with a bunch of tired old rich white folks nodding off after imbibing a bit too much hate, vitriol, attack, smear, and fear.  Smathered with an oozing layer of big fat lies.

Pretty simple choice -- go forward together or leave America in the arthritic clutch of the radical right?