Joe the Plant?

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So, was Joe the Plumber a set-up to give McCain a gimmick at last night's debate? Interesting to watch McCain bring up the erstwhile questioner of Barack Obama's tax policy. But as the hours continue, more questions than answers are emerging.

Like just how close Joe the Plumber's ties may be to the McCain campaign... Andrew Sullivan starts makin' some dots at his blog, The Daily Dish. Joe the registered Republican.... Joe the relative of Charles Keating's son-in-law....

Funny how those same ol' names keep poppin' up in the same ol' same ol' campaign.
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Lions and Tigers

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The Friday night thrilla gave undecided Americans plenty of opportunity to take the measure of the men who would be president. And one looked Presidential. Calm, reassuring, knowledgeable, sure of his facts.

The other looked like a petulant reverser into second childhood. Boastful, shrill, histrionic, petulant, just plain mean.

I'll be honest, for a while I really wanted Obama to zap McCain with a zinger retort back at McCain's bullying, taunting, provocative tactics. But Obama didn't.

Instead, he spoke directly to all of us who watched. He tried to engage McCain, but McCain wouldn't--couldn't?--look him in the eye.

And I thought of a child taught to have respect for his elders, not to pile on when they are in the process of humiliating themselves.

A child who went thru a troubled youth, but the fundamentals of his upbringing by his mom and grandparents kept him grounded and he worked through that time. Just as he worked to excel in his studies, all the way through his college and law school degrees.

And how he's been working all his adult life to bring along those kinds of qualities of character and help others find them in themselves, rejecting the easy path, the greedy path.

Last night we saw the petulant old tiger, snarling, clawing, lurching for his footing.

And we saw the new lion, past young, rising in his prime to lead through the turbulence and challenges that lie ahead.
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McShamed

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Evidently finally the chorus was so loud and universal that John McCain has said he will debate tonight at Ole Miss. The Ol' Craps-shooter snake-eyed.

It's a foreign policy debate. I hope we'll see Obama strongly make the point that our economy is the chief strength of our foreign policy and our national security.

And, hey, just imagine how you'd be feelin' this morning if your social security account were vested in the stock market right now?

"We Don' Need No Steenkin' Debates...."

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Let's see if I've got this. Reckless and histrionic Meltdown McCain says he's suspending his campaign and rushing down to Washington...except not until tomorrow....and if there's not a solution to the bailout crisis he's not going to the debate at Ole Miss Friday night.

Oh, and why don't we just push back that debate to, oh, say, the night of the Veep debate scheduled for St. Louis, and we'll just reschedule that debate for.....

Flailin' Palin's latest deer-in-the-headlights moment with Katie Couric today is telling me, more and more...

Just as he said, McCain sure did find his soulmate in Sarah Palin.

McCain-Palin
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Not Ready on Day One
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Suspend Your Disbelief

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Right in the middle of writing the last post came the announcement that McCain says he is suspending his campaign, wants to delay the Friday night debate with Obama, to debate the financial crisis in Washington.

Ahem, John, you sure you can find the way? Seems you've been missin' a few votes of late...like almost all...for months now.

Ah, but I'll bet your lobbyist consultants can lead you the way....

More details and opining as events unfold.
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Yes, children, STUNT is a five-letter word. But I've got a hunch the five-letter words that are getting to McCain were POLLS...and PRESS.

"Last" President

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Last night on The Daily Show, John Oliver spun out for Jon Stewart why George W. Bush could go down in history not as our worst president...but as our last....

The thing about stampedes to action...as is this hoo-rah taking place right now in Washington over the $700 Billion billionaire bailout...for all the trail dust and shouting...we need to not only deal with the crisis but also, in the words of Jim Lehrer this morning on Imus, "walk this cat back" and figure out what went wrong.

Which frankly gives me more hope for substance when Lehrer moderates the first Obama-McCain debate Friday at Ole Miss than for later tonight when Audio-animatronic Bush appears on television soberly slowly sin-cerely reciting "catastrophe" over and over to the teevee camera.

When the former majority leader of the House, Dick Armey says BushCo bald-faced lied to him in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, why would any rational thinking human being believe anything being churned out of this White House?

Across the spectrum, politicians and ordinary citizens of all stripes are coming together to reject this Bush-push package politely called a bailout...when we folks on Main Street know it's the financial elites trying one last grab at America's resources. Even Congressional Republicans are tellin' Cheney hell no.

Bush once told us he was a uniter not a divider. Finally, we're seeing that. "Last" president, jokes the Daily Show.

Not a joke, just sad, sad, sad this pathetic excuse for a man and an administration. Is it too much to hope tonight is the last clusterfuck contrivance of incoherence packaged as a speech to the nation?

We all want Bush gone.

What We Know about Honor....

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When Rick Warren told us John McCain was in the cone of silence, hmmmmmmmmmmmm... not so much.

Dupe? Or enabler?

Purpose-driven life, indeed.
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And Mr. Sunshine's goin': see, I told you, I knew it was cooked before it even started... "John" "Rick"
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Did John McCain cheat at the Faith Forum like he cheated on his wife?..now that's a subject I'll just be holding my breath waiting for the Vapid Vapors Media to discuss....

What Prairie's Reading Tonight

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What digby says...what Fallows says....

The "debates" deserve better.

Puttering..."Tough but Fair"

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Life’s laid back in the tall timber…even the snow is more stubborn about melting. Crystallized and crusty drifts linger under the pine trees and in hollows and on the shadow sides of cabins.

In the morning, the thermometer dial under the eave says “27” and the mug of hot coffee billows steam into the air even as the sun warms the ground.

This is the season of puttering along. The ground still too frozen to work, but the “gifts that keep on giving”—from the dogs…and neighboring deer, and maybe fox, or coyote or wolf, or, hey, why not a cougar? “Some say” they’ve been seen up by Itasca—form hot spots absorbing the sun. Little flashpoint poops of form but not-usable substance.

We saw too much of that form but damned little useful substance from a slice of the media again this week.

TBF “Tough but fair” Stephanopoulos and ACE “arrogant condescending elitist” Gibson gave us another round of preening It’s-all-about-me “journalism.”

Plenty’s already been written about the “Fiasco in Philly”—you may have written a comment or two yourself. I understand a few people have….

So I won’t rehash that, except to note:

• Hey, ACE: He’s right—stop doing Stewart’s job. He’s a helluva lot better at it. Oh, and while you’re at it, stop doing Charlie Black and the RNC’s jobs, too. Do your own. And if you can’t figure out what that job is, have a chat with Moyers. He’s got it.
• And TBF? We’ll believe that whole tough but fair business when we see it equally dispensed—like the next time you sit down for a wee chat with McCain. I could offer some questions, but I bet if you really, really think about it, you could come up with those on your own. Go ahead, we know you can….
  

In the meantime, TBF and ACE, you stop the posturing and faux framing, guys—and I won’t try tellin’ you that plain ol’ dog poop is good fertilizer.

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Oh, and as for flag pins on lapels. Hmmmm, I won’t look for ’em next time my house is on fire. Just for the people who know how to do their jobs and put out the fires instead of fanning destructive flames.

Nightcappin'

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This day began with the Pope at the White House "God blessin' America."

And ended with the worst presidential campaign "debate" I have ever witnessed in my lifetime.

Sublime to totally beyond ridiculous.

Awesome.