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- President Bush met with candidates Barack Obama and John McCain at the White House today to discuss the bailout deal that is crystallizing in Congress. Meanwhile, McCain's "suspended" campaign continues to chug along, with surrogates remaining on the offense on the cable networks and the candidate himself giving a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.
- Has Sarah Palin been suspended as well? So far she has given a baffling, utterly incoherent interview to Katie Couric, held a press conference near Ground Zero, and been sexually harassed by the president of Pakistan.
- McCain continues to insist that, unless a bailout deal is agreed upon by Friday, the debate will be delayed. To put things in perspective, the Obama campaign released a helpful list of major events and crises that nevertheless failed to derail presidential debates over the last 48 years.
- Obama has cut another minute-long ad in which he directly addresses the public about the financial crisis. The ad doesn't mention McCain, which makes sense because it seems like there's only one serious candidate in the race at this point.
- Sam Stein has a useful timeline detailing John McCain's response -- or lack thereof -- to the financial crisis. The Hill looks at the success rate of McCain-introduced banking legislation (0 percent). And the Obama campaign is circulating video footage of McCain's admission that he hadn't bothered to read the Paulson plan -- the one he is dropping everything to "work on" in Washington.
- Commenting on early voting, Time's Amy Sullivan writes that "it boggles the mind to think that almost one-third of the country could start voting before Obama and McCain have had the chance to engage directly with each other." Well, yes, debates are important. But is it really that hard to understand that a good number of people have already made up their mind on who to vote for? Barring something extraordinary, a debate is only going to sway the undecided.
- The good people of Alaska, wise in their way, recognize that Joe Biden is a more qualified vice president than home-state hero Sarah Palin.
--Mori Dinauer
