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- Last night's presidential debate was notable for the absence of the character attacks the McCain campaign vowed to ratchet up this week. But Politico was probably premature in claiming this morning that "going forward, the candidate wouldn’t focus on the former domestic terrorist nor invoke the name of Obama’s controversial pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright." Today McCain released a flyer describing John M. Murtagh's recounting of the firebombing of his house in 1970, with text claiming, "Barack Obama’s friend tried to kill my family." Doing her part to keep things civil, Cindy McCain claimed Obama is running "the dirtiest campaign in American history."
- Meanwhile, this ad describing Obama as the "most liberal senator" strikes me as an anachronism. I suspect the L-word has significantly lost its ability to strike fear into the hearts of voters, especially when the so-called most liberal senator is willing to explicitly endorse liberal positions -- like calling health care a right -- instead of running from the label.
- Matt Yglesias observes that the mortgage plan John McCain proposed during the debate resembles something the Center for American Progress had proposed, but Brad DeLong, is skeptical, noting that the McCain plan would "give taxpayers money away to the shareholders and managers of banks with troubled assets." Tim has some more thoughts on the progressive-regressive hybrid McCain has unleashed.
- Meanwhile
at The Cornerin right-wing fantasyland, Ramesh Ponnuru muses that despite "The Corner's 'enthusiasm' for the Ayers Issue," "Obama's at least having been a left-wing radical in the past, and not owning up to it today" is an important issue, while serious intellectual historian Jonah Goldberg considers "Obama as a potential rubber stamp for a future Pelosi Prime Ministership." Strangest, however, is the ongoing discussion (noted by Adam below) over the elitism inherent in Obama's pronunciation of 'Pakistan.' As Think Progress observes, a figure no less revered by the right than Gen. David Petraeus pronounces 'Pakistan' the same way as that Harvard snob Barack Obama. To answer Steve Benen's question -- "the right's anti-intellectualism seems to be getting worse, doesn't it?" -- the answer is that it now goes to 11. - Speaking of the wingnutosphere, it appears Sarah Palin has been cribbing notes from right-wing bloggers, tossing terms like 'tasergate' into her stump speeches. Also, The Nation reports on "the man behind the Obama smears."
- Palin gave her first presser on board her campaign plane today, spending an unprecedented 15 minutes answering reporters' questions. Michael Calderone is less than impressed.
- It turns out David Axelrod misspoke yesterday when he claimed the Obama campaign now had four million donors -- an increase of 1.5 million in one month alone -- and that according to Obama spokesman Bill Burton, the number is "significantly less than that."
- Joe Lieberman, channeling his inner testosterone-overdosed adolescent, confirms in a Newsmax interview that Barack Obama doesn't have the "right stuff to bomb Iran," observing that "we want a president who our enemies will fear. I don’t believe that Sen. Obama will be that kind of president." You can always count on Holy Joe to tell us what we want.
- Reporting on Todd Palin's association with the Alaska Independence Party, whose founder persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his secessionist cause, David Talbot asks, "Imagine if the Obamas had hooked up with a violently anti-American group in league with the government of Iran." Well imagination is one thing, but instead let's ask What John McCain was doing in the mid-80s sitting on the advisory board of a group called the Council for World Freedom, who made it their pastime to criticize those who protested president Reagan's visitation of a former Nazi's grave.
--Mori Dinauer
