Economists weigh in

TPM rounds up economists’ opinions on the financial crisis and proposed bailout bills.  No one seems impressed, and a few note that the best use of the government’s money right now would be a stimulus package.  Spend the money on health care restructuring or buliding new schools or just put the money directly into the [...]

Thoughtful

Dave Letterman and Bill O’Reilly:

More on privatizing Social Security

More on Social Security privatization from Henry Aaron at Brookings:
As American financial markets are hammered by a financial storm more frightening and more damaging than hurricane Ike, it is worth imagining what the world would have been like had president Bush’s Social Security proposal been enacted and been effective for a couple of decades. Of [...]

Girl power

The networks should have only female journalists interviewing Palin.  Katie Couric was competent and tough and clearly more knowledgeable than her interviewee–without ever having to worry that anyone could even claim she looked sexist.  She rocked it.
A few responses to the interview(s):  James Fallows feels sorry for Palin, and notes the very-rookie mistakes she’s still [...]

The Great Schlep

This Sarah Silverman video makes me wish I were Jewish.

Letterman vs. McCain

Via Politico, David Letterman on McCain’s big announcement today:
“What are you going to do if you’re elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We’ve got a guy like that now!”
Here’s the full video, in case CBS is vigilant about taking down YouTube clips:

The ground game

An interesting dispatch from Colorado over at FiveThirtyEight.com, comparing the campaigns’ organizational strategies:
To be a professional poker player, one success principle you must learn is “Losing the Minimum.” Everyone who plays seriously knows that players go through stretches where they can’t catch a break and make a series of strong 2d-best hands that cost them [...]

Obama’s press conference today

The video is below.  When asked why he won’t agree to postpone the debate(s), Obama points out that the men who would be President should be able to do two (or more!) things at once.
Is McCain trying to seem even older than he is?  James Fallows proposes one potential response from voters:
The candidate who wants [...]

Donations to Planned Parenthood in honor of Palin

This is awesome:
One e-mail making the rounds on the Internet says: “Instead of (actually, in addition to) all of us all sending more e-mails about how absolutely horrible she is, let’s all make a donation to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin’s name.”
Katie Groke Ellis, field manager for the Planned Parenthood of the Rockies Action Fund, [...]

What Obama wanted

What Obama wanted to include in the candidates’ joint statement today.  A question I’d like to hear asked at Friday’s debate (assuming McCain shows up): Why did McCain reject those points, and what policy priorities would he have included instead?