The First Debate - Part 1

Financial Recovery Plan:

Obama - move swiftly and wisely - oversight; taxpayers get money back; none of the money goes to executives; help homeowners. Final verdict on failed policies promoted by Bush, supported by McCain. [keep tying McCain to Bush]

McCain - sad note about Ted in the hospital. We are seeing Republicans and Democrats sitting down to try to fix this problem. Package has transparency, oversight, loans can fail. He went back to DC and found house republicans not being represented. Have a lot of work to do. Eliminate dependence on foreign oil.

Obama: Optimistic and we need to solve this, but we need to see how we got here in the first place. Has been talking about this for 2 years. [keep pointing at why...]

McCain: Hopes to vote for the plan. Says he saw this trainwreck coming. Somehow we have lost the accountability of those who perpetuate these problems. He will hold people accountable.

Obama - John, you said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. [first time he speaks directly to McCain - keep doing this]


Are there fundamental differences in approach to lead US out of this crisis.

McCain - got to get spending under control. Earmarking is a gateway drug. Repeated his line about Bear DNA and praternity. [this is all he's got?] He will veto every spending bill and "you will know their names" Repeating campaign rhetoric.

Obama: earmarks account for 18 billion. McCain is proposing 300 billion in tax cuts. What's more important! We need to grow the economy from the bottom up.

McCain: Earmarks have tripled in the last eight years. Obama wants 800 billion in new spending. [not true]

Obama: Don't know where John is getting his figures. 18 billion is important. But the fact is that eliminating earmarks alone is not going to get Americans back on their feet. Obama speaking directly to McCain.

McCain: Wants to cut business taxes to keep businesses in the country. And now, back on earmark reform. [here he goes again with the same BS]

Obama: 95% of you will get a tax cut. 250,000 and under will not see any increase. Goes at McCain about 5000 tax credit - employer will get taxed on healthcare. [good]

McCain: goes after Obama on Energy bill. They go back and forth.


What can you do after this rescue plan.

Obama: We may not be able to do everything I want right away, but: We have to have energy independence; we have to reform healthcare now; we have to make sure we are competing in education; we need to make sure college is affordable; we need to shore up our infrastructure. Eliminate programs that don't work. [didnt really answer the question]

McCain: We need to cut spending. Obama has the most liberal voting record in the Senate. Need to do away with cost-plus contracts in military spending. He knows how to do this. Examine every agency and eliminate waste.

Obama goes after lobbyists.

McCain wants a spending freeze on everything except Military, veterans, and certain essential programs.

Obama says we can't freeze spending. That's taking a hatchet to a job that needs a scalpel.

McCain talking about nuclear power. [still really not answering the question]

Obama: This crisis will effect our budgets. Going to have to make some tough decisions. If we are spending huge money on tax cuts to the rich and have a healthcare crisis, we need to make those decisions. [good]

McCain suggests that Obama cut some of the new spending programs he is proposing. Not raising taxes is the best way to have our economy recover.

Obama: John - this is your president that you said you agree with 90% of the time and that you voted with most all the time. [keeps combining Bush/McCain - good]

McCain: Tries to object that he hasn't. He's a maverick with a partner that's a maverick. [oh sheesh...]

The Future of Education? Hell, No!

More from Douglas in our continuing series on education. Remember, the numbered points are the McCain campaign position, the rest is all Doug.

3. We will energetically assert the right of students to engage in voluntary prayer in schools and to have equal access to school facilities for religious purposes.

How does one even comment on this blatant disregard of our constitutional rights?

4. We call for a review of Department of Education programs and administration to identify and eliminate ineffective programs, to respect the role of states, and to better meet state needs.

The Department of Education was established during the Carter administration. Its existence was threatened during the Reagan administration through documented hostile pressure. The W. administration gave it unheard of federal power of punishment over the 50 states. Now, its existence may be threatened again. Ironically, the U.S. Constitution makes no mention of a federal system of education or even a federal role in education.

Speaking Alaskan

Do they have a different version of English in Alaska? A version in which good English words that we use regularly have an entirely different meaning. I mean, what the fuck is she even talking about?

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? Allow them to spend more, and put more money into the economy, instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and getting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.

Very, very frightening...

Yup--fewer regulations. That's the ticket.

Consensus [UPDATED]

The teevee tells me that, as of approximately 1:00pm, both chambers and both parties have come to agreement on a bail out plan. Saint John rode into town on his white horse at around noon. WOW -- he sure does work fast.

UPDATE: I spoke too soon. It seems St. John may have had a hand in slowing this down -- which is actually a good thing. I like Kos' take on this.

Deer (or Moose) in the Headlights

"I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to ya..." Seriously?

The sky is falling...[Updated]

Is the McCain campaign coming off the rails? That's the only reason I can see for his announcement yesterday that he is suspending his campaign to go to Washington to work on the bail out bill. This is coming from the guy who missed 80% of the votes in the Senate in the past year. But, he is going to rush back there now and save the world? Does he live in the real world? And, can't he do more than one thing at a time?

Last week he said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong... This week the sky is falling? What changed between then and now? Nothing but his poll numbers.

This is going to come back and bite him in the ass. He suspends his campaign, wants to cancel Friday's debate - and the VP debate. Maybe he should try to cancel the election too.

UPDATE: Looks like a few economists agree that rushing into this plan may not be a very good idea.

He He

Indeedy

Continuing our series on education...

Here is more of the McCain platform:

2. We reject a one-size-fits-all approach.

And teh truth:

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is entirely based on one-size-fits-all ideology. The law mandates that ALL students demonstrate proficiency on the exact same tests. Furthermore, school districts must demonstrate Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) across several subgroups. This means that ALL students (black, white, economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, and students with limited English proficiency) must meet the benchmark, or the federal government withholds funding. The test is one-size-fits-all, the standards are one-size-fits-all, and the curriculum is one-size fits all. What’s left?

tanks, Douglas

This is not going to be fun.

I have been out of touch a bit over the past 4 or 5 days, so I am just catching up...and this bail-out plan really has me worried, from a political perspective. I agree with Kos that this could derail things both if/when Obama takes office, and as part of the campaign (depending how the Dems handle it):

Yet witness the Democratic leadership looking to enable this fiscal handcuffing of the next administration, scared into rash action because a crisis that has been ongoing for months -- and long-denied by Bush and McCain ("the fundamentals are strong!") -- is now so pressing that decades of mismanagement are supposed to be fixed in five days. Ridiculous.

Throw a few guys with suits and suitcases into a room with our Democratic leadership, and they wilt. Pathetic. It's up to the Democratic rank and file, and situational allies on the Right (even the crazy ones), to stop or dramatically reform this mess.

It worries me that the Dem leadership could help to destroy the election by pushing this legislation and joining Bush in this panic. Why, all of a sudden, do we need to rush into $700 billion in a few days (they won't use the money right away, anyway), instead of 5 months from now? Ed Kilgore, I think, has it about right:

Democrats are right to demand significant substantive concessions before offering their support for the Paulson Plan. But just as importantly, they need to demand Republican votes in Congress, including the vote of John McCain. If this is going to be a "bipartisan" relief plan, it has to be fully bipartisan, not an opportunity for McCain to count on Obama and other Democrats to save the economy while exploiting their sense of responsibility to win the election for the party that let this crisis occur in the first place.

Worrisome...