The TV Watch – A Question Reprised, but the Words Come None Too Easily for Palin – NYTimes.com

I couldn’t bear to watch the video, but ran across this summary of the Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin. It’s painfully obvious that without a teleprompter, she fails miserably. No wonder they’ve kept her away from the press… and by the way, she eventually earned a college degree. In journalism, no less.

Read it, and weep.

Read the whole thing. Tomorrow is going to be a very ugly day in the markets and in the press.

Talks Implode During Day of Chaos; Fate of Bailout Plan Remains Unresolved – NYTimes.com

When Congressional leaders and Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, the two major party presidential candidates, trooped to the White House on Thursday afternoon, most signs pointed toward a bipartisan agreement on a grand compromise that could be accepted by all sides and signed into law by the weekend. It was intended to pump billions of dollars into the financial system, restoring liquidity and keeping credit flowing to businesses and consumers.

“We’re in a serious economic crisis,” Mr. Bush told reporters as the meeting began shortly before 4 p.m. in the Cabinet Room, adding, “My hope is we can reach an agreement very shortly.”

But once the doors closed, the smooth-talking House Republican leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio, surprised many in the room by declaring that his caucus could not support the plan to allow the government to buy distressed mortgage assets from ailing financial companies.

Mr. Boehner pressed an alternative that involved a smaller role for the government, and Mr. McCain, whose support of the deal is critical if fellow Republicans are to sign on, declined to take a stand.

The talks broke up in angry recriminations, according to accounts provided by a participant and others who were briefed on the session, and were followed by dueling news conferences and interviews rife with partisan finger-pointing.

In the Roosevelt Room after the session, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.

“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, according to someone who observed the exchange. She went on: “It’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.”

Mr. Paulson sighed. “I know. I know.”

It was the very outcome the White House had said it intended to avoid, with partisan presidential politics appearing to trample what had been exceedingly delicate Congressional negotiations.

Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Senate banking committee, denounced the session as “a rescue plan for John McCain,” and proclaimed it a waste of precious hours that could have been spent negotiating.

But a top aide to Mr. Boehner said it was Democrats who had done the political posturing. The aide, Kevin Smith, said Republicans revolted, in part, because they were chafing at what they saw as an attempt by Democrats to jam through an agreement on the bailout early Thursday and deny Mr. McCain an opportunity to participate in the agreement.

Now wait a minute, I thought it was the Republican leadership who were trying to wave McCain off and keep him from assuming the mantle of leadership he’s never had in the Senate. Maverick, remember? Goes his own way, bucks the party?

God help us, every one.

Yesterday, it was my birthday. The story of Margriet Oostveen, the Dutch writer who volunteered for both US Presidential campaigns to gather insight and material for her column broke, and what keen prezzie! She claims she was taught how to write “letters to the editor” that would be signed by real McCain supporters in battleground states. The story was originally published in a Dutch paper, but she also had it picked up in English on Salon.com. It’s possible to read it on the AP/Yahoo version (I’m kind of down on AP and their policies and stupid re-design right now so I’m not linking).

This backgrounder is also behind Salon’s “paywall,” but if you wait for the Flash-using splash screen to clear, the “Enter Salon” link will be in the upper right hand corner (it’s a day pass after watching the ad). Once there, you should be able to read the original article as well. I’m quoting the longish Editor’s Note introduction here in full. As no fake letters seem to have actually been published, they’re providing redacted emails, sample letters, writing guidelines, talking points, and the letters that they asked her to provide to support her claim.

It would be difficult to find the letters if the operatives in swing states were careful to “insert” them in papers that don’t put their letters columns up on the Web, searchable by Democracy’s Best Friends (ie., Google and other search engines). It’ll take dedicated local readers going through their piles of newspapers from the first week or two after the Palin nomination was announced and actually clipping them out and scanning them to find a few little smoking epistolary guns.

Of course, the real reason none of these letters have shown up in the local press could be as simple as:

1. She made all this shit up.
2. Local editors are savvy enough to sense when somebody is making this shit up.
3. McCain’s ground game is so screwed up that the letters went nowhere.

How ghost-writing letters to the editor for McCain works | Salon News

Sept. 24, 2008 | Editor’s note: On Sept. 13, journalist Margriet Oostveen published a column in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad detailing how she had ghost-written letters to the editor on behalf of, and at the behest of, John McCain’s presidential campaign. The Dutch version of her column is here; Salon’s English translation is here. Among the letters Oostveen says she wrote is one in which she pretended to be the mother of a soldier serving in Iraq.

Salon requested documentary proof from Oostveen. Below, on Page 1, is a redacted e-mail from a McCain staffer to Oostveen about letter writing, as well as the sample letter that was attached to it. The sample was meant to be an example of a “good letter to the editor that concentrates on our support for Gov. Palin.” On Page 2 are three more letters that Oostveen says a different McCain campaign worker gave her as examples of the style of letters she should write. On Page 3 is a set of guidelines for writing letters that Oostveen says was given to her by Phil Tuchman, who is mentioned in her column. On Page 4 and 5 are two pages of talking points that Oostveen says she was given by the campaign. On Page 6 are three examples of letters Oostveen says she wrote and gave to the campaign so they could be sent to McCain supporters in battleground states, including the Iraq letter. According to Oostveen, a McCain staffer told her that supporters would be invited to pick and sign letters. After that the letters would be mailed to local newspapers.

Salon has no evidence that any of the letters Oostveen wrote were ever published, in their original or adapted form, as letters to the editor in newspapers.

Gail Gitcho, a spokeswoman for the McCain campaign, said that Oostveen did not properly identify herself to campaign workers in Arlington. “She did not represent herself as a journalist to the people who work in the mid-Atlantic office.” Oostveen, who also wrote a column about an earlier stint phone-banking for the McCain campaign, says she twice explained to different workers in the Arlington campaign office that she might be using her experiences as a volunteer in her columns for the NRC Handelsblad.

Oh, wah wah wah! She’s an investigative journalist. DEAL.

If you feel like it, read on and see what you think. But I’d be happier if someone finds a wee li’l clippie or two… or better yet three or four, in different newspapers, in different states.

Signed with different names. Yeah.

Earlier today, I jokingly speculated that the reason McCain was trying to delay or postpone or cancel the debate was really because his polling sucked, and he was stalling for time. It appears that I’m not the only one that thinks this. And now, it looks like Palin’s debate will either be postponed or cancelled – the events are being held hostage, in a way, as bargaining chips in the deal McCain thinks he must make with Senate Democrats in order to look all leaderly ‘n shit.

If they don’t wise up and fall into line on the bailout debate, see, Ferris McBueller threatens a debate bail-out. He gets his girl out of school while the weather’s still nice, too.  He says “Life goes by pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” And although there’s a lot of drama and smoke pouring out of various bodily tailpipes, in the end it may turn out to be a lot of fuss and bother for no reason.  There’s a fairly good chance the Senate is perfectly capable of carrying on and getting things done without him, and McCain elbowing in there would just upset the delicately balanced apple cart.

No, I suspect that the real reason is much simpler.  Fear of failure. Short-term in the debate, and long-term with polls that keep on slippin, slippin, slippin, into the future.

And that means Fail Chicken is the real reason Johnny Can’t Campaign. He’s not ready, his numbers are not good, and what’s more, Palin’s even farther from being ready and her numbers are sucking him down even farther. He can’t afford to look old and confused against a young, smooth opponent, and he needs time to let his handlers figure out how to keep from screwing a very, very big pooch over the preparation for the debate in addition to coming up with something coherent to say about the economy.

Frank Schaeffer: McCain Chickens Out of the Debate

McCain’s poll members are tanking. The war and deficit-driven economic Armageddon that McCain, the Republicans and President Bush unleashed is in full flower. McCain’s joke running mate has to be protected from the press, but claims she’s ready to go up against the world’s dictators. McCain’s creeping senility becomes more evident each day as he stumbles around confused as a punch drunk boxer. His cynicism also deepens, as he sells out to the racists and the Religious Right’s extreme America-hating lunatic fringe gearing up for last ditch smears. In other words McCain’s campaign has had a disfiguring accident. Time to cut and run.

Okay, a little harsh and over the top, but this quote lets me use that cute Fail Chicken graphic again.

Here’s another take, with some added juicy goodness in the details:

The move permeated with political opportunism: an attempt by McCain to grab the leadership mantle he did not own and divert attention from poll numbers that were plummeting. Indeed, on Wednesday morning a Washington Post-ABC poll had McCain trailing Obama 52 percent to 43 percent among likely voters. The internals were even worse: 54 percent of white voters with economic anxiety favored Obama.

So McCain changed the script, announcing his imminent departure from the campaign trail. And members of Congress were left scratching their heads.

“I’m delighted that John is expressing himself on this issue,” said Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. “I have heard form Obama numerous occasions these last couple days. I have never heard from John McCain on the issue… I’m just worried a little bit that sort of politicizing this problem, sort of flying in here, I’m beginning to think this is more of a rescue plan for John McCain and not a rescue plan for the economy. (emphasis added-BR)”

McCain’s mixed messaging on the bailout proposal was not just bizarre. It was emblematic of his actions the entire week. Indeed, the Senator has been all over the map when it comes to addressing the current situation. When the market crisis originally surfaced, McCain – now infamously – was the one to declare that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. Later he would call the situation the worst since World War II.

Even his actions on Wednesday seemed either oddly calculated or at conflict with the image he was trying to present. It was, in fact, Obama who first proposed to form a unity front in addressing the issue, calling McCain at 8:30 in the morning to discuss the issuance of a joint statement. The call went unreturned for six hours. McCain’s campaign would later claim he was huddling with economic advisers. But during that time he made a scheduled stop with Lady Lynn de Rothschild, a high society New York Democrat who recently endorsed his campaign. Rothschild did not return repeated request for comment.

Did you know that Obama hobnobs with elitists? John McCain is a man of the right kind of people.

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. Two pictures may tell us more than twice as much. The first picture is from an article at the Washington Post and shows two senior advisers working the press room, and the second picture shows the same two advisers with a couple more guys, purportedly outside in the street after the announcement is made, deal is done, shit is spun like spidersilk, whatever.

What’s the story there, boys? You look tense. Back-to back spinning sure takes a lot of energy.

Ladies and gentlemen, those are what we used to call “shit-eating grins.”  We sure spun ’em!  Miller time!

It’s uncanny how this deal plays like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, too. You’ve got a guy with big deadline who has to come up with the goods or risk exposure as a failure (or maybe carry the previous guy’s Googlejuice). And there’s this other thing that’s a great distraction from the fact that he really should just buckle down. It’s a nice day, he’d like a break from the punishing, crushing schedule.

Ferris: The key to faking out the parents is the clammy hands. It’s a good non-specific symptom; I’m a big believer in it. A lot of people will tell you that a good phony fever is a dead lock, but, uh… you get a nervous mother, you could wind up in a doctor’s office. That’s worse than school. You fake a stomach cramp, and when you’re bent over, moaning and wailing, you lick your palms. It’s a little childish and stupid, but then, so is high school.

Wow… childish and stupid, just like high school and political campaigns.

He’s not really into doing the studying and preparing, it’s all a bunch of boring bullshit anyway:

Ferris: I do have a test today. that wasn’t bullshit. It’s on European socialism. I mean, really, what’s the point? I’m not European. I don’t plan on being European. So who cares if they’re socialists? They could be fascist anarchists. It still doesn’t change the fact that I don’t own a car.

Heh, heh. Well, Johnnie owns 13 cars, but that’s another blog post. And this is kind of like how Republicans can go socialist at the drop of a major investment bank or two. Or three. In a sort of domino effect that Johnnie DeReg helped to put in motion decades ago. Hey, there’s Neil Bush benefiting from some of Johnnie Dereg’s heroics. He might be President one day! Isn’t that a thought?

Let Ben Stein tell you all about economics, because, he’s really an economist (the game show thing was just a lark)  And he’s been trying to tell McCain stuff he should be doing, or deploring things he thinks McCain shouldn’t have done, moaning like Cameron about “Let Your VP Go!” But here’s what he was teaching Ferris in the 80’s:

Economics Teacher: In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the… Anyone? Anyone?… the Great Depression, passed the… Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered?… raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression. Today we have a similar debate over this. Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? The Laffer Curve. Anyone know what this says? It says that at this point on the revenue curve, you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as at this point. This is very controversial. Does anyone know what Vice President Bush called this in 1980? Anyone? Something-d-o-o economics. “Voodoo” economics.

Honestly, you cannot make this shit any funnier.

In the early days of Sarah Palin’s ascension to First Runner-Up, some people noted how she talked and sounded kind of familiar:

Grace: Oh, he’s very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads – they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.

Yeah, she scares me, with the righteousness thing.

Now unfortunately my movie metaphor starts to run thin, because after all Bueller is a loveable hero, and McBueller is an irascible jerkface (by reliable accounts). But nothing sticks to Ferris, not unlike the Teflon-like attributes of the President of the Bueller era) and by movie’s end, he’s not only off the hook, he was never caught. I’m starting to suspect that the liberal blogosphere, from plankton like me to sharks with frickin laser beams on their heads, are going to turn out to be like Principal Rooney, which is not good. All this incessant yapping at HuffPost and dKos (yes, yes, when you bundle it all together, it’s both incessant and yappy) about what Obama should do or say isn’t worth diddly. Strangely enough, I think that most of us should buckle down to boring bullshit work (like volunteering or canvassing or hosting events) and let Obama the hell be Obama.

And as for Obama himself, I think he’s in another movie entirely… he’s cool, freakishly talented, but spends a fair amount of time doing the hero walk without doing anything of substance before ultimately pulling all kinds of different people together into a united community, to fight evil and waste. Why? Because our way of life and the planet depend on it, dammit.

We don’t have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

Yes, it looks like I’ll have to go back to the quote mines and spelunk “Buckaroo Banzai.”