By almost any accounting, the past few days have been calamitous for John McCain. But not according to Roger Simon of the Politico. While McCain's transparently cynical ploy to play hero in the Wall Street bailout drama was widely derided as a stunt, Simon on Thursday insisted "it isn't as dumb or as desperate as it looks." Then as polls revealed American voters saw Barack Obama as the clear winner of Friday's generally even debate, Simon instead announced "the Mac is back."

Simon's hagiographic treatment of McCain didn't start this week. After the Republican convention earlier this month, Simon regurgitated the talking points emanating from McCain Central:

John McCain is a maverick who has now done what mavericks almost never do: win. And now he must lead a party while maintaining his independence from it.

It's a dilemma, but McCain attempted to resolve it by facing it head on. "I don't work for a party," he said. "I don't work for a special interest. I don't work for myself. I work for you."

Then as the economic crisis threatened to undermine the Republican's campaign, Simon praised McCain for "shooting craps" in trying to appropriate the Wall Street meltdown for his own political purposes:

John McCain is now shooting craps with his presidential campaign. It is high risk. But all he needs is a little luck to pull off his current gamble.

McCain has suspended his campaign to work on a solution for the nation's financial meltdown, and he has threatened to pull out of the first presidential debate scheduled for Friday unless Congress takes action by then.

McCain has been attacked from all sides for doing this, but it isn't as dumb or as desperate as it looks.

Then came Friday's debate.

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Yes, that is a tattoo of Bristol's name on Baby Daddy Levi Johnston's ring finger. Anyone else picturing Todd Palin brandishing a shotgun at the tattoo parlor? And just because this campaign can't get surreal enough, from TPM:

(Given) what we've seen so far, I can't say I'd be surprised if the moral jalopy that is the McCain-Palin Straight Talk Express sunk us even further into farce with something like this. From the Times of London ...

In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one -- the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.

Inside John McCain's campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. "It would be fantastic," said a McCain insider.

If this actually sways a single voter, I weep for my country.

Apparently, there's a tentative deal for a revised bailout plan on the Hill, and lawmakers now hope to get it ready for an announcement before Asian markets open on Monday and a quick vote.

According to Reuters today, the deal involves:

- A structured layout where $300 billion would be allocated immediately, $100 billion would be reserved under presidential discretion for later allocation if needed and the remaining $350 billion under only the say-so of Congress.

- Taxpayers would gain stock warrants in companies using bailout money - an asset stake and an opportunity for future profits to recompense any federal outlay.

- Executives would have their Golden Parachutes cut off if their company used bailout money.

- There will be an oversight board and management also would be under close scrutiny by Congress' investigative arm and an independent inspector general.

- the government could use its power as the owner of mortgages and mortgage-backed securities to help more struggling homeowners modify the terms of their home loans.

- "In the end, House Republicans won support for a provision that would create a privately funded insurance program for mortgage-backed securities, congressional aides said."

- "Democrats jettisoned proposals that would have put money into a trust fund for affordable housing and would have allowed judges to alter the terms of mortgages for bankrupt borrowers, according to aides."

Of course, there's a possibility that Dems will fall into a trap of the GOP's making. Republican talking heads are still urging the GOP to walk away from the bailout or various provisions of the deal. They're simply playing politics with imminent financial disaster, aware that most people are outraged that taxpayers are having to bail out fat-cats at banks and investment houses and fanning that outrage in an attempt to tie Bush and the bailout to Democrats before the November elections. They're hoping, in their zeal, that people will forget that it was Republican pushes for deregulation and lack of oversight (the "free" market) that caused the problem in the first place.

Meanwhile, John McCain's campaign is getting ready to jump on whichever bandwagon looks like it will travel farthest. Today on the talking heads shows, "at the same time that Sen. John McCain was saying that he didn't deserve credit for getting a economic bailout package to the brink of completion, his campaign's chief strategist was arguing that the Senator played an integral role".

And it's still uncertain that House leaders can drum up enough votes to pass the bill over Republican obstructionism for petty political ends. It's telling that they expect to get their Republican support from those not facing re-election this year - in other words, those Republicans who can vote for sense instead of political grandstanding.

So yes, it might become a political trap for Dems. But what else to do? Play the same game as the Republicans and watch the economy go down? This isn't just about big numbers, it's about people's lives. Even if the people who would all be affected don't quite get that, no matter how unpleasant it is to save the fat-cats asses, the fat-cats have put us in the position where it's unavoidable if we're to save our own asses too. The bailout may not work - there are many who say it won't - but in the meantime, Dems will have tried to shield common folk from the massive social and lifestyle fallout of a crash. That's worth doing, in my view, even at this horrendous price tag.

Crossposted from Newshoggers

It was pretty comical watching Sean Hannity attack his own team player Dick Morris becuase Dick wouldn't follow Hannity's talking points after the debate. Even Morris gets honest once in a while.

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Dick your initial thought?

I thought Obama won the first, I thought McCain won the second. And overall since we hadn't had a terrorist attack last week, but had the economy failing apart. The economy is more important that I have to say unfortunately I think Obama won this debate.

Is Morris hoping for a terrorist attack<snark>

I disagree, I don't know what debate you were watching Dick and I'm going to be honest here because what was so amazing to me was everything that Sen Obama was saying, it almost seemed like it was book knowledge and that be it about the economy, be it about ...it was somebody regurgitating lines and you've been in presidential campaigns before Dick, they were fed to him and memorized by him, but where was the real life experiences...

Sean, I'm voting for McCain. I agree with that, but Obama showed himself to be more concerned with

You didn't answer my question.

Well I told you, I'm voting for McCain, but what I'm saying what happened in the debate, not in reality is that Obama came across as really knowing and caring about the problems of the average person. I also thought McCain blew it by not focusing on why he suspended his campaign, why he wasn't going to go to the debate

Hannity suddenly thinks memorizing lines is a bad thing? What will he say about Sarah Palin? Oh, never mind. Once Sean says he was getting honest it kind of ruined it for me. Morris prefaces his remarks by saying that he's voting for McCain over and over again, but then gives the debate to Obama.

Hannity didn't like that all too much and tried to force Morris to agree with his idiotic point that Obama sure has a lot of "book knowledge."

It's becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Sarah Palin and Tina Fey. Not even joking. Her parody is that spot on. See original Palin interview video here.

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"PALIN": "Like every American I'm speaking with, we are ill about this. We're saying, 'Hey, why bail out Fanny and Freddie and not me?' But ultimately, what the bailout does is, help those that are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy to help, uhhh, it's gotta be all about job creation too. Also, too, shoring up our economy and putting Fannie and Freddie back on the right track, and so health care reform and reducing taxes and reigning in spending...'cause Barack Obama, ya know, has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans, also, having a dollar value meal at restaurants. That's gonna help. But 1 in 5 jobs being created today under the umbrella of job creation. That, you know. Also....."

The blog Orange Crate Art compares Palin, Orwell and the English language. Truly scary.

As George Orwell points out in "Politics and the English Language," one need not take on the responsibility of thinking when composing sentences:

You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you — even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent — and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself. It is at this point that the special connexion between politics and the debasement of language becomes clear.

On the heels of the announcement that a deal has tentatively been struck to bail out Wall Street, John Kerry appeared on Fox News Sunday and put John McCain's campaign-suspending stunt into perspective:

Barack Obama was in constant touch with Secretary Paulson almost every single day, sometimes several times a day for the last two weeks. Barack Obama was the first person to speak and lay out at that meeting at the White House for about seven or eight minutes the entire parameters of what we had resolved. John McCain, when offered the opportunity to speak, passed, didn't speak until the very end, and when he spoke, did not offer a solution and did not say what he would support. The fact is that on a Monday of about a week ago, John McCain said the fundamentals of our economy are strong. Within a few days, John McCain was suspending his campaign because of the greatest crisis since World War II. He suspended his campaign and it took him 22 hours to get from New York to Washington, a one-hour flight, had time to go do Katie Couric in an interview, had time to give a speech to the Clinton millennium, and when he got here, he wound up -- I mean, he said he was going to interrupt his campaign to come down and save the negotiations. Most people believe what he did was interrupt the negotiations to come down and save his campaign.

Usually when Lindsey Graham is on TV flaking for McCain, he looks like he had a transfusion of Red Bull, but today on FOX NEWS Sunday, after some bad poll results came out for McCain, he was not his old self and gave a one line answer to Wallace's long question. Chris had to make up for his lack of answer and push him to continue, Graham then announced that Obama did great in the polls after the Friday debate, he replied, "I'm tired."

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Wallace: The early indication from polls are that the public in these polls that were taken overnight favored Obama---thought he did better. CBS News poll of uncommitted voters 39% thought Obama won, 24% thought, preferred McCain 24%, and 37 % thought it was a tie. And while voters thought Obama did better on the economy and McCain did better on foreign policy, Here is the bottom line. McCain's rating on being prepared to be president didn't change, but Obama had a 16 pt jump on that same question. Sen Graham. McCain keeps saying that Obama is not ready to lead, but according to the several polls voters watching the debate thought he was.

Graham: There's an 18 pt difference between who is best able to do the job, we'll take that. <then a silence>

Wallace: What you're saying is that even though Obama got more of a bump, there's still a lead...

Graham: It's Sunday and I'm tired and Sen Obama did well. Sen Obama helped himself according to the polls

Wallace: You can't be tired on Sunday morning, sir...(laughter)

He's tired on Sunday? Welcome to the club. I think it's frustration....This is another indication that they are not happy with the outcome of the debate.

USA TODAY/Gallop: Obama won

A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows 46% of people who watched Friday night's presidential debate say Democrat Barack Obama did a better job than Republican John McCain; 34% said McCain did better.

Obama scored even better -- 52%-35% -- when debate-watchers were asked which candidate offered the best proposals for change to solve the country's problems.

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On Real Time with Bill Maher's New Rules segment, host Bill Maher exhorts viewers not to assume the worst about John McCain just because of the color of his skin.

Now, take a look at these pictures. Here are the CEOs of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and the Lehman Brothers. I know the first thing that jumps out about these faces is that they all happen to be white, and they all happen to be responsible for stealing. But what you have to understand is that these whites are a product of a society that made them that way. It was the neighborhoods and the schools they went to: Harvard, Yale, the Wharton School of Business. They never learned the value of doing real, actual work and the first step to fixing that is better role models, so kids growing up white today don't think the only way out of Westchester is corporate crime. Or a government handout or sailing. So I get it, the temptation is to look at McCain and vote against him because you don't see an individual, you just see another typical welfare whitey.

And it's true, he's spent his entire life shuffling from one low-paying government job to another. Well, except those years he spent in prison. Typical! And between you and me, he's not very articulate. Oh, he may have some street smarts, but he's not what you call an educated man. He freely admits he's ignorant about the economy. And apparently the only thing his white running mate knows how to do is crank out one baby after another. And now of course, her teenage daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. Because she learns it at home! But that doesn't mean we should assume all white people are like that, just because so many of them are.

Full transcripts below the fold

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James Fallows: On strategy and tactics

Cutting Through The Crap: Calmness under fire, careful deliberation...since when?

The Osterley Times: John McCain is campaigning on change whilst telling us that change is dangerous

The Moderate Voice: The liberal Palin pity party, lies, and self esteem

The Peking Duck: What could be more unnerving than having your largest creditor begin pondering your financial demise?

It's fiscal meltdown time at The Opinion Mill's Weekend Bookchat! Learn about the con-man who caused the first banking collapse in America, and read about the book that all but prophesied the current collapse. There's a new creationist pseudo-textbook out, and we've got the reviews! Here's a story about the new India that Thomas Friedman would rather not read! All this and more!

Well, she's the gift that keeps on giving.

Sarah Palin told a customer at a Philadelphia restaurant on Saturday that the United States should "absolutely" launch cross-border attacks from Afghanistan into Pakistan in the event that it becomes necessary to "stop the terrorists from coming any further in," a comment similar to the one John McCain condemned Barack Obama for making during last night's presidential debate. During Friday's debate, Obama criticized the Bush administration for sending billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan without ridding the border region of terrorists.

McCain fired back hard, arguing that newly elected Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari has had his "hands full" and suggesting that Obama's tough talk was naïve.

"You don't say that out loud," McCain said. "If you have to do things, you have to do things, and you work with the Pakistani government."

Palin's apparent disagreement with McCain's position on Pakistan came as the Alaska governor was picking up a couple of cheesesteaks at Tony Luke's in South Philadelphia. She was approached by a man wearing a Temple University t-shirt, who later identified himself as Michael Rovito...read on

Too bad she wasn't on any of the post debate network wrap up shows. She would have given the media the "sound byte" they were looking for to endlessly loop. UPDATED: (Nicole)

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George Stephanopoulos asked John McCain about his running mate's loose lips and he reiterated his policy of not announcing attacks on a country ahead of time, to which Stephie pointed out that's exactly what Palin did. McCain's response?

"You know this business of .... in all due respect people, going around and, with sticking a microphone while conversations are being held and all of a sudden that's ... that's a person's position ...it, it's a free country but I don't think most Americans think that that's a definitive policy statement made by Governor Palin and I would hope you wouldn't either."

Translation: How dare anyone take her at her word? You know you shouldn't listen to her!