Joe Biden: McCain Lost and It'll Be Fatal

Future VP Joe Biden is taking it to little man McCain over his woeful debate. The last line, "John was on his strongest turf today and lost and I think it's going to be fatal."



Where was Palin to rebut Obama?

Debate Live Blogging

There is a good wrap up here at ThinkProgress, pointing out, minute by minute, all the mistakes, errors and misquotes. My summation: 5'7" insecure old guy beaten by future President Obama.

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Flashback: McCain came off like a bully, not very smart, wonder if he was thinking of this:

Ed Schultz: Palin "Clueless"

Radio host Big Ed Schultz tells his listeners about the 800 pound gorilla:

Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin.

The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as "disastrous." One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, "What are we going to do?" The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is "clueless."

That half day vetting process is paying off.

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Conservative Kay Parker To Palin: Bow Out

This is not picking on the dumb kid, this is objective. Sarah Palin is not in the same ballpark, city or even state of what a candidate needs to be. Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker has my back:

"Palin's recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I've been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I've also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there's not much content there."

She offers a bit of strategery to drop out:

"Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first."

Take heed, Sarah. These are sensible demands.

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Guilty Pleasure: Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Baron Cohen interrupted the fashion show of designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada in Milan making it onto the catwalk dressed as his alter-ego, Austrian model Bruno.



Cohen was in Milan filming Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Male. Can't wait.

Check out pictures of it all here

Stem Cell Alchemy Refined

Wired has an article on a stem cell breakthrough. Yay! for science. Don't tell the Jesus freaks. Does this mean they can unfreeze Ted Williams and Walt Disney now?

"It was the biggest stem cell breakthrough in a decade. No longer would tricky -- and ethically controversial -- manufacturing procedures be required to produce ultra-versatile stem cells. Cloning wouldn't be needed to produce personally customized embryonic stem cell lines, which remain as elusive as they are promising."

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McCain Still Running?

I didn't check, is McCain still running for President or did he postpone, or take a nap, or make a sandwich? It is Friday, maybe he took a long weekend with the wife.

Oh! wait, McCain won the debate that has not happened yet. I bet he will answer all the debate questions when he finally hears them tonight so his online ads will be a prophecy. The profit McCain!

I guess he used his good eye and looked into the future, came back and told his followers. Sounds a bit like fellow old guy Marshall Applewhite and his Heaven's Gate cult. Will the McCain campaign start wearing Nikes with the purple swoosh? Castrate themselves?

Running victory ads before you end up getting pummeled by Barack? Erratic? Foolish? That is the best way to describe Grandpy these days. “It just proves his campaign is governed by tactics and not ideology,” said Republican consultant Craig Shirley, who advised McCain earlier in this cycle. “In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The ’steady hand in a storm’ argument looks now to more favor Obama, not McCain.”

He was for it, then against it, then won it, then will have to actually do it. I guess it's the same as declaring victory in Iraq. Maybe he should have used Mission Accomplished in his web ads? His followers know that means victory before the fight has even begun.

Sarah Palin: The Disney Movie

Matt Damon joked Sarah Palin's candidacy was like a bad Disney movie, well CollegeHumor made the the movie trailer.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

If Only: The Palin Interview

The Charlie Gison interview redux, via Joe and Noah at 23/6:

Where Are The Chinese In This Bailout?

China has told its banks not to halt lending to US banks. You loaned us all the money to get in this problem, where's the love? You indulged America's nasty credit habit, we need another fix, man. But for real for real, interesting article at FireDogLake about how we borrowed the money, started a war and gave tax breaks to the rich and now we have the bill. But the rest of the world is not chipping in. Can you blame them?

Some nuggets:

So, long story short, the rest of the world doesn't feel much if any sympathy for the US about all this. You borrowed the money, you promised to pay it back, and now it looks like the stuff you gave everyone in exchange for all that money is mostly garbage, worth cents on the dollar. Your IOUs, in other words, are no good. Everyone knows they're getting stiffed, they're just trying to figure out how much they're getting stiffed for. Even if you're holding greenbacks, everyone knows that the currency is going to crash even further and also get eaten up by inflation.

And why the bailout is flawed:

Plus, of course, outsiders are noticing that the "bailout" bill is really just a huge transfer from taxpayers to the rich, and that even your own economists are saying it won't actually fix the problem. So why should they pour more money down the drain when it won't do any good?

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O'Neill: Bush Doesn't Get Financial Crisis, 'It Shows'

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said today that our nation's leaders, especially President Bush, are "in a panic" and haven't thought through the $700 billion bailout plan in a rush to pass it by the end of the week. Bush not understand a problem, really? Just like the Iraq War was supposed to pay for itself, so is the bailout. O'Neill offers some advice:

"It is possible to re-liquefy the credit system without 'We the People' owning $700 billion worth of homes"

Essentially, O'Neill said, we run the risk of become the largest owner of foreclosed properties in the world. For a guy who sounds like he understands the problems, sees how politicians pander, and calls on intelligent people to tell the truth, it's no wonder Bush fired him.

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McCain And Computers 2.0

via 23/6:

Spoof on Hal from Space Odyssey 2001 talking with Grandpy McLame.....

WaMu Fails, No One Blinks: Largest Bank Failure Ever

You know it's rough times when Washington Mutual is seized by the FDIC and it's not even close to the top story out there. This is the largest bank failure ever! I guess maybe because they knew it was coming after the stock dropped from $36.47 to its 52-week low close of $1.69.

And right on cue, in tough times, the bigger company, JP Morgan, steps in and buys WaMu's assets on the cheap. More consolidation of wealth.

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Sarah Palin: OMG. Dumb Thy Name Is Sarah

Follow the transcript below and feel the dumbest person actually sound dumber than you could ever believe. She simply rambles. They say Evangelicals speak in tongues, maybe this is it. Sarah Palin should be in the short bus back to Alaska.



Transcript:
"That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're 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."

Sarah Palin: Mental Midget

Feel how small Sarah Palin's brain is during this interview with Katie Couric as she tries to invent a Foreign Policy-By-Proximity magic story. Incoherent? Like a bratty kid in 5th grade, circumloquacious, with a slight condescending tone. [Note: Matthew Yglesias notes, "Moscow is closer to New York than it is to Anchorage. And yet nobody would say that NY Gov. David Paterson has extensive foreign policy experience thanks to his proximity to Russia."]

It used to be valedictorians would say "I'd like to be President", now the vapid D-student with good hair gets a shot. Old skool Republicans must be so proud of Country First McCain's choice. From Dr. Evil Cheney to this? 30 calculated years of neocons selling their souls all for this shit sandwich.


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John McCain's Left Eye?

John McCain's left eye is wonky, it's a bit closed and appears lower than his right eye. You can't help but notice it. Stroke? Tired? Either way, this campaign is killing him. Needs to postpone his campaign? Cancel Debates? Stays away from the press? Video stills are from press conference on Sept 24, 2008.

Bill Bennett: Ivy Educated Dick

Watch this video and see how Republicans are anti-elite, yet, go to Harvard and Yale. [See Yale and Harvard MBA alum George W. Bush]. Uber-dick Bill Bennett is a classic example: Williams College, Harvard Law, PhD in Philosophy. He was a former Secretary of Education under Reagan. All this education, yet he has contempt for intellectualism, even conservatives according to Bennett are not to be taken seriously. Takes balls as Stephen Colbert points out.