Some days the muse strikes. Other days I'm grazed and left with little more than a potpourri of tidbits and occasional snark. Today is an example of the latter. More below the fold:
1 - The Bush/Paulson economic bailout plan is dead. Good riddance. Those Democrats who voted against this thing were right to do so. I would have. Now we have a golden opportunity to put together something more intelligent.
2 - Don't let short-term market performance dictate your actions. By nature the stock market is overtly - almost comically - impulsive and panicky, not unlike John McCain. It also tends to change its mind at the drop of a hat. Indeed, the Dow is back up 230 points as I write this. Any decent financial advisor will tell you the stock market is a medium- to long-range investment vehicle. There's a good reason why.
3 - This is not to say we should do nothing. Unfortunately the actions of the buffoons in charge over the past few years have taken that option off the table. Given my strong libertarian leanings, that's a tough pill to swallow, but swallow it I must. Now's the time to draft an intelligent economic plan that addresses the trust issue in the financial sector, eases the credit crisis and provides for reasonable safeguards for at-risk homeowners. Once the situation is stabilized retain the oversight so it doesn't happen again, but otherwise get the government back out.
4 - When it comes to politics, it really is the economy, stupid. Surely someone other than me has noticed that McCain's precipitous drop in the polls coincides exactly with the timeline of the current crisis. His attempts to blunt that have been ineffective at best. I think he'd actually do better at this point by taking a week off.
5 - Sarah Palin is burnt and crispy. She won't provide anything further, good or bad, to McCain. Her supporters will remain her supporters. Her detractors will remain her detractors. That's pretty much it. The economic news has defined this campaign, and she's not about to bump that off the stage. As a result barring a serious gaffe from either side I suspect the VP debate will be rather anticlimactic.
6 - Palin will not be dropped from the ticket. She and the Republicans are stuck with - and truly deserve - each other.
7 - North Carolina and Indiana are swing states. Wow.
8 - With a month to go, polls are beginning to show double-digit leads for Obama. Double wow. Recall we ran a pretty craptacular presidential campaign four years ago and almost won. Obama's campaign is anything but.
9 - Turn and burn on the GOTV. Some of you have early voting now. (Not here in Idaho, but we do have same-day registration). Get 'em in and get 'em out. The higher the turnout, the better we do.
10 - Memo to Sen. Obama: don't color your hair. You pull off the gray well.