The wealth of the Palins overwhelms that of most Wasillans, according to the Washington Times:
Their combined income of nearly a quarter-million dollars last year was five times the median household income for Wasilla’s 7,000 residents. They own a single-engine plane, two boats, two personal watercraft and a half-million-dollar, custom-built home on a lake that is worth three times the average of other homes in town.
They couldn’t intimidate a local hospital, could they?
Here’s a very useful if somewhat terrifying discussion of the financial crisis from Princeton economists. It’s an hour long so maybe save it for later. But it helped me understand the whole thing better. And scared me more.
Kinda reassuring actually.
McCain plays it, knowing that the former president and his wife are desperate for him to beat Obama this November. It’s always, always about the Clintons, as many now realize. And they will do all they can to elect McCain and Palin.
Yglesias points his finger:
Paulson unilaterally unveiled a plan that, in its initial form, was completely unacceptable to legislative leaders in either party. And then, in a misguided effort to ramrod a bad bill through congress, he did the equivalent of strapping a bomb to the entire US economy by dramatically announcing that the entire banking system was on the verge of imminent failure.
Naturally, this had the effect of taking whatever real problems were growing and making them much more severe by creating a sense of panic. It did not, however, have the effect of transforming an unacceptable plan into an acceptable one. So congressional leaders wound up needing to meet privately and negotiate with Paulson anyway. Which is what he should have done in the first place. But in the interim, justified criticism of Paulson’s initial plan helped poison opinion against the (better) bill that eventually emerged. Had Paulson proceeded in a more reasonable manner from the get-go, I think it’s very possible that we wouldn’t be in this situation.
Harvard economist Edward Glaeser ponders housing prices.
Yep: that’s John McCain’s view. Do you think Reagan had heard of another SCOTUS decision apart from Roe? Do you think Bill Clinton was as bad a liar as Palin? Do you think either man would conduct an entire election campaign without ever holding a press conference?
Manzi wants to know what the Republicans’ next move is:
…apparently the House Republicans have decided to run a neat little experiment to test the actual odds of the current financial crisis turning into another Depression in the absence of a bailout plan.
What alternative do they propose that could realistically be enacted? How long do they think this would take, and what risks would we run during the period of uncertainty, even if it were successful?
Ramesh Ponnuru is worried that "the bailout bill that eventually passes includes all of the objectionable provisions that the Republican leadership stripped out of it, and then some."
"’Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers and yet when asked questions you spout off facts, figures and policies and I’m amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, "Does any of this really matter?"’ – Sarah Palin, to her opponent, Andrew Halcro, about her gubernatorial debate in Alaska.
Andrew Halcro suggests debate strategy:
Since the McCain campaign demanded changes in the debate rules to include shorter question and answer times and limited interaction between the two candidates to prevent any free flowing discussions, Biden needs to simply ignore Palin on stage and answer the questions as if he were the only one there.
Any attempt to flex policy knowledge to show Palin is not ready for prime time will inevitably cast him in the role as the bully.
On the other side of the stage, Palin simply needs to do what she’s always done best during debates: fill the room with her presence and stick to scripted sound bites. With limited interaction, thus less chance of going off message, Palin can definitely hold her own.
This is why we need a press conference. This debate was rigged to allow a know-nothing to mouth platitudes and charm. We need to know if she knows anything. And we need follow-ups.
"I think [Palin] has pretty thoroughly — and probably irretrievably — proven that she is not up to the job of being president of the United States. If she doesn’t perform well, then people see it. And this is a moment of real high anxiety, a little bit like 9/11, when people look to Washington for comfort and leadership and want to know that people in charge know what they are doing," – David Frum.
I’m unsure, at this point, if she could pass a citizenship test.
The Dish 