Heckuvajob Hankie

"I asked Hank Paulson -- who, by the way, in my judgment, is doing a fabulous job; he's got a lot of credibility and he's working, and his team are working hard...."

So says soon to be not soon enough non-president Bush quoted in today's WaPo.

Yep, they're workin' hard, them ol' boys. Workin' hard.

Another McSameism...

So says Paul Krugman:

OK, a correspondent directs me to John McCain’s article, Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American, in the Sept./Oct. issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries. You might want to be seated before reading this.

Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform:

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!

The State We're In

Siting here watching "The State We're In" with Brian Lees as a guest. Early on Lees has some nice things to say about John Olver but then descends into the Leesian babble, including his comments about Sarah, that makes me wonder how a guy with as much experience can continue to come off as a genuine doofus.

Lees remarked that during his time as minority leader the number of repubs in the Massachusetts legislature went down. Enough said.

Voting

With the primary Tuesday and the general election just a few weeks away, Rick Shenkman and Bryan Caplan give us pause when considering the educated, rational voter we all hope we are.

Northen Exposure

Listening to the rain and surfing the internets brings me to the Mudflats and a introduction to some Alaskan politics.
And you thought Amherst is interesting?

Olver gets ripped off

Tom Johnson, the chair of the NJ Repub delegation, just made the remark that what people want is a "work horse not a show horse" in promoting McSame's candidacy. Seem's they've cribbed from John Olver's past campaigns.

Cognitive Dissonance

538 experiences dissonance.

"I think some of you are underestimating the percentage of voters for whom Sarah Palin lacks the standing to make this critique of Barack Obama. To many voters, she is either entirely unknown, or is known as an US Weekly caricature of a woman who eats mooseburgers and has a pregnant daughter. To change someone's opinion, you have to do one of two things. Either, you have to be a trusted voice of authority, or you have to persuade them. Palin is not a trusted voice of authority -- she's much too new. But neither was this a persuasive speech. It was staccato, insistent, a little corny. It preached to the proverbial choir. It was also, as one of my commentors astutely noted, a speech written by a man and for a man, but delivered by a woman, which produces a certain amount of cognitive dissonance."

At least she didn't froth at the mouth like Rudy. The lighting and his facial expressions made him look like he could have a starring role in Nosferatu.

McSame opposes Palin -- the confusion continues

According to the LA Times:

"For much of his long career in Washington, John McCain has been throwing darts at the special spending system known as earmarking, through which powerful members of Congress can deliver federal cash for pet projects back home with little or no public scrutiny. He's even gone so far as to publish "pork lists" detailing these financial favors.

Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin.

Now, McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, has chosen Palin as his running mate, touting her as a reformer just like him...."

Now wait for it: A McSame spokesperson says Palin was "disgusted" that small towns like hers were dependent on earmarks. That will come as a major surprise to mayors and town managers across Massachusetts. Nor does it explain why she hired a lobbyist to pick up more funds.

Brad Delong is confused...

Grasping Reality with Both Hands:

John McCain wants to nominate his friend Joe Lieberman for vice president, is told that he cannot, and so he backs down and instead nominates somebody who takes their children to a church where they teach that suicide bombers in Tel Aviv are righteously executing God's vengeance on Israel for rejecting Jesus Christ.

Do I have it right?

I must say I am confused.