Joe the Plumber

It was really kind of a bizarre debate last night, with both candidates fixating on one guy who I actually thought was a metaphor. Turns out he wasn't, which I guess is good to know if you live in the Columbus, Ohio area.

But the real funny part about focusing on this guy as the "typical Ohio undecided voter" is this: He's not even registered to vote. And he already supported McCain! So he's neither undecided, nor a voter. *facepalm*

Take a look at this wonderful interview with Katie Couric, where Joe compares Obama to Sammy Davis, Jr:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Let's move beyond Joe, since it seems that's what the audience desperately wanted to do last night. According to Amy Sullivan in Time:

In politics it is generally not considered a good sign when voters are laughing at you, not with you. And by the end of the third and last presidential debate, the undecided voters who had gathered in Denver for Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg’s focus group were “audibly snickering” at John McCain’s grimaces, eye-bulging, and repeated references to “Joe the Plumber.”

The group of 50 uncommitted voters should have at least been receptive to McCain—Republicans and Independents outnumbered Democrats in the group by almost 4 to 1, and they started the evening with much warmer responses to McCain than to his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama. But by the time it was all over, so few of them had declared their support for McCain that there weren’t enough for Greenberg to separate them into a post-debate focus group. Meanwhile, the Obama supporters had to assemble in two different rooms to keep their discussion groups manageable.

That, of course, segues us nicely into the real muck: Who did better in the eyes of the undecideds? The answer was Obama in a rout. Whether it was because of McCain's bizarre answers - like when he said he doesn't think teachers should be certified - or his even more bizarre resemblance to Jabba the Hutt remains to be seen.

Nice eyeroll, John.

Back on the financial front, Wall Street will today try to deal with Wednesday's little 700 point hiccup. Financial Times are expecting yet more ups-and-downs, as the news just keeps changing seemingly hourly.

The good news, though? Consumer prices were flat in September, a nice surprise that has the market rallying early in today's session.

Happy Thursday, everyone.

EDIT: Thanks to our friends at Plunderbund, we find that Joe the hard workin' Plumber somehow has the day off. Check out their story for some (well-deserved) snark.

Debate Prep

No summary today, just some musings about tonight's debate. I suspect the tone is going to vary from "nasty" to "homicidal," if yesterday's McCain and Palin campaign stops are any indication. The GOP ticket has grown increasingly negative over the past week, and the crowds at yesterdays appearances have taken the tone and run with it.

During McCain's speech yesterday in Albuquerque, he trotted out his campaign's new theme: Who is Barack Obama? It's meant to be a rhetorical question, but one supporter decided to answer. Barack Obama is "a terrorist!" McCain, just as he took the cowardly route of saying nothing when Hillary Clinton was called "the bitch" back during the primaries, again stays true to form and keeps his trap shut.

(TalkingPointsMemo has the video on their Youtube channel*. And honestly, it would be funny if it weren't borderline criminal.**)

Remember, this is the guy who said he'd run a campaign that would elevate the discourse. Yet another lie, as it turns out.

But it doesn't end there, because while McCain was whipping up the hate in New Mexico Caribou Barbie was doing the same down on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Dana Milbank has it at The Post:

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy.

I can't ignore the obvious implications of a scene like that occuring in the Deep South. And I can't ignore the sheer irresponsibility of one of the two great political parties' leaders inciting their supporters to hate speech during a campaign. And I hope the American people don't, either, because even at our most assbackwards we should be made of better stuff than what McCain/Palin are playing on.

I hope that's what we see tonight after the debate. McCain/Palin have already shown they don't want to answer questions, while Obama/Biden have shown the opposite. Xenu willing, there will be a backlash.

* I tried to upload it, but it's being fickle. So you'll just have to give them more hits.
** McCain calling someone else angry? WTF?

Morning run-down

• NPR says that Palin walked away a winner in last night's debate because she didn't come off as a brainless bimbo. I don't think that, long-term, this is going to be a positive newscycle for the reeps. Call it a hunch.
• Peggy Noonan agrees, but for the love of god, it's Peggy Noonan! Let's just move on.
• Same with David Brooks.
  
• Over at the WaPo, Tom Shales is less impressed. He makes the salient point that Palin was really up there to debate her own public image moreso than Biden, and that she failed miserably in that regard since she wasn't able to answer anything with specifics. Even the talking heads noticed.
• Early snap-polls show that Biden won convincingly, but that the debate wasn't a "game-changer," which is how the hip kids say "it didn't mean shit."
  
• DailyKos diarist adennak seems to have the most accurate take on what actually went down:

• TheHill does the pregame show on today's House vote on the bailout after the market dropped 348 points yesterday.
• Paul Krugman drops some doom on all of us in his Op-Ed Edge of the Abyss.
  

  How bad is it? Normally sober people are sounding apocalyptic. On Thursday, the bond trader and blogger John Jansen declared that current conditions are “the financial equivalent of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution,” while Joel Prakken of Macroeconomic Advisers says that the economy seems to be on “the edge of the abyss.”

  And the people who should be steering us away from that abyss are out to lunch.

• Just found this courtesy of TMTGM: A "No Bailouts Bill" proposed by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore). Worth a read.
  

Happy Friday.

VP Debate Drinking Game

Borrowed from our friends at the BigSoccer.com politics forum, and modified a bit:

Drink when the following words are mentioned:

'George Bush'
'Alaska'
'Scranton'
'Bailout'
'Middle Class'
'Experience'
'Maverick'
'POW'
'God'
'Bridge to Nowhere'
'Troopergate'
'Plagiarism'
'Bush Doctrine'


Bonus Drinking: (If you really want to get drunk)

Drink whenever the name of a foreign leader is misspronounced.
Drink if there is a reference to Palin saying she was able to see Russia from Alaska.
Drink if there is a reference to Biden saying Roosevelt spoke on TV during the great depression.
Drink if there is a reference to Biden saying Hillary is a better VP choice than he is.
Drink if Biden mentins that John McCain is his close friend.
Drink if there is a reference to the number of people living in Wazilla, Alaska

Extra Bonus:

If there is any reference to Joe Biden's role in presiding over the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings, drink the whole ********ing bottle!