by Mark Silva

Bill Ayers, that "washed up terrorist,'' the way the McCain-Palin campaign wanted to portray an early supporter of Barack Obama in Chicago, or distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the way academics might rather portray the professor and veteran of 1960s protests, has some pointed criticism for Obama's choice for education secretary: Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan.

"I would have picked (Linda) Darling-Hammond, but then again I would have picked Noam Chomsky for State, Naomi Klein for Defense, (his wife and fellow former radical war protestor) Bernardine Dohrn for Attorney General, Bill Fletcher for Commerce, James Thindwa for Labor, Barbara Ransby for Human services, Paul Krugman for Treasury, and Amy Goodman for press secretary,'' Ayers writes in a blog posted at the Huffinton Post. "So what do I know?''

Our colleage at the Top of the Ticket, Andrew Malcolm, brought the good professor's column to our attention. In retrospect, it seems rather amazing that Ayers, a co-founder of the Weather Underground responsible for a variety of bomb protests of the Vietnam War in the 60s, could have become the lightning rod that he was for Obama during the presidential campaign. Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin helped make him one, variously labeling Ayers as a former and washed up "terrorist.''

"Obama is not a monarch,'' writes Ayers, who hosted a modest coffee for Obama when he was waging his first campaign for the state Senate in the 1990s and is a friend and neighbor on the South Side of Chicago. Ayers also ran the Annenberg Challenge, an educational reform effort in Chicago which included Obama on its board, and is a prolific writer on the subject of educational reform. So his criticism for Obama's nominee for education secretary should be interesting, at least, in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

"Arne Duncan is not education czar -- and we are not his subjects,'' Ayers writes in the HuffPost. ""If we want a foreign policy based on justice, for example, we ought to get busy organizing a robust anti-imperialist peace movement; if we want to end the death penalty we better get smart about changing the dominant narrative concerning crime and punishment....

"During Arne Duncan's tenure in Chicago, a group of hunger-striking mothers organized city-wide support and won the construction of a new high school in a community that had been underserved and denied for years,'' he writes. "Another group of parents, teachers, and students mobilized to push military recruiters out of their high school; Duncan didn't support them and he certainly didn't lead the charge, but they won anyway. If they'd waited for Duncan to act they likely be waiting still.

by Frank James

President-elect Barack Obama is due to make a major speech on the economy today at George Mason University in Northern Virginia just outside Washington, D.C.

It is essentially a call for support of what is expected to be a huge economic stimulus package he hopes to get enacted in the first few months of his presidency. He warns that if an economic stimulus isn't passed quickly enough, it may come too late to stave off a dramatic decline not of just the economy but the nation too.

His presidential transition office has released excerpts:

I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible. If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years. The unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. We could lose a generation of potential and promise, as more young Americans are forced to forgo dreams of college or the chance to train for the jobs of the future. And our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and standing in the world.

There is no doubt that the cost of this plan will be considerable. It will certainly add to the budget deficit in the short-term. But equally certain are the consequences of doing too little or nothing at all, for that will lead to an even greater deficit of jobs, incomes, and confidence in our economy. It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth, but at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy - where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.

By Peter Wallsten and updated at 4:05 pm with Bush statement

Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and brother of President Bush, has decided not to run for the U.S. Senate, ending weeks of speculation that he would preserve a Bush family power center in the nation's capital.

Unlike his older brother, Jeb Bush (pictured at left in an AP photo by John Raoux) left office with high approval ratings and a reputation as a master of policy. He was considered the GOP's strongest contender for the open seat being vacated by Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).

He spent much of this day calling friends and supporters to give them the news, according to one Republican close to the Bush family.

"There was a lot of support, and support from interesting places," Bush said in an interview, "but this would have been a bit detour in my life."

Republicans from Washington to Miami and Texas - including Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush, had hoped that the younger Bush would jump into the race.

Former President Bush told Fox News over the weekend that he saw the Florida Senate seat as a possible precursor to another family member winning the White House in the future.

"After thoughtful consideration, I have decided not to run for the United States Senate in 2010,'' Bush said in a statement released by his office this afternoon. ""While the opportunity to serve my state and country during these turbulent and dynamic times is compelling, now is not the right time to return to elected office.''

(Jeb Bush sits fourth from the right, rear row, in this Bush family photo taken at Camp David at Christmas. President Bush sits in the middle, their mother and father, the former president, to the left of the president. White House photo by Eric Draper.)

by Mark Silva

Will the new senator from New York, Sen. Clinton, please rise to take the oath of office?

Bill Clinton, that is.

Caretaker, for the seat of his wife, the former first lady, Hillary Clinton, leaving the Senate to become secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama.

That's one of the scenarios floating in New York, where Gov. David Paterson is presented with a difficult choice in the appointment of a successor to Hillary Clinton. So much attention has focused lately on Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, for the appointment that the governor is said to be growing weary.

Some caretaker agreeing to serve only the remainder of Clinton's term, someone such as the former president, say, or former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo "could have an immediate impact for New York in the Senate while letting the large field of hopefuls duke it out in 2010,'' according to three Democratic Party advisers close to the discussion with Paterson's inner circle on this issue, as cited by the Associated Press.

(Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) appeared with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, during an October campaign rally in Scranton, Pa. (AP Photo by Jimmy Ma)

by Mark Silva

There may be more than a few complications with Gov. Rod Blagojevich's appointment of Roland Burris to the open Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama:

1) The Senate's Democrats say they will refuse to seat Burris -- not because of anything wrong with the former state attorney general; to the contrary. It's not about Burris, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says -- it's about Blagojevich, who is under arrest by federal authorities for allegedly trying to sell Obama's seat.

2) The Illinois secretary of state, Jesse White, says he will not certify the governor's appointment. So, if it is not duly certified, there really is no appointment.

This is the form the Senate requires in matters such as this:

CERTIFICATE OF APPOINTMENT
To the President of the Senate of the United States:

I__ J__,
Secretary of State.

3) The rest of the economy may be hurting, but a whole new raft of lawyers may have just found some gainful new employment.

by Mark Silva

Is the New York Daily News attempting to "sandbag'' Caroline Kennedy with its transcriptual-reality reporting on the words of the woman seeking appointment to the U.S. Senate from New York?

""I'm really coming into this as somebody who isn't, you know, part of the system, who obviously, you know, stands for the values of, you know, the Democratic Party," Kennedy told the Daily News in one of the interviews that the daughter of President John F. Kennedy conducted with the media over the weekend.

"I know how important it is to, you know, to be my own person. And, you know, and that would be obviously true with my relationship with the mayor."

The Daily News' own columnist, Michael Goodwin, already is wishing Kennedy out of the running for Gov. David Paterson's appointment of a successor to Sen. Hillary Clinton, who will step aside to become secretary of state in the Obama administration, should the Senate confirm her, as expected. "Goodnight, Caroline,'' the columnist writes.

But News owner Mort Zuckerman insisted this morning that his paper is not "sandbagging'' Kennedy.

The candidate's words bear reporting, Zuckerman suggested in one of his frequent appearances on MSNBC's Morning Joe. He suggested that the interview was reminiscent of one that the candidate's uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, gave to Roger Mudd in 1979 when the correspondent went asking why Kennedy should be president - he couldn't really articulate an answer.

by Mark Silva

It could have been a certain candidate for vice president's inability to name any newspapers that she reads. Or it could have been those thousands of dollars of campaign-purchased designer-wear that the self-styled "soccer mom'' from Alaska wore on the campaign trail.

It could have been a winning candidate for president's portrayal of working class voters as "bitter,'' or the suggestion of this African-American candidate this his own beloved grandmother was "a typical white person.''

It could have been the Republican presidential nominee's admission, many months before claiming the party's nomination, that "the issue of economics is something that I've never really understood as well as I should,'' or his sudden "suspension'' of his campaign late in the contest to return to Washington to attend to an economic meltdown. David Letterman said it didn't meet "the smell test.''

It could have been the once-leading Democratic candidate's recollection of her landing in Bosnia under "sniper fire.'' Anyone can get tired campaigning late at night, her husband, the former president explained - raising certain questions about the way that "3 am telephone call'' might be handled at the White House.

Or perhaps it was the Beverly Hills reunion that a former presidential hopeful and former nominee for vice president had with the woman, a former campaign aide, with whom he had an affair while his wife was battling cancer.

Somewhere along the road to the White House, someone committed the "gaffe of the year'' in the campaign just concluded.

For the sake of the campaign cycle, we'll accept an extended period of time for that "year'' under consideration - reaching back to, say, April of 2007, when the eventual Republican nominee responded to a voter's question about sending "an airmail message'' to Iran with a whimsical recital of the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann... "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb...''

And we'll ask you, in the remaining days of this tumultuous year, to tell us how you rank the Top Five Gaffes of the Year. We offer these five for your consideration, and welcome your suggestions for any others, here in the Swamp. See our candidates below the fold, rank them, feel free to offer your own alternatives and come back on New Year's Day for a read-out on the year's rankings.

by Mark Silva

In that limited gene pool that has fueled American politics for several decades now - the Kennedy, Clinton and Bush clans - Caroline Kennedy maintains that she represents an "unconventional choice'' for the New York Senate seat of Hillary Clinton.

"I am an unconventional choice,'' the 51-year-old daughter of President John F. Kennedy told the Associated Press, in her debut on the "sit-down interview'' circuit as she seeks the seat that Clinton is forfeiting to serve as secretary of state for President-elect Barack Obama. "I understand that,'' Kennedy told the AP. "I haven't pursued the traditional path. But I think that in our public life today, we're starting to see there are many ways into public life and public service.''

She is a mother of three, an attorney, best-selling author and activist for education reform. Her children, she says, have been her highest priority for the past two decades. The nation's economic crisis, she says, will consume leaders for years.

"This is going to be a multiyear effort to fix this economic crisis. So in order to be effective, I would plan to stay at it," Kennedy said in an interview at the Gee Whiz diner not far from the World Trade Center in New York. "Between bites of a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich,'' the AP's Larry Neumeister reports, "Kennedy said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and her work for Barack Obama's presidential campaign inspired her to act on her public service impulses.''

She has asked New York Gov. David Paterson to appoint her to the Senate seat that Clinton will leave if she is confirmed as secretary of state. ""He encouraged me,'' she said. "He said he has a lot of qualified candidates.''

by Mark Silva

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Yes, Virginia, there is a Republican Party.

For all the celebration of the electoral landslide that will land President-elect Barack Obama in the White House in January - for all the victories won by Democrats in states that had not voted that way in many years (such as Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana), all three victories in the states where two-for-three is usually good enough (in Ohio, Pennsylvania and here in Florida) - the Republican Party has not been defeated.

Rather, it is in retreat.

For the moment, at this holiday lull between campaign and inaugural and legislative seasons, the best the party can offer is a firewall against the agenda of Obama and his party in the Senate, where the Democrats still stand shy of the 60 seats needed to overrule the opposition. That power was exerted in dramatic form earlier this month by Sen. Richard Shelby and friends, standing in the way of an auto-industry bailout that ultimately the White House had to handle - with a lame-duck President Bush relying on his own executive authority to carry out a bailout that his own party would not buy.

Fractured, but not defeated.

This party will regroup and rebuild in places such as Florida, where the former governor, Jeb Bush, is said to be giving serious consideration to seeking the open Senate seat of retiring Sen. Mel Martinez, an Orlando Republican who has fallen from favor and is stepping down in 2010 after only one term. The GOP will be particularly concerned about protecting that 40-vote firewall that Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia vowed to maintain in his own hard-fought runoff reelection, and they can start here.

For anyone who has known Jeb Bush a long time, the thought of him even thinking of the Senate came as a surprise - he is the chief executive's chief executive, not the go-along, get-along sort of compromiser that life in a legislature requires. Yet anyone who has known him also knows that he takes his politics, and more importantly, public policy, seriously. He sees a certain void in his party at the moment: An absence of someone in Washington with a pulpit to advance the opposition's cause in a reasoned and methodical manner. It's said he will let everyone know his intentions in the New Year.

Should he run, it won't be a runaway contest. One of the state's leading Democrats, the elected Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, also is eyeing the contest. Here in Florida, more than a few people would look at any contest between Sink and Bush as a rematch - her husband, Tampa attorney Bill McBride, challenged Bush in his reelection in 2002. McBride lost. Sink, a retired and successful banking executive, went on to win her own statewide office. She is undefeated - something that Bush cannot say (he lost his first bid for the governor's office, in 1994, to the incumbent Gov. Lawton Chiles.)

It may well take a Bush, however, or a popular Gov. Charlie Crist, to hold Florida's one Republican Senate seat in two years. It also could take a Sink to deny them.

In the meantime, the Republican Party stands in retreat - looking something like that sun over the far shore of the Ochlockonee River as it wends into the Gulf of Mexico, where the smoke of a slow, controlled burn in the Apalachicola Forest rises.

The GOP is going through that controlled burn at the moment.

But remember, Virginia, there still is a Republican Party.

by Mike Dorning and James Janega

Barack Obama told reporters today to wait until he's out of town on Christmas vacation in Hawaii for answers to questions on his advisers' dealings with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Asked at a press conference moments ago about how he squared his commitment to transparency in government with the tight-lipped response he and his advisers have had to questions about their dealings with the scandal-tarnished governor, Obama said that it has been "frustrating" to maintain silence but that the questions will be answered next week--which happens to be when he will be in Hawaii on break.

"It's a little bit frustrating. There has been a little bit of speculation in the press that I would like to correct immediately. We are abiding by the request of the U.S. Attorney's office," Obama said. "But it's not going to be that long. By next week, you guys will have the answers to all of your questions."

As Obama spoke, his political advisor David Axelrod and chief of staff designate Rahm Emanuel watched from the margins of the room. Axelrod stood motionless, hands on hips, a frown partially hidden by his moustache and his attention laser-focused on Obama as he spoke. Emanuel, who was checking a message on his Blackberry when the question was asked, smiled in faint amusement, put the Blackberry away and watched the rest of Obama's response with his legs crossed at his ankles, arms crossed and a single finger pressed across his lips. He was still smiling.

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin, Republican governor of Alaska, says she has wondered how long Rod Blagojevich, Democratic governor of Illinois, thought he might "get away with'' an alleged scheme to sell the Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama of Illinois.

"Now is the time, not just for governors, but, for all elected officials to try and start shoring up some trust with the electorate,'' Palin, the Republican Party's losing vice presidential nominee this year, says in an interview airing this evening on FOX News Channel's On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.

"You cannot be in this business to get rich...can't be in this business with anything but a servant's heart,'' Palin tells Van Susteren in the matter of Blagojevich. "I'm wondering how long the guy thought he was gonna get away with it."

Palin also says she has apologized to the pastor of her church in Wasilla, Ala., which burned down - if the "suspicious'' incident had anything to do with controversy that she stirred with her campaign. The church had fielded threats in the past, she says.

"I'll leave it to the pastor to speak to,'' Palin says in the FOX interview. "I apologized to the assistant pastor letting him know that if there's anything that I've done to draw negative attention to the church.''

This was a dangerous fire, she notes.

"There was a group of women... There were children in the church,'' she says. "They were the ones who first discerned that there was an obvious problem with the fire alarms going off and looking down the hall and seeing fire... It became pretty obvious near the very beginning of this whole episode that this was suspicious because there were just too many things taking place that evening."

by Bob Secter

Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to be White House chief of staff, had conversations with Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration about who would replace Obama in the U.S. Senate, the Chicago Tribune has learned.

The revelation does not suggest Obama's new gatekeeper was involved in any talk of dealmaking involving the seat. But it does help fill in the gaps surrounding a question that Obama was unable or unwilling to answer this week: Did anyone on his staff have contact with Blagojevich about his choice for the Senate seat?

Blagojevich and John Harris, his former chief of staff, face federal charges in an alleged shakedown involving the vacant Senate seat, which Illinois law grants the governor sole authority to fill.

Obama said Thursday he had never spoken to Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy and was "confident that no representatives" of his had engaged in any dealmaking over the seat with the governor or his team. He also pledged Thursday that in the "next few days" he would explain what contacts his staff may have had with the governor's office about the Senate vacancy.

Emanuel, who has long been close to both Blagojevich and Obama, has refused to respond to questions about any involvement he may have had with the Blagojevich camp over the Senate pick. A spokeswoman for Emanuel also declined to comment Friday.

One source confirmed that communications between Emanuel and the Blagojevich administration were captured on court-approved wiretaps.

Another source said that contact between the Obama camp and the governor's administration regarding the Senate seat began the Saturday before the Nov. 4 election, when Emanuel made a call to the cell phone of Harris. The conversation took place around the same time press reports surfaced about Emanuel being approached about taking the high-level White House post should Obama win.

Emanuel delivered a list of candidates who would be "acceptable" to Obama, the source said. On the list were Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, Illinois Veterans Affairs director Tammy Duckworth, state Comptroller Dan Hynes and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Chicago, the source said. All are Democrats.

(Photo of White House Chief of Staff-designate Rahm Emanuel at a news conference in Chicago last week by Charles Dharapak / AP)

by Mark Silva

Could President-elect Barack Obama be one of the cleanest politicians from one of the dirtiest states in America?

To hear a prominent FBI agent tell it, Illinois is hard in the running for the latter category:

"If it isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor," said Robert Grant, special agent in charge of Chicago's FBI office, after the arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, accused of trying to sell an appointment to the vacant Senate seat that Obama has left behind. "Even the most cynical agents in our office were shocked."

Indeed, as the Tribune Washington Bureau's David Savage reports, Americans can trace the origin of popular elections of U.S. senators to a scandal in Illinois that involved, of course, selling an appointive Senate seat.

The way a federal affidavit tells it, Blagojevich had upped the ante considerably since the days of Chicago's "Blond Boss,'' ousted from the Senate in 1912. Nearly a century later, a federal affidavit claims, Illinois' governor was taped on a telephone call the day before the election of Illinois' junior senator to the presidency calling the Senate seat "a [expletive] valuable thing. You just don't give it away for nothing."

Obama, for his part, maintains that he had never discussed the appointment of his replacement with Blagojevich, portrayed by federal prosecutors as offering the seat to the highest bidder in the land of Lincoln.

"Gov. Blagojevich has been arrested in the middle of what we can only describe as a political corruption crime spree," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said at a news conference. He said the governor's conduct would make [ Abraham] Lincoln roll over in his grave."

Worse than Louisiana, where a congressman lost his seat after investigators found cash stuffed in his freezer? Louisiana and Illinois have at least this in common: Two former governors, imprisoned, seeking clemency from the president of the United States.

Fomer Democratic Gov. Edwin Edwards of Louisiana, sentenced to 10 years in prison on racketeering charges in 2001, is seeking a shortened prison term. -- he has applied to the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney for a commutation of his sentence.

Former Republican Gov. George Ryan of Illinois, who started serving a 6½-year prison sentence last year after a federal racketeering and fraud conviction, is seeking a pardon. And his supporters are pressing President George W. Bush, who has been more selective than most presidents in modern times with his pardon power, for relief.

Ironically, Blagojevich, a Democrat, is among those calling for a Ryan pardon: "I always err on the side of compassion," Blagojevich said during a Thanksgiving stop at the Chicago Christian Industrial League. "I think people make mistakes. George Ryan has paid a significant price for those mistakes. And if President Bush makes that decision, I think it would be a fine decision.''

Caroline Kennedy waves to the crowd after stumping for then Sen. Barack Obama at the Wilkes University student center in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Kristen Mullen, The Citizens' Voice)

by Frank James

It's easy to understand some of what must be tugging on Caroline Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy's daughter who, according to reports, is considering seeking the Senate seat from New York being vacated by Sen. Hillary Clinton, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be his secretary of state.

A Kennedy has served in the Senate since 1952 when her father was first elected to the body, with only a brief interruption after JFK was elected president.

But her uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy has an incurable brain cancer and is 76. The easiest way to ensure that the Kennedy Senate tradition continues would be for her to have New York Gov. David Patterson appoint her to fill the seat.

Of course, the seat being vacated by Clinton was once occupied by Kennedy's other uncle, Robert F. Kennedy, so that's quite possibly another draw.

by John McCormick and Mike Dorning

As he hosted a gala celebration for some of his earliest and most loyal financial supporters Thursday evening, President-elect Barack Obama's aides released new information showing the magnitude of their feat: They raised nearly $1 billion for his campaign and other election-related efforts.

The stunning total includes already recorded and estimated fundraising for his campaign, national convention, transition and upcoming inauguration.

That sets a new and dramatically higher bar for future presidential candidates, radically changing the financial definition of a serious bid for the White House.

Roughly three-quarters of the money Obama raised was directly channeled to his campaign, a marathon that lasted nearly two years and ushered in an unprecedented level of national fundraising using old-school techniques as well as a cutting-edge, Internet-based operation.

A disclosure report filed late Thursday showed Obama raised $111 million from Oct. 16 through Nov. 24.

That brings his campaign total receipts to $770 million, easily more than the combined fundraising for the 2004 election by President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

By Andrew Zajac

Most of the attention paid to the Justice Department these days focuses on its future in a new administration, presumably under the leadership of Eric Holder, President-elect Obama's pick for Attorney General to replace caretaker AG Michael Mukasey.

Holder will have his plate full restoring morale in the 110,000-employee agency plagued by scandal, including the unprecedented firings of nine U.S. attorneys and politicized hiring for civil service posts.

He also may inherit an unpleasant reminder of the partisan handiwork he'll be trying to undo.

by Mark Silva

All politics really are local, Nielsen suggests.

With a look at the overall TV campaign ad-buys of the Obama and McCain campaigns. (This doesn't account for the ads placed by the political parties or supporting organizations, as if this number is not big enough.)

President-elect Barack Obama placed 155 percent more "spot" TV ads in local media markets than Sen. John McCain did during their general election contest (early June through early November), according to Nielsen

It's not really surprising, in that the real contest for the presidency was waged in a dwindling number of battleground states that began with about 16 or 17 and shrunk to a handful in the final days. The deluge of ad-buys came in Ohio, Florida and the like.

This is Nielsen's tally:

SPOT TV BUYS (6/08 to 11/08):

OBAMA - 419,667

MCCAIN- 269,992

Yet the Republican nominee kept pace with Obama in cable and broadcast network TV ad buys if one looks back as far as January: (Going back to January, the two candidates aired a total of about 850,000 TV ads.)

CABLE AND NETWORK TV BUYS (1/08 to 11/08):

OBAMA - 3004

MCCAIN - 2868

by Mark Silva

How quickly we forget the last election:

Someone already has Iowa on his mind, or at least his itinerary.

Bobby Jindal, the young Republican governor of Louisiana, is making a traditional pilgrimage some 37 months away from the next Iowa caucuses. But really, things are more urgent than they seem: The Republican Party's Straw Polll in Ames is only 32 months away -- as our colleague Andrew Malcolm at The Ticket notes.

Jindal appeared at a fundraiser for the Iowa Family Policy Center at the Sheraton Hotel in West Des Moines. "The 37-year-old Jindal made light of the occasion, of course, joking to some 800 curious listeners that it was way too soon to be making political speeches,'' Malcolm notes, with MSNBC's First Read attributing this suggestion to Jindal: "You might want to consider getting involved in some kind of recovery program.''

"But, of course, that's exactly what he was doing anyway in the form of speaking about family,'' the Ticket adds of a party undergoing its own post-election recovery program. "As a parent," said Jindal, knowing his conservative audience had precisely the same feelings, "I'm acutely aware of the overall coarsening of our culture in many ways."

And he did add this:

"'Whether you voted for him or not," Jindal said of the incoming president, Democrat Barack Obama, "whether you supported the new leaders of Congress or not, they're our president. They're our Congress. They need our prayers. They need our support."

(Photo of Gov. Bobby Jindal and family by Associated Press.)

by Josh Drobnyk

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell today reiterated his pledge to stay in Harrisburg until 2011, saying that public officials make "an implied promise" to serve out their terms when they seek election.

So does the same go for, say, a certain senator from New York, who could well be offered the chance to leave her job mid-term? Rendell was asked.

Not quite, he responded.

"I think the senators don't have the type of executive responsibility that a governor has," Rendell said. "You are electing a governor or mayor to run things. I don't mean to demean what senators do, but it is pretty easy to raise your right hand or press that button to vote. It is a little different than running the state or running the city."

Rendell, for the record, said Sen. Hillary Clinton would "be good for any job out there in the field of government or politics."

"If it is New York's loss in one sense, because she has been a great senator, New York will gain because of the things she will do to repair this country's relationship with the world," he said.

He said he has yet to talk with Clinton about her potential appointment as secretary of state, but that she plans to come to the late Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll's memorial at the end of the week.He said the two were close friends. Knoll died last week at 78 after a four-month bout with cancer.

by Rick Pearson and Bob Secter

Barack Obama won election to the Illinois Senate in 1996 with no help from Richard Daley. The Chicago mayor offered no assistance to Obama in 2000 when he ran unsuccessfully for Congress. Most of Daley's friends, family and associates backed a different candidate in 2004 when Obama won the U.S. Senate primary.

Yet to have heard Obama's rivals on the presidential campaign trail tell it over the last many months, the two Chicago Democrats have been virtually joined at the hip for years.

There may be no more enduring caricature in politics than that of the Chicago machine led by a powerful mayor with life or death say over the careers of an army of the city's elected officials. But that simplistic image never really applied to the complex, cordial but historically less than intimate political relationship between the men who are now Chicago's two most prominent Democrats.

Before Obama hit the political big time four years ago, he was largely irrelevant to Daley and even bucked the mayor's perceived interests on occasion without repercussions. For the most part, Daley's interests were more parochial than Springfield or Washington.

While Obama never relied on city patronage workers passing out palm cards, his ascension as an outsider was aided by powerful people who also were key players inside Daley's sphere of influence. And as Obama gained prominence, the interests of the next Oval Office occupant and the current inhabitant of the fifth floor of City Hall have grown closer.

See the rest of the story on Obama and Daley in today's Tribune and here:

by Andrew Zajac

Senate Democrats face long odds to reach the 60 seats they crave to make their majority filibuster-proof, but you wouldn't know it from the intensity of the rhetoric in the run-up to the Dec. 2 run-off election in Georgia for the seat currently held by Republican Saxby Chambliss.

Chambliss was the top vote-getter but he fell just short of the 50 percent required for an outright win, so he's matched up against Democrat Jim Martin, whose party is still smarting from the hardball and some say below-the-belt tactics the GOP employed to dispatch the then-incumbent, Max Cleland, in 2002.

President-elect Barack Obama in Chicago's Grant Park on Election Night. (Chicago Tribune photo by Nuccio DiNuzzio.)

by Frank James

It's the morning after one of the most memorable days in American history and we're still too close to it to have as much perspective as we would like.

President-elect Obama. It still seems unreal to many of us that the nation will have a president who is African-American come January 20.

But the realities of what Obama faces are daunting: an economy in recession, two wars, an existential terrorist threat, an energy crisis, global warming, belligerent nation states with leaders who will indeed test him, a deeply divided nation.

Obama knows many of the details of what he faces. But so much is unknowable.

We can only hope that he's the right leader for the moment because many Americans have the sense that we have to get the next four years mostly right or face the real prospect of becoming a superpower in the declining phase of its trajectory.

Your thoughts?

By Andrew Zajac

The Swamp offers this thought to cheer, or perhaps depress, students of the American political process now on the verge of a lull in the action after one of the longest presidential campaigns in U.S. history:

If John McCain wins, you're likely looking at a campaign to succeed him begin soon after he's sworn in, like maybe right after the dancing stops at the inaugural balls.

by Jason George

WASILLA, Alaska -- Stopping for a coffee at the Mocha Moose, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told reporters she's not sure if she'll have a role in national politics if she and Sen. John McCain don't win today's election.

"You know if there is a role in national politics, it won't be so much partisan," she said, 15 minutes after voting at the Wasilla City Hall where she once served as mayor.

"My efforts have always been here in the state of Alaska to get everybody to unite and work together," she added. "It certainly would a uniter type of roll"

Asked if she had any regrets in this campaign, Palin first said wished she had "more hours in the day so we could've gotten around to more areas of our country." She then seemed to find her preferred answer: blaming the media.

Palin said she was disappointed with much of the reporting about her.

"The state of journalism today, the world, for the blogosphere, the 2-3-hour news cycles, where just too much is reported based on gossip and innuendo and things taken out of context," she said.

She then suggested that her next role might be righting the wrongs she sees in journalism.

"I'd like to help in that effort also because I have great respect for the world for journalism."

She then said no more questions and left.

by Frank James

The highly regarded Ohio Poll sponsored by the University of Cincinnati predicts that Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, will win Ohio.

If Obama does beat Sen. John McCain in Ohio, it would represent a seismic shift in presidential politics since no Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio.

President Bush relied on Ohio to deliver the votes that allowed him to defeat Sen. John Kerry in 2004 and give him a second term. If Obama wins Ohio, it's difficult to see McCain winning in enough other places to capture 270 Electoral College votes and it could point to an Electoral College landslide and a relatively early call of the presidential race tomorrow evening.

An excerpt from their press release:

Cincinnati, OH--The final Ohio Poll for the 2008 election season finds Senator Barack Obama likely towin Ohio's 20 electoral votes.

In 95 of 100 cases, the statewide estimates will be accurate to plus or minus 2.7 percent.

by Andrew Zajac

Companies affiliated with the family of Gene and Nora Lum, who were convicted of making illegal campaign contributions in a Democratic fundraising scandal a decade ago have donated at least $4,800 to the campaigns of Michael Brown, a candidate for Washington D.C. city council, who pleaded guilty in the same scandal.

Brown, the son of the late Ron Brown, a Clinton administration Commerce Secretary and one-time head of the Democratic National Committee, is seeking an at-large seat on the 13-member DC council.

by Frank James

Sen. John McCain has gone after Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nominee's use of the words "spread the wealth" when the senator from Illinois explained his tax plan to Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher.

I just happened to be reading over the weekend an interesting New York Times Magazine piece by writer David Leonhardt from August on Obama's economic philosophy and came across the phrase "spreading the wealth," a usage which predated Obama's Joe-the-Plumber encounter.

Obama is quoted using the words in the article. Instead they were used by a NYT magazine editor who wrote a subhead that appeared over part five of the article, a lengthy passage describing a key piece of Obama's plan, the idea that he wants to use the tax code to reverse some of the growing income inequality that has become more pronounced in the last decade which has seen the rich get richer as the middle class and the poor have seen their incomes stagnate.

by Frank James

Political analyst Charlie Cook is about the closest Washington political culture has to the opera's singing fat lady. (Don't read too much into that Charlie.) He tends to be right so he tends to be listened to.

So his column in the National Journal yesterday was really noteworthy because he came as close to saying the presidential race is over as you can without saying it's over.

For a political analyst, the normal posture this time of year is much like a baseball umpire's: hunched over, peering carefully as the ball approaches the plate, watching for whether it breaks left or right, whether it's coming in high or low. But, these days, we analysts are more like outfielders, watching in awe as a ball seems on a trajectory to not only clear the fence but very likely land in the upper deck.

by Frank James

OK, I'll admit I didn't know there was a legal sub-specialty field called fashion law but evidently there is.

Susan Scafidi, a legal scholar in that field and a visiting professor at the Fordham University Law School, has an observation on the news that the Republican National Committee paid $150,000 to outfit Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate.

"In our image-based society, the packaging of a candidate requires strategic spending on visuals, from stage makeup to backdrops to podiums at a flattering height -- and yes, costumes. As a result, it's difficult to argue that the RNC's purchase of clothing for Sarah Palin is an inappropriate expenditure on items for personal use, especially if they really do go to charity after the campaign. Still, given that neither party has given its male candidates a wardrobe makeover, the $150,000 spent at Saks and Neimans reinforces the unfortunate impression that Governor Palin is merely the conservatives' favorite dress-up doll."

Scafidi obviously knows a sound-bite when she sees it.

by Christi Parsons and Frank James

RICHMOND, VA -- At his press conference in Richmond today, Sen. Barack Obama hit two interesting points: he answered the Joe Biden question about whether the world would test him if he were president, and he spoke to the economic points Sen. John McCain is raising in New Hampshire today.

"Sometimes Joe engages in rhetorical flourishes," Obama said of his vice presidential running mate. "But his core point was that the next administration is going to be tested, regardless of who it is. The next administration is going to inherit a whole host of really big problems... The president is going to be tested... the question is whether the next president will meet that test."

by Mark Silva

Yes, Virginia, there is a "South Park Republican.''

And, yes, Democrats are paying the closest attention to The Colbert Report.

Nielsen's IAG Service, which tracks the "engagement'' of vieweres in a a TV show - how much content people can recall after watching it - has found that, among cable TV vewers, Republicans are most engaged with the Comedy Central program, South Park. And the show that Democrats are watching most closely is Comedy Central's Colbert Report.

At the same time, the cable programs with the highest engagement scores have a bipartisan appeal - which goes to figure, wider announcement, more engagement.

The Cleaner, on Arts and Entertainment, has the highest "bipartisan engagement,'' followed by Bravo's Real Housewives of Orange County and the Food Channel's Next Food Network Star.''

by Frank James

Rush Limbaugh took after Christopher Buckley for supporting Sen. Barack Obama. The radio man ridiculed the son of conservative icon William Buckley for the compliments Buckley paid Obama's mind.

by Frank James

So many critics have spent the last week or so demolishing the McCain-Palin line of attack that Sen. Barack Obama wants to give "welfare" in the form of tax credits to people who don't pay income taxes, you would think the Republican ticket would've given up on that one and moved on to another attack line.

You would be wrong.

Stand-ins for Barack Obama and John McCain during final preparations for the presidential debate at Hofstra University, October 15, 2008 in Hempstead, N.Y. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

by Frank James

If there's anything to be thankful for today, it must surely be that we have reached the end of the the line with the last of the three presidential debates between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain occurring tonight.

The first two debates were so uninspiring, despite all the advance hype, it would be foolish to hold out hope that tonight's debate at 9 p.m. ET at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. will be any different.

Yes, McCain, the Republican nominee, is promising to come out swinging since he has fallen steadily behind his Democratic rival in the polls.

But the senator from Arizona has seen the same polls everyone else has, the ones that say his favorability ratings have declined versus Obama in recent weeks. The drop correlates with McCain and his running mate Gov. Sarah Palin's attacks on the Democrat over William Ayers, the former 1960s radical who Obama once served with on a education foundation board's.

That means McCain must walk a tightrope as he tries one last time in a debate setting to raise doubts in voters' minds about Obama without turning off independent and undecided voters.

Also, tonight's format is going to have the men sharing a table with CBS News' Bob Schieffer. That physical arrangement likely will make it more difficult for McCain to be slash at Obama.

For his part, Obama just has to continue to remain cool, which shouldn't be any problem for him. According to polls, he won the two previous debates and his calm, collected demeanor are largely responsible for that. He appears unflappable, unexcited at a time when the economy has left many others anxious, feeling unmoored.

Tonight's debate comes against a backdrop of the still uncertain financial markets, an economy widely believed to be in recession, and coordinated measures by policymakers in the world's leading economies, including the U.S., to restore confidence in the banking systems.

by Frank James

The McCain campaign has a new negative web ad which seeks to further its effort to fuel questions in some voters' minds about Sen. Barack Obama. It's all a part of the "who is the real Obama?" theme the Republican nominee's campaign has been frenetically pushing in recent days.

The ad's thrust is that Obama knew Ayers better than the Democratic nominee has let on. Of course, the conclusion it hopes voters will reach through this allegation is that Obama hasn't been forthcoming on his ties to Ayers so how could he possibly be trusted in the Oval Office?

There's no news in the ad. The only news is that the McCain campaign is spending another day on this as economic anxieties continue to dominate voters' concerns.

Maybe the McCain campaign is hoping voters will transfer their worries about the economy to Obama and McCain's stock will rise as voters head into polling places a few weeks from now.

These web ads are made in part so journalists like me will pick them up and run with them, since we're suckers for them, which helps to spread them. So it's mission accomplished for the McCain people.

Here's the ad's transcript:

Script For "Ayers" (WEB :90)

When their relationship became an issue, Obama just responded, "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood."

by Frank James

A lot of people thought last night's debate was really bad. Among them: Jim VanderHei and John Harris, the journalists who run the Politico.

A large excerpt:

With the country at one of its most interesting--not to mention terrifying--moments in a generation, John McCain and Barack Obama met in Nashville for what was surely one of the dullest and was definitely the least satisfying presidential debate in memory.

But the Belmont University showdown was something entirely different. Place the gravity of the moment next to the blah-blah-blah artifice of the rhetoric and overall insubstantiality of the evening and this is what you get: The worst presidential debate ever.

No wonder my eyes were crossing about halfway through. Actually, they started crossing earlier than that.

The writers fault the Commission on Presidential debates:

It would be hard to cook up a duller way of debating than we witnessed last night. The commission allowed the cautious handlers of the presidential campaigns to negotiate a format designed to limit improvisation, intellectual engagement and truth-telling.

It's not Brokaw's fault. Or Jim Lehrer's or Gwen Ifill's. The problem is the commission that has been invested with pseudo-constitutional status to run the debates but in fact weakly defers to candidates and clings to antiquated formats. No serious candidate would skip a debate. So the commission should use its leverage to insist that the debates are interesting to voters, rather than safe for candidates. Allow moderators to be more aggressive - and call-out candidates for lame answers- and then allow the candidates to go at it over the issues that matter most without time constraints.

by Frank James

by Frank James

The second presidential debate between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain comes at a time in the race when the Democratic presidential nominee has taken a significant lead in national polls though it's still in the single digits.

As the two men meet in Nashville at Belmont University tonight, their backdrop is a nation of rising economic worries, with companies shedding jobs, rising housing foreclosures, tight credit markets and declining values on Wall Street .

Thus, the economy will likely be the debate's main focus though not exclusively.

The debate, which starts at 9 pm ET, will be take the form of a town-hall meeting. This is McCain's favorite format so that would argue for him having a lot of confidence tonight. But Obama has done town-hall meetings too, so the format shouldn't necessarily give the Republican nominee that big an advantage.

So what are five things Obama and McCain need to do tonight besides avoiding any obvious gaffes?

-- Obama will help himself hugely if he connects with the voters in the room and the greater television audience beyond. He's no Bill Clinton, he's not warm and folksy by nature. But if he can make a connection tonight, that could help him win over some undecided voters. Look for him to approach members of the audience tonight as he answers their questions in an attempt to show he feels their pain. As he tries to make that connection, however, Obama can't shift too much. By most polls, he won the first debate. Clearly what he's doing is working. So he doesn't need to make any major changes since one of his strengths is his calm and collected demeanor. In 2000, Al Gore made the respect of markedly changing his approach from one debate to the next, which turned a lot of voters off.

-- Both candidates have to present a credible approach for reviving the financial markets and the overall economy that goes beyond the recently passed $700 billion bailout legislation. In the last debate, they allowed it to become a competition over their respective campaigns' economic talking points which got lost in the weeds. Without getting too granular, they need to tick off a few major points about what they would do. But most importantly, they need to project confidence and courage about the economy. McCain particularly has to do more to convince voters that he's got real answers for the current economic plight since as economic concerns have risen, his polling numbers have fallen.

by Frank James

Sen. John McCain continued his try and sow seeds of doubt about Sen. Barack Obama in voters' minds. He was doing so much sowing in Albuquerque, New Mexico he was a veritable Johnny Appleseed of questions about Obama, indignantly asking not only where his rival came from but where he would lead the country.

It was pretty hard-hitting and if it was any indication of what we can expect tomorrow at the second presidential debate, then that event has the potential to be pretty heated.

Here's some of what McCain said:

SEN. MCCAIN: My friends, I set out on my own campaign for president many months ago. I promised at the beginning to be straight with the American people, knowing that even those who don't agree with me on everything would expect at least that much. I didn't just show up out of nowhere. (Cheers.) After all, America knows me. You know my strengths and my faults. You know my story and my convictions....

by Frank James

A clearly buoyant Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sat for an interview with Fox News's Carl Cameron in the wake of her vice presidential debate with Sen. Joe Biden which she survived quite well, especially since the expectations for her were pretty much at sea level.

Palin had great things to say about her first and perhaps last meeting with Biden. Listening to what she told Cameron, last night's debate was definitely good times. Here's an excerpt from the rush transcript provided by Fox News with the time codes. I haven't cleaned it up:

PALIN: 11: 00:10 There was a lot of eye contact and it was pleasant and it was, "Hey you know we're both in this together. We both understand what each other would be going through at this time." 11:00:19 Kinda wondering what's coming next, what Gwen is gonna ask us next. 11:00:23 So that connection, it was some good chemistry, and again at least I had a ball. It was fun.

But while she had good things to say about Biden, she wasn't showing Katie Couric a whole lot of love. Indeed, speaking of herself in the third person, she said the Palin in the Couric interviews was "annoyed" by the way Couric asked questions and followups.

Here's another excerpt:

PALIN: 11:04:41 Ok I'll tell you honestly the Sarah Palin in those interviews is a little bit annoyed because it's like, man, no matter what you say you're going to get clobbered. 11:04:49 If you choose to answer a question you are going to get clobbered on the answer. 11:04:53 If you choose to try and pivot and go on to another subject that you believe that Americans want to hear about you get clobbered for that too. 11:05:00 But in those Katie Couric interviews I did feel that there were a lot of things that she was missing in terms of an opportunity to ask what a V.P. candidate stands for. 11:05:09 What the values are represented in our ticket. I wanted to talk about Barack Obama increasing taxes which would lead to killing jobs. 11:05:18 I wanted to talk about his proprosal to increase government spending by another trillion dolars. Some of his comments that he has made about the war that I think may, in my world disqualifies someone from consideration as the next commander in chief. 11:05:32 Some of his comments about Afghanistan and what we are doing there supposedly -- just air raiding villages and killing civilians. That's reckless. 11:05:41 I wanted to talk about things like that. So I guess I have to apologize about being a little annoyed but that is also an indication of being outside that Washington elite, outside of the media elite also and just wanted to talk to Americans without the filter and let them know what we stand for. 11:05:55"

by Frank James

Our Media Curves research friends got real-time responses from more than a thousand self-identified Democrats, Republicans and independents last night during the vice presidential debate between Sen. Joe Biden an Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

The respondents responding by cell-phone in real-time indicated that Biden won on the issues that were tested with the all important independent group time and again. Here are some of the results.

Palin bingo. Why didn't we think of that? Someone has created bingo cards that contain a lot of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's favorite words and phrases like "hockey mom, maverick and glass ceiling." This could be fun.

A similar board could be made for Sen. Joe Biden, of course with some of his favorite words and phrases like "literally, ladies and gentleman, judgment and John" meaning McCain.

By Andrew Zajac

One of the weird little ironies in the massive failure of political leadership in Monday's defeat of the Wall Street bailout package involves the role of Republican Minority Leader John Boehner.

After striking a deal with Democrats, Boehner was unable to deliver his caucus. Somewhere, Vernal Riffe and Corwin Nixon are groaning and rolling their eyes.

Boehner has spent the last 17 years in the House, but he cut his political teeth in the Ohio House of Representatives under legendary Democratic Speaker Riffe and Minority Leader Nixon, a canny survivor of numerous plots against him by his own colleagues.

If Boehner learned nothing else from them, he should have learned how to count votes.

by Frank James

A new TV ad from Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign strives to tie Sen. Barack Obama to the nation's current economic anxiety by linking him to the subprime mortgage crisis which helped trigger the current financial quagmire by claiming that while the Republican nominee tried to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the Democrat stood by "silent."

Called "Rein In," as in rein-them-in, the ad even features video of former President Bill Clinton blaming Democrats for impeding reform of the two government-sponsored enterprises that were taken over by the federal government a few weeks ago after they faced insolvency.

Here's the ad's transcript:

ANNCR: John McCain fought to rein in Fannie and Freddie.

JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.

by Frank James

Take it for what it's worth, but according to the traders at Intrade Sen. Barack Obama now has a better than 63 percent chance of becoming president compared with Sen. John McCain's just over 36 percent chance of winning the White House.

Obama's trading chart with Monday's close.

McCain's trading chart with Monday's close.

By Andrew Zajac

Democrats in Ohio, already rolling a stone uphill in trying to deliver the Buckeye state for Barack Obama, aren't helping the cause with a series of self-inflicted wounds.

The latest is installing term-limited House Minority Leader Joyce Beatty in a ginned-up $320,000 per year job at Ohio State University. That's roughly quadruple her legislative salary and is more than several Ohio university presidents earn.

by John McCormick and Frank James

Sen. Barack Obama spoke to reporters on his plane today as he left Washington and headed south so he would be in place for tonight's scheduled presidential debate at the University of Mississippi, which now appears on again with recent word that Sen. John McCain apparently will attend after all.

Obama made a statement which lasted three minutes total as he stood in the middle of Row 14:

He said he has been talking today to Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Chris Dodd and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson ... "Over the last 24 hours, I've also had a few conversations with Republicans who are involved in the process."

"I am optimistic that we can get something done. I think that there is real progress being made this morning and last night and I think it's important that the markets seem to be staying relatively calm at this point. And at this point, my strong sense is that the best thing that I can do, rather than to inject presidential politics into some delicate negotiations, is to go down to Mississippi and explain to the American people what is going on and my vision for leading the country over the next four years. I'm looking forward to the debate and look forward after the debate to coming back to Washington and hopefully getting a package done."

Then he took questions:

Q: Has anything happened since the White House meeting to make you more optimistic?

OBAMA: "They're still working it through. Keep in mind that some of these proposals were very rough and sketchy, in outline form. So, I'll leave it up to people who are experts in the markets to make an assessment as to what's going to work. But I think what's important is just making sure that everybody in America knows that the parties are serious about getting something done."

by Frank James, updated at 12:45 pm

Sen. Barack Obama has a knack for having momentous events in his presidential campaign fall on important historic events.

His convention acceptance speech occurred on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech.

And today, the scheduled date for the first presidential debate between Obama and Sen. John McCain is the 48th anniversary of President John Kennedy's famed 1960 debate with Vice President Richard Nixon in Chicago.

Of course, we're not sure if today's planned debate will actually happen since McCain has made the debate hostage to the negotiations over the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout occurring in Washington. At this stage it looks like it may not be Obama-McCain. More like Obama-empty chair.

-------------------------

Updated: Now we know that the debate will occur, at least if McCain doesn't change his mind again. McCain is headed to south and is scheduled to be in Oxford, Mississippi for his 3 pm walkthrough and mic check. So there won't be an empty chair after all, though it was fun for a while to consider the possibility

University of Mississippi students Tyler Craft (R) and Mario Hilliard (L), stand-in for John McCain and Barack Obama in rehearsals for tomorrow's scheduled presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/WireImage)

by Julia Keller

Snacks? Check. Beverages? Chilling. Sofa cushions? Plumped.

But hold on there--what if there's no debate?

For the folks who planned debate parties Friday night, for those who eagerly invited friends over to cheer and hiss at the appropriate moments, the news that the debate might be postponed creates the classic host's dilemma:

Cancel the whole thing or soldier on?

If you select the latter, what can you offer your guests--primed as they are to scream, holler, jump, gesticulate wildly and utter phrases such as, "He's a total moron!" at the screen at regular intervals--in lieu of the McCain-Obama verbal smackdown?

How do you satisfy a crowd hungry for argument, for controversy, for a good, old-fashioned metaphorical head-butt between two men in nice suits?

You can't just depend on the guests themselves to mix it up. Presumably, the friends you admit into your home are all like-minded politically: You're all nuts for Obama or you're all over the moon for McCain. So you can't depend on getting a lively skirmish going over the election.

What's left? What can you hurl at a crowd that's as ravenous for debate as a Doberman for a wad of raw hamburger? (Don't say "Cubs v. Sox." That's so 2005.)

To save your gathering, we've come up with some contentious topics guaranteed to turn your living room into a brawling, bad-tempered nest of ferociously feuding friends:

by Frank James

Used to be talking down the economy was something government officials weren't supposed to do, especially senior U.S. officials.

Conservatives often bashed liberals who they frequently perceived as trying to talk the economy into recession for political reasons. And on occasion liberals even attacked conservatives for allegedly cynically talking down the economy for the same reasons.

Now its open season on the economy. Everyone seems to be talking it down, particularly those top government officials who are usually so guarded in their public comments they won't even discuss in detail U.S. policy towards the value of the dollar for fear of affecting markets.

From President Bush, to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. to Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, the message is the economy will essentially go down the tubes if Congress don't pass the $700 billion bailout "national rescue plan" quick, fast and in a hurry.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin even raised the stakes yesterday when she warned the nation could slide into a "depression" if the Bush Administration package weren't passed. Think about that for a moment--a would-be vice president during a hotly contested presidential race raising the specter of the D word.

Question: Are top federal officials (and those who would like to join that group) exacerbating the problem with their doom and gloom warnings?

As many have said in recent weeks, trust or faith, as in "full faith and credit" is a big part of what makes the U.S. economy possible. So much of what makes the economy work, consumer spending, is psychological. The president understands this. That's why in the weekend after the 9/11 attacks, he told Americans to continue shopping.

It could be argued that in his push to stampede Congress into passing its proposal quickly, Bush and other officials are eroding much of any trust that may be left in the U.S. economy.

It's hard to have keep one's faith in the economy up and not think about going into survivalist mode with larder stocked and shotgun loaded when you've got the president of the U.S. on prime time TV saying:

As a result, our entire economy is in danger... More banks could fail, including some in your community. The stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet. Foreclosures would rise dramatically. And if you own a business or a farm, you would find it harder and more expensive to get credit. More businesses would close their doors, and millions of Americans could lose their jobs. Even if you have good credit history, it would be more difficult for you to get the loans you need to buy a car or send your children to college. And ultimately, our country could experience a long and painful recession.

This is clearly not a time for happy talk about the economy. But whatever happened to those fears about not talking down the economy? So much for we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

by Andrew Zajac

All over New York, investment bankers are preparing to open tins of cat food for supper tonight and what does some jokester do but make light of their plight.

Some people have no shame:

URGEN MESSAGE FROM NIGERIA, ER, AMERICA

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

by Frank James

OK, so I'm late to the party on Chris Rock's appearance on David Letterman Monday night in which the comedian took out after former President Bill Clinton for not doing enough to promote Sen. Barack Obama's presidential candidacy. I only caught up with it today.

But I'm sure others haven't seen it, so that's my excuse for putting up today.

Anyway, the former president spent many minutes lauding Sen. Joe Biden and, of course, threw his wife's name in the conversation fairly frequently. He did say he supported Obama and that he thought in the end Obama would win because of the general desire for change.

But he definitely didn't do as much drum banging for Obama as he could have which Rock pointed out.

"Is that me or did he not want to say the name Barack Obama?" Rock asked Letterman.

He also has a great Sarah Palin-Michael Vick joke.

For those who've already seen this, good for you. But for those who haven't, I bet you'll get a laugh out of it.

Rock, who in the 1990s starred on Comedy Central's "Politically Incorrect," conceptual predecessor to the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Show, definitely keeps alive the spirit of that old show.

The Democratic National Committee's anti-McCain press kit lampooning his defense of Bermuda as a tax haven. Photo provided by the DNC.

by Frank James

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee launched a coordinated campaign yesterday to zing Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain for comments he made that were supportive of Bermuda as an off-shore tax-haven.

The goal: to portray McCain as a friend to wealthy corporate CEOs and tax avoiders to weaken the Arizona Republican's claim to be a populist reformer. It was an obvious attempt to tap into the growing hostility towards Wall Street among voters.

The Obama campaign released a TV ad based on an article that appeared in Bermuda's Royal Gazette newspaper chronicling McCain's visit last year to the British colony.

The Arizona Senator, who spent three days on the Island this week meeting business and political leaders, said he understood the concerns of the insurance and reinsurance sectors about draft legislation proposing a clampdown on US business operations in so-called tax havens.

He told The Royal Gazette: "The industry, the re-insurance that's had such phenomenal success has been good for both nations. I would oppose any measures that would upset that."

McCain later received campaign contributions from insurance interests the Obama campaign links to that visit.

by Frank James

George Will, the nation's best-known conservative columnist and Chicago Cubs fan, may not be cutting an ad for Sen. Barack Obama but in his column today, he sure does seem to be expressing more confidence in the Democratic presidential nominee than in the Republican one, fellow conservative Sen. John McCain.

In his column today, Will repeated the criticism he made on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" that McCain's attack last week on Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Chris Cox was unpresidential and unbecoming.

Will attributes McCain's call to fire Cox, to McCain's personality which the columnist clearly doesn't believe is the most even-tempered, to say the least:

In any case, McCain's smear -- that Cox "betrayed the public's trust" -- is a harbinger of a McCain presidency. For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are "corrupt" or "betray the public's trust," two categories that seem to be exhaustive -- there are no other people. McCain's Manichaean worldview drove him to his signature legislative achievement, the McCain-Feingold law's restrictions on campaigning. Today, his campaign is creatively finding interstices in laws intended to restrict campaign giving and spending.

A "smear" as "harbinger of a McCain presidency?" With those words, Will certainly isn't giving the McCain campaign anything it can use in an ad. That's pretty caustic stuff.

Will ends his column with these words:

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

While the columnist doesn't answer that question, he makes it pretty clear what side he comes down on.

Meanwhile, he indicates that Obama's defect--his relative lack of experience in national and foreign policy--is remediable by time. Not a full-throated endorsement but still rather striking coming from one of the nation's leading conservative writers.

by Andrew Zajac

Charles Black Jr., a top adviser to the McCain campaign, has been the subject of unflattering ads in recent days by the Barack Obama campaign connected to his lobbying for Chinese and Russian oil companies.

But Black's largely-overlooked lobbying for a Russian think tank closely linked to the Kremlin may be more intriguing, and more instructive in understanding the limitations of current lobbyist disclosure laws.

In 2005, Black (pictured with McCain, left, aboard McCain's campaign plane in an AP photo by Mary Altaffer) signed up to lobby for the awkwardly named Center of the Development of Information Society, headed at the time, by Leonid Reiman, the telecom minister for then-president Vladimir Putin.

Black's firm, BKSH & Associates Worldwide, was paid $50,000 for eight months work, but it's not clear from disclosure what, if anything, the firm did for the money.

by Frank James

The Bush Administration wants to get $700 billion, no strings attached, to buy up the bad assets of Wall Street financial institutions. Congress wants to attach strings.

That's pretty much where things stand as the week begins. The clash of the Washington titans, that is, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and the Democrats who control the Congress is about to begin in earnest.

On the Sunday talk shows, Paulson said the Bush Administration's rescue proposal is needed NOW, so Congress shouldn't bog things down by trying to expand the plan by adding direct relief for regular taxpayers.

Here's an exchange he had with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday:

MR. WALLACE: All right. Your immediate challenge now is to get this through Congress. And Democrats are saying, wait a minute. If you're going to bail out Wall Street, you've got to bail out Main Street.

We've had a lot of efforts, and I would sure -- I would be very, very surprised and disappointed if, at a time when the government owns a lot of these securities, we won't have more leverage to do that. And that should be a big focus.

by Frank James

Factcheck.org has caught Sen. Barack Obama seriously distorting Sen. John McCain's position on Social Security personal accounts as well as important details about Republican proposals for such accounts, all apparently to scare seniors out of their wits about the Republican nominee.

Factcheck.org reports the following in a summary of its analysis of charges Obama made while campaigning in Florida today:

In Daytona Beach, Obama said that "if my opponent had his way, the millions of Floridians who rely on it would've had their Social Security tied up in the stock market this week." He referred to "elderly women" at risk of poverty, and said families would be scrambling to support "grandmothers and grandfathers."

Obama would have been correct to say that many workers under age 58 would have had some portion of their Social Security benefits affected by the current market turmoil - if they had chosen to participate. And market drops would be a worry for those who retire in future decades. But current retirees would not have been affected.

In his more detailed analysis, Brooks Jackson also wrote that McCain hasn't made Social Security private accounts a central part of his campaign:

While McCain has voted in favor creating private Social Security accounts in the past, and endorsed Bush's 2005 proposal (which never came to a vote in Congress), he is not making a strong push for them as part of his campaign. In fact, a search for the term "Social Security" on the McCain-Palin Web site brings up the following: "No documents were found."

by Frank James

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama will be on the cover of October's Field & Stream magazine. ("McCain vs Obama: We question the candidates on guns and conservation" the teaser on the front tells us.)

I think I can guess which candidate most of Field & Stream's readers, those people in deer-hunting country clinging to their guns and religion, would tend towards. It'd be the one who picked a running mate who knows how to field dress a moose, but again that's only an educated guess.

I love the cover's main headline, "Find Your Bull." It obviously isn't meant to apply to the 2008 presidential campaign but could. And on a few different levels.

by Frank James (corrected from an earlier version which wrongly said Biden's remarks were made today. He made them yesterday.)

Sen. Joe "Working-Class Hero" Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, said yesterday in an interview we missed in real time that he's against the AIG bailout.

He made his emphatic point on the "Today" show to Meredith Viera.

VIEIRA: Let's start with AIG. You just heard Senator McCain say under his watch no bailout. What do you say?

BIDEN: No, I don't think they should be bailed out by the federal government. I'll tell you what we should do. We should try to correct the problems that caused this. And what's caused this? The profligate tax cuts to the very, very wealthy that John wants to continue. What's caused this is the failure to have regulation so that, in fact -- John talks about these CEOs getting these big bailout packages. Well, why didn't he support the legislation we have been proposing that says that if you're going to declare bankruptcy, you've got to throw the CEO in the mix as well as everybody else? Why didn't he support the proposals that we have to allow in bankruptcy a federal bankruptcy judge to renegotiate the principal of your mortgage? Why didn't he do something to help the middle-class people who are hurting very badly? Is their government and it's this government's policies that have caused them to get in great trouble.

by Frank James

Want to see how no misstep by the opponent escapes the keen opposition eyes in a presidential race?

Sen. Barack Obama put out a statement today on the AIG mess in which he said, in part:

"The fact that we have reached a point where the Federal Reserve felt it had to take this unprecedented step with the American Insurance Group is the final verdict on the failed economic philosophy of the last eight years.

Little problem with that which was pounced on by the Republican National Committee:

How can Barack Obama claim to know economic fundamentals when he doesn't even know what AIG is? This is the sort of economic naïveté that Americans cannot afford in a commander-in-chief.

Not sure I see the connection between misspeaking and economic naivite and competency to be commander-in-chief. If anyone else sees it, please chime in.

Plus, this was a statement written by someone in the campaign. Maybe Obama dictated it. More evidence for why we all would benefit from a good proofreaders.

Anyway, the RNC for its part provided a link to the offending Obama statement. The problem for the RNC is that the Obama campaign cleaned up the quote so now it says "International" where it before said "Insurance."

This is why most of us just say AIG and leave it there.

by Frank James

Feisty back-and-forth today between Senators John McCain, Barack Obama and the Republican National Committee. It came after the Republican presidential nominee suggested that a commission be set up to study how the Great Wall Street Meltdown happened.

That brought this dismissive response from Obama:

"This morning, instead of offering up concrete plans to solve these issues, Senator McCain offered up the oldest Washington stunt in the book -- you pass the buck to a commission to study the problem. (cheers, applause.) But here's the thing: This isn't 9/11. We know how we got into this mess. What we need now is leadership that gets us out. I'll provide it; John McCain won't. And that's the choice for Americans in this election." (Cheers, applause.)

That apparently drew blood because the RNC didn't let that one go. They issued the following statement:

"Obama has supported creating several commissions and applauded their results during his short career political career. Yet even on an issue as important as the country's economy, Obama is now putting politics first. In typical Washington fashion, Obama would rather attack John McCain than welcome a good bipartisan idea. Obama's attack is another example of his 'I-know-best' attitude that rejects the sort of consensus-building, open-minded leadership Washington needs." - Alex Conant, RNC spokesman

In 2006, Obama Supported An Ethics Commission. "Obama's plan also proposes a new ethics monitoring system, with an independent commission staffed with former judges and former members of Congress." (Marianne Means, "Congress Must Take Down 'For Sale' Sign," The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 3/5/06)

by Frank James

New Jersey has been reliably Democratic in recent presidential elections. But the latest polling suggests it may not be so safely blue this time around.

Quinnipiac University's Polling Institute has a new poll that indicates that Sen. Barack Obama is essentially tied with Sen. John McCain right now, with Obama at 48 percent and McCain at 45 percent of likely voters in New Jersey.

The Quinnipiac pollsters write:

Fueled by a surge of support from white voters, Republican Sen. John McCain has narrowed a 10-point gap and now trails Democratic Sen. Barack Obama 48 - 45 percent among New Jersey likely voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

But white women back McCain 50 - 42 percent, compared to 46 - 44 percent for Obama Aug. 13. Independent voters shift from 45 - 42 percent for Obama to 47 - 43 percent for McCain.

So it's white flight from the African-American guy, according to this poll. That's so New Jersey.

by Bay Fang

It was a forum on foreign policy, but one of the five secretaries of state on stage chose to make political news. In answer to a student question about whether electing the first African American president would send a message to other countries, Colin Powell, President Bush's first Secretary of State - and the first African American to hold the position - said it would be "electrifying."

He added, "I haven't decided who I'm going to vote for yet," saying he wanted to study their platforms and hear the debates before making a decision.

Speaking at an event at the George Washington University alongside four other former Secretaries of State, Powell elaborated that Sen. McCain had been a close friend and colleague for 25 years, but that he did not want to vote for him solely on the basis of their friendship, just as he did not want to vote for Obama just because he was a fellow African American.

A four-star general who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before he became the 65th Secretary of State, Powell's endorsement is coveted by both parties. Although he remains a Republican, he has been critical of President Bush's handling of Iraq, and has said he would not have agreed with the decision to go to war had he known the evidence against Saddam Hussein was exaggerated. He has also voiced opposition to the Bush administration's treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

by Frank James

Randall Kennedy, a Harvard University law professor, an African American and an Obama supporter (many will see that as redundant) has a really honest piece in the Washington Post in which he ruminates about his potential response should the Democratic presidential nominee loses.

If Obama loses, I personally will feel disappointed, frustrated, hurt. I'll conclude that a fabulous opportunity has been lost. I'll believe that American voters have made a huge mistake. And I'll think that an important ingredient of their error is racial prejudice -- not the hateful, snarling, open bigotry that terrorized my parents in their youth, but rather a vague, sophisticated, low-key prejudice that is chameleonlike in its ability to adapt to new surroundings and to hide even from those firmly in its grip.

I hope that I'll take to heart the wisdom offered by two of my students. "Obama losing," one wrote, "would be hurtful, but it still spells substantial progress. . . . Change WILL come -- the wheels have been set in motion." Declared the second: "Sometimes you have to believe in the change before it comes (and in the face of its apparent defeat) for the change to be possible."

by Frank James

Karl Rove was asked this morning on Fox New Sunday about truth in advertising, specifically campaign advertising and he had something unexpected to say.

He said Obama's campaign had ranged too far from the truth in at least one of its TV ads, the one in which it accused Sen. John McCain of being out of touch because he admitted to not knowing how to use e-mail. That was predictably Rovian.

But here was the surprise. Rove went on to say McCain's campaign had veered too far from the truth as well in attacking Obama.

According to Rove:

McCain has gone, in some of his ads, similarly gone one step too far in sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100% truth test.

This prompted a response from Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera:

"When Karl Rove says your campaign is dishonest, maybe its time to reevaluate."

Rove won't be written out of the Republican Party, however, for what he said. Far from it.

He still managed to stick the knife in Obama. And, here's what's really weird--he did it by doing the very thing he was decrying generally, by not telling the truth.

Rove continued the crocodile-tear outrage over Obama's "lipstick-in-a-pig" comment.

Then, in trying to make lemons out of lemonade, the architect of President Bush's two successful White House runs said the reason McCain doesn't use e-mail is because of his prisoner-of-war injuries. What?

This is a creative excuse not even McCain has offered. Instead, the senator from Arizona has indicated using e-mails or the Internet was something he just hadn't gotten around to.

Here's a large excerpt from a July 18, 2008 story from the Telegraph, a British newspaper:

...In facing Barack Obama, an opponent who is 25 years his junior and has made powerful use of the internet in his campaign, he is battling against claims he is stuck in the past.

by Frank James

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund is striking back at Sen. John McCain's controversial anti-Obama TV ad in which the McCain campaign misleadingly suggested that the Democratic presidential nominee, as a state lawmaker, supported the teaching of "comprehensive sex education" to kindergartners.

The PPAF is retaliating with its own ad in which it says the legislation Obama supported was actually an effort to teach young children to protect themselves from sexual predators.

As w