Much has been made of Senator McCain’s frustrating inability (or was it an unwillingness) in the first Presidential debate to go after Senator Obama and the Democrats with respect to the current credit crisis. Is McCain holding back, waiting for the proper moment to drop these precision bombs? Or is he truly so “collegial” that he can’t bring himself to break from the bi-partisan “maverick” image of himself he’s constructed

     “Hey, I have one of those, too,” he said, gesturing to his own bracelet — aware almost at once that his eagerness to claim equivalence as an afterthought had left him looking exposed and needy — the one small consolation being, he was quick to remind himself, that, no matter how he’d looked just then, at least he sounded like a needy and exposed Barry White.      So, like, it wasn’t

Stanley Kurtz echoes some of the sentiments I’ve expressed the last few days, and rehearses certain arguments I’ve spent years here making: […] don’t think American libel law, so much less plaintiff-friendly than British libel law, gives us a free pass. At the counterterrorism blog, Jeffrey Breinholt explains how even American libel laws can be used to intimidate and silence speech. As I point out in “Not Without a Fight,”

Why, probably dressed in pith helmets and armed with evidence bags, digging around Sarah Palin’s vagina in search of hidden emails like spelunkers in search of demon eggs, is my guess. Or was your question merely rhetorical?

Not according to the pundits but rather to the undecideds. Who, let’s face it, are undecided at this point for a reason: If you want to assess the “winner” of a campaign debate, the only data that matters is the post-debate polling — not the pronouncements of the pundits. It will be some days before we see what effect the McCain-Obama debate at Ole Miss has on the national polls,

…on the bail out. Darleen has the details.

No mincing words here: Gov. Matt Blunt today issued the following statement on news reports that have exposed plans by U.S. Senator Barack Obama to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics. “St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench

Of course, that was then… And this is now: suddenly — after Bush administration attempts in 2003 to avert this crisis, as well as John McCain’s 2005 attempt, both of which were opposed by Congressional Dems — according to Barack Obama we “have to recognize that [the current mortgage / credit crisis] is a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by George Bush, supported by Senator

David Harsanyi, writing for the Denver Post: As we move towards a bailout in Washington, most of you have probably heard the canard that this mess was brought about by lack of regulation. This argument will typically include at least one dropping of the tedious cliché “unfettered free market” (I wish they’d tell it to the over 75,000 pages federal regulation). When I ask these folks which specific de-regulation they’re

Jay Nordlinger: No one need be depressed: McCain did very well. He held up our end […]. Of course, he has the advantage of the better positions. But Obama’s more like a pro — more like a professional debater than a politician who happens to do all right in such settings. Not that that is necessarily the most effective thing, politically: There is such a thing as being too smooth.