The way Obama handled this was spot on. The sky may be falling on Wall Street but the rest of the world will continue to go on, we will have an election and a new president.

Bravo.

I had that thought this morning as well, that after all the sturm and drang over McCain's decision, that there could be a deal in place practically before he arrives in Washington, the campaigns and debates could resume as planned tomorrow and all this could be forgotten in a week.

By "all this," I mean the campaign suspension and such, not the economic crisis.

I agree with scaegles that if the actors were reversed the reponses would be largely reversed.

I disagree with scaegles that this was a good political move by McCain. And while if we assume the hypothetical of reversed actors he is right that the responses would mostly reverse, I do think it says something that in the real world it was McCain that did the stupid thing.

To answer a question so one hour ago ...

scaeagles, I can't remember all the places I learned and heard about Obama's links to the banking industry ... but obviously those links must have been talked about and written about in the press for me to find them.


I do NOT research blogs.


(Not to say blogs don't have accurate information, but too much more research is required to determine which ones do.)


So yeah, it's out there. Obama Cultists may deny it, or may not know about it. But Obama's a tool like any other Senator. D'uh.


But this is an election between two senators, so let's all accept the groundwork that both candidates are toadying slaves to their financial interest masters of the universe.

Fair enough.

I don't doubt it....you are certainly not a partisan.

Someday, maybe a few months after the election, someone from the Obama camp will write a book.....maybe my suspicion that Obama was on the verge of doing the exact same thing will be proved....maybe not:)



Exactly!

What LoT actor would have played my part?

I don't know. Group dynamics fail at the level of the individual.

Oh darn, I was hoping it would be someone really cool. Surely I am equally partisan, mathematically speaking, to someone here on the LoT.

The trouble is that there is essentially a 2 to many ratio in the swapping. It is going to pretty much be you and scaeagles taking the Republican line on positions. There are plenty of people who can take the Democratic line so really you're at a disadvantage.

You 2 pretty much always have to participate in the hypocrisy of actor-dependent position taking since there is no depth on your side. But for the other side they can take turns in it giving themselves the cover of sometimes not being involved in that hypocrisy. Once three or four people do it, the rest can step back and say "ah, that's not quite fair and I'm above it all." At least until their turn comes and then they get so say "yes, it might look hypocritical but if that is what was driving me wouldn't I have been hypocritical in all these other situations?" when in fact they were relieved of that burden by being in the majority position.

It really just emphasizes the structural disadvantage you two have on this board when it comes to arguing politics.

Very Obama cultish of you.

I think the joint statement still got released by Camp McCain. Except that only half of the statement was joint, because there's a huge-ass long postscript that McCain's folks tacked on at the end that was not part of the original statement.

By the way there are reports that while Obama was waiting for McCain to return the call yesterday morning, McCain was busy visiting with Mrs. Rothchilde.

As for "had Obama done what McCain" did, a) Obama was already talking in private with Chris Dodd, Paulson, and others on a regular basis so that he could be apprised of what was going on. b) Did not want to inject the presidential campaign into the actual workings going on in the committee right now, so he stayed away on purpose. c) Would not have asked to postpone his debate with McCain because apparently Obama is more comfortable multi-tasking.

...can we have the election NOW, please?