As the election campaign was again reduced to a sideshow, both men urged the Democrats and Republicans to reach agreement, repeating an appeal that had already fallen on deaf ears. Mr Obama delayed his appearance at a high school in Denver for an hour as he followed the drama unfolding in Washington and the subsequent stock market plunge.
"One of the messages I have to Congress is, 'Get this done'," said the Illinois Senator when he finally emerged. "Democrats, Republicans step up to the plate and get this done." He had clearly not been expecting the defiance on Capitol Hill. His prepared speech had already been distributed, saying: "Today, Democrats and Republicans in Washington have agreed on an emergency rescue plan that is our best and only way to prevent an economic catastrophe."
The American presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama were reeling last night and uncertain how to respond to the US economic crisis after Congress scuppered the $700bn (£388bn) bailout bill that both candidates had backed.
However, it may be Mr McCain, the Republican nominee, whose campaign is in greatest peril following his extraordinary gamble last week to suspend his campaign to thrust himself into the delicate negotiations about the financial crisis.
Republicans in the House ignored him yesterday, just as they ignored George Bush's appeal to pass the legislation. Many are more concerned about losing their seats in the November polls, as evidenced by just eight of the 38 lawmakers from swing states voting for the bailout.
Mr McCain lashed out at the Democrats, saying: "Senator Obama and his allies have used unnecessary partisanship... Now it's time for all members of Congress to go back to the drawing board. I call on Congress to get back immediately to address this crisis. The challenges facing our economy could have a grave impact on every American worker... if our leaders fail to act."
But a worsening economic climate in the five weeks to election day, promises more trouble for Mr McCain with his links to the Bush administration.
The shock vote distracted Mr McCain from desperate efforts to rehabilitate his vice-presidential running-mate Sarah Palin last night after much pilloried prime-time interviews left her open to accusations that she is now a liability for the Republican White House campaign.
The McCain fightback began with his first joint interview with Mrs Palin with the CBS News anchorwoman, Katie Couric, hoping that his forceful presence alongside his inexperienced running-mate will blot out the memory of a TV interview she did with Couric last week.
The woman hoping to become the first female vice-president offered excruciatingly poor answers on foreign policy and her understanding of the $700bn rescue plan.
And worse may be to come for Mrs Palin who faces the Democrat vice-presidential candidate, Joe Biden, in a debate on Thursday in St Louis.
One of Mr McCain's problems is that high-profile right-wing commentators are now attacking him for choosing an inexperienced running-mate who has not grown into the job. The best that columnists such as The New York Times's David Brooks could offer is that the Alaska governor brings something "fresh and telegenic" to the ticket. There was more damning commentary from The Washington Post's Carl Bernstein, who wrote: "No presidential nominee of either party in the last century has seemed so willing to endanger the country's security as McCain in his reckless choice of a running-mate."
Monday
McCain and Crisis derails the fight back
Sunday
Fox News Censorsing Stories: Fox News Removes Palin Story From Site
For those of you that are interested in the little Palin Game we are playing here in America I found a nifty little thing on Google today. Fox news apparently had an article on their site claiming that Republicans are beginning to jump off the Palin Bandwagon. But when you go to the site Google points you to it looks like FOX News removed the article. I wonder what happened there...Here is a link to the URL that WAS the story Old Palin Story Page and here is a picture of the Google SERP 
where highlighted is the link to the fox page. I know it is a little hard to see but if you want the results page link itself it is Here: Palin Election News Results in Google.
And What was the story actually? Well here it is verbatim, taken from the good old Google Cache:
A growing number of Republicans are expressing concern about Sarah Palin’s uneven - and sometimes downright awkward - performances in her limited media appearances.
Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, a former Palin supporter, says the vice presidential nominee should step aside. Kathryn Jean Lopez, writing for the conservative National Review, says “that’s not a crazy suggestion” and that “something’s gotta change.”
Tony Fabrizio, a GOP strategist, says Palin’s recent CBS appearance isn’t disqualifying but is certainly alarming. “You can’t continue to have interviews like that and not take on water.”
“I have not been blown away by the interviews from her, but at the same time, I haven’t come away from them thinking she doesn’t know s-t,” said Chris Lacivita, a GOP strategist. “But she ain’t Dick Cheney, nor Joe Biden and definitely not Hillary Clinton.”
There is no doubt that Palin retains a tremendous amount of support among rank-and-file Republicans. She draws huge crowds, continues to raise a lot of money for the McCain campaign, and state parties report she has sparked an uptick in the number of volunteers.
Asked about Palin’s performance in the CBS interview, a McCain official briefing reporters on condition of anonymity said: “She did fine. She’s a tremendous asset and a fantastic candidate.”
But there is also no doubt many Republican insiders are worried she could blow next week’s debate, based on her unexpectedly weak and unsteady media appearances, and hurt the Republican ticket if she does.
What follows is a viewer’s guide to some of Palin’s toughest moments on camera so far.
Speaking this week with CBS’s Katie Couric, Palin seemed caught off-guard by a very predictable question about the status of McCain adviser Rick Davis’ relationship with mortgage lender Freddie Mac. Davis was accused by several news outlets of retaining ties - and profiting from - the companies despite his denials.
Where a more experienced politician might have been able to brush off Couric’s follow-up question, Palin seemed genuinely stumped, repeating the same answer twice and resorting to boilerplate language about the “undue influence of lobbyists.”
These missteps could be attributed to inadequate preparation and don’t necessarily reflect more deeply on Palin’s ability to perform as vice president. But when reporters have tried to probe Palin’s thinking on subjects such as foreign policy, she’s been similarly opaque.
In an interview with ABC’s Charlie Gibson, Palin gave a muddled answer to a question about her opinion of the Bush Doctrine.
And given the chance to describe her foreign policy credentials more fully, Palin recited familiar talking points, telling Gibson that her experience with energy policy was sufficient preparation for dealing with national security issues.
In the same interview, Palin let Gibson lead her into saying it might be necessary to wage war on Russia - a suggestion that most candidates would have avoided making explicitly and that signaled her discomfort in discussing global affairs.
Then, asked this week by Couric to discuss her knowledge of foreign relations - in particular, her assertion that Alaska’s proximity to Russia gave her international experience - Palin tripped herself up explaining her interactions with Alaska’s neighbor to the west.
Watch CBS Videos Online
On the economy, too, Palin has avoided taking clear stances. In a largely friendly interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, Palin spoke in tangled generalities in response to a question about a possible Wall Street bailout - and even preempted her campaign by coming out against it.
On Thursday, Palin finally took questions from her traveling press - but shut things down quickly after Politico’s Kenneth P. Vogel asked her whether she would support Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who has been indicted for corruption, and Rep. Don Young, who is under federal investigation, for reelection.
Unlike her other interviews, at least this time Palin had the option to walk away.
The Link to this story is found at Fox News Palin Story
Now I know that we all like to think that Fox News would never do anything like this on purpose and that this is a "Fair & Balanced" network and that any press that was too negative to the Republican party and Sarah Palin would never get removed. And I agree, so I wonder if I can find this story elsewhere....Well I went back to Fox's Site and I checked...Conservatives Question Palin Search query and to my surprise I could not find the story...What happened?
So I wonder if Fox News really removed the site? It's not an OLD story according to Google Cache "It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Sep 28, 2008 13:23:15 GMT." So I wonder if Fox thought it too tough on Palin? What do you think America? Chris Lacivita I think may have hit it spot on...She Doesn't Know "Shit" and he is on her side of the aisle. Man this should be a good one.
Please Leave Comments on whether you think this is Censorship or Not....?
Friday
Bloomberg Reports McCain Predicts Terrorist Attacks & Political Cartoon of the Day
``Al-Qaeda is on their heels but not defeated,'' McCain said today at a town hall meeting with General Motors workers in Warren, Michigan. ``I also predict that they will make an attempt, as we get into election season, to make more of these spectacular kinds of attacks'' by suicide bombers to destabilize the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
McCain, an Arizona senator, has spent much of this week touting his foreign policy and war experience while Democratic rival Barack Obama prepared for a trip to the Middle East. McCain has criticized Obama, an Illinois senator, for vowing to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. McCain said the deployment of extra U.S. troops to Iraq last year has worked.
Earlier this year, McCain adviser Charlie Black caused a controversy when he was quoted in a Fortune magazine interview that the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto before the New Hampshire primary ``helped us'' by highlighting that McCain ``is the guy who's ready to be commander in chief.'' Black added that a ``fresh terrorist attack certainly would be a big advantage'' politically.
Black later said he ``deeply'' regretted making the statement and McCain distanced himself from the comments.
``Senator Obama said the surge would fail. He still fails to admit that it has succeeded,'' McCain said in response to a question from the audience. ``I am confident we will win.''
Wednesday
Ok so the Political Cartoon of the day really doesn't have much to do with the election this year a whole lot, but todays article does deal with foreign policy and this political cartoon really does deal with foreign policy. This cartoon also was just a unique find for me since it is kind of old and quite witty. You could take this political cartoon and replace the swastica with a particular garment and suddenly it would become quite relevant but we wont discuss that too much. So lets just get on to the real foreign policy relevant to the modern world instead of an old political cartoon.
The Illinois senator has over the past two days escalated a campaign to minimize Iraq in the context of the overall war on terror.
Obama on Wednesday stressed the need to secure loose nuclear material and draw down nuclear stockpiles around the world. He said if the nation devoted just one month of Iraq combat costs, estimated to be $10 billion, it could virtually wipe out the threat of weapons-grade nuclear material falling into the hands of terrorists.
In what was billed as a major foreign policy address Tuesday, Obama said the Iraq war has become a distraction from fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and pledged to end the war by the summer of 2010.
Barack Obama’s continued call for a troop withdrawal timetable in Iraq has critics complaining that he’s set on that policy before even taking his highly anticipated trip to the Middle East.
“He’s going to Iraq but he’s already decided his position,” Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a top John McCain supporter, told FOX News on Wednesday. “He’s not going to listen to (David) Petraeus. He’s not going to listen to our troops. He’s not going to listen to his own eyes with what he sees there.”
The McCain campaign seized on an editorial Wednesday in The Washington Post that criticized Obama for sticking with his 16-month troop withdrawal timeline, even after hinting that he would “refine” his policy after visiting Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Mr. Obama appears to have decided that sticking to his arbitrary, 16-month timeline is more important than adjusting to the dramatic changes in Iraq,” the editorial said. “American commanders will probably tell Mr. Obama that from a logistical standpoint, a 16-month withdrawal timetable will be difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill. … If Mr. Obama really intends to listen to such advisers, why would he lock in his position in advance?”
McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann said on a conference call that Obama’s plan is an “ideologically driven commitment to withdrawing at any cost.”
“The American people have had enough of inflexibility on national security policy,” he said, obliquely criticizing the Bush administration.
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement that Obama was also “committing to a policy” for Afghanistan before even visiting the country, and that “Barack Obama has shown he views foreign policy through a lens of ideology rather than through looking at facts.”
The Obama campaign argues that McCain is just now “waking up” to problems in Afghanistan, and claims he has no workable plan for either conflict.
Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice said on a conference call that McCain “wants to stay indefinitely at high-troop levels in Iraq, regardless of the situation, whether it’s improving or deteriorating.”
Obama released a new ad Wednesday addressing his national security platform.
“Forty years ago it was missile silos and the Cold War. Today, it’s cyber attacks, loose nukes, oil money funding terrorism,” the narrator in the ad says. “Barack Obama understands our changing world.”
As for the Washington Post editorial, she said it represented a narrow-minded approach to a broad set of national security threats.
“The Post would have you believe that we have the luxury of worrying only about one challenge and, whether it’s going well or going poorly, the answer is the same: to stay indefinitely,” she said.
“But we have a fundamental difference on the threat environment that we face globally.”
Obama and McCain: The effect of economy on Polls & Todays Political Cartoon
With four months to go until Election Day, the outcome is set in stone, barring some sort of miracle, some experts say.
That's the view of the overwhelming majority of social scientists who make it their business to peer into the future.
The poor state of the economy, the casualties in Iraq, the unpopularity of George W. Bush, the current polling, and Obama's own political skills all point to the election of the Illinois Democrat in November, according to several political scientists, historians and economists who've had a pretty good track record in predicting past elections.
According to their models, it won't be close. Most of them are projecting a 52% to 48% victory for Obama, and that's with assumptions about the economy that are very kind to McCain.
Political scientists noted long ago that presidential elections are fairly predictable because they usually turn on several big issues: How's the economy doing? Is there an unpopular war? Has one party outlived its welcome at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Is one of the candidates a once-in-a-generation leader? Has the current administration done anything outstanding, or scandalous?
Of course, all these models assume that this year's campaign will be pretty much like those in the past. A major gaffe or stumble by Obama, or superb campaign by McCain could change the dynamics. So could outside events that alter the election landscape.
There's a whole cottage industry of experts who develop statistical models based on past elections and crunch the numbers to try to predict November's vote now. Almost all of the models say Obama will win.
The granddaddy of the prediction models is American University historian Allan Lichtman's 13 keys to the White House, which include factors such as the economy, foreign policy, scandals, social unrest and even the charisma of the candidates. No one's been elected president since 1860 without holding most of the keys to victory.
Economist Douglas Hibbs expanded on Fair's idea by including a war variable, which hurts the incumbent party if there are significant casualties in an undeclared war. Hibbs' "Bread and Peace" model explains Eisenhower's victory in 1952 and Nixon's win in 1968. The unpopular war could also be a factor in 2008, but the weak economy is a much bigger reason why the Republicans are likely to get just 48% of the votes this year.
"Support for the two major parties has solidified as the parties and their supporters have become increasingly divided along ideological lines," Abramowitz said. "Growing polarization may weaken the effects of short-term forces such as the economy and presidential approval." The approval rating of the president is one of three variables in Abramowitz's model.
Political scientist Alan Abramowitz of Emory University says his "Time for a Change" model is forecasting a Democratic landslide of about 54% to 46%. But Abramowitz doesn't think it'll be that much of a blowout because there are fewer true independents these days.
