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Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the banking committee, spoke to the press after attending a meeting with President Bush.
Congressional leaders had claimed to have reached an agreement in principle on the financial rescue effort, but in the evening, it appeared to fall apart.
The nation’s largest savings and loan agreed to sell assets to J.P. Morgan Chase in a government-brokered deal to rescue the troubled bank, according to people briefed on the deal.
Obama and McCain interrupted their campaigns to go to the capital and discuss the financial crisis.
News
'Election is about Obama'
By JOHN EBY / Niles Daily Star
Tuesday, September 23, 2008 11:15 AM EDT
BENTON HARBOR - The two-year, wide-open White House race with no incumbents for the first time since 1952 boils down to one factor, according to Karl Rove.
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Rove, who masterminded President George W. Bush's successful White House bids in 2000 and 2004, told The Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan Monday night at Lake Michigan College Mendel Center, "This election is about Obama."
Rove said the presidential election "would be over" had Obama selected Hillary Clinton for vice president instead of Joe Biden, robbing John McCain of an opening to energize his campaign by selecting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for vice president.
Rove pointed out there are "two populists running for president, outsiders arguing about who's responsible for this mess" heading into the first debate Friday in Oxford, Miss.
Vice presidential candidates square off in St. Louis Oct. 2, followed by presidential forums in Nashville, Tenn., and on Long Island, N.Y.
The winner of the first debate can expect a 4-percent poll jump, perhaps more with it centered on foreign policy, Rove said.
The first Gallup Poll after Labor Day has been reliable in forecasting the winner of the popular vote in seven of the past eight elections except 1980. It showed McCain by 4 percent. "The problem is, this is also the first Labor Day poll right after the Republican convention," he said.
"Blue-collar households are somewhat suspicious of this guy. They see him as an elitist. Particularly in blue-collar households in the Midwest and the industrial mid-Atlantic, they remember (Barack Obama's) comment about people clinging to their guns, their faith and their xenophobia. What was he thinking? He has advantages he can't take advantage of because of deep, persistent doubts about his fitness for office. Two weeks ago, 48 percent said he was not qualified. This is the second-highest negative answer to that question that I can find in modern polling. The only presidential candidate who had a worse number was Michael Dukakis in 1988, who had 56 percent of the people in October who said he was not qualified. It really matters who the president is. Big changes are dictated by the outcome. We invest a lot of ourselves in the election. It's really important, and that's the way it should be."
Rove said there will be four battles waged simultaneously, with each candidate talking about the same issues in different ways.
"McCain wants to talk about the war on terror, energy, taxes and spending, which for him are about jobs and the economy," Rove said. "On the other hand, Obama doesn't want to talk about the war on terror at all. He negotiated to have the first debate Friday devoted to foreign affairs so the last debate would be devoted entirely to domestic affairs. And we've seen how events can intrude into a campaign in a very powerful way in the last few days" with the mortgage meltdown and $700 billion bailout for Wall Street.
"The economy has come to the fore. It's a natural advantage for Obama because he wants to talk about it and McCain doesn't," Rove said.
"McCain's going to say he's the experienced reformer. Obama's going to say he's the guy who's going to fight for change and cares about people like you. Each of them wants you to comfortably see them in the Oval Office ... for the first time since spring, McCain is seen as more honest and trustworthy than Obama. In the Fox poll, they asked, 'If you had the most important decision of your own life, who would you turn to for guidance, McCain or Obama?' The answer was 50-36, McCain."
Adding to Rove's interest is that neither Obama or McCain was expected to prevail in his party's primaries. The campaign has gone on so long that the chief issue has shifted from the war in Iraq to the economy.
Their solutions would be very different, Rove stated. Obama favors more regulation and higher taxes for wealthy Americans, while McCain supports less regulation and a limit on the percentage any citizen should be taxed on their income.
They'll be fighting over issues such as taxes, with each arguing for "fairness. Obama says it's fair to take money from the people at the top 5 percent to issue a tax cut for the 95 percent below that. A couple of things are hidden in there. One is that two out of every three in the top five percent is small business, which creates three out of every four new jobs. He's also not saying when he says 'tax cut' he wants to give everyone in the lower 95 percent a $500-a-year tax credit or, if you're married, $1,000. Forty-eight percent of Americans who file income taxes have no liability, so they'll be getting checks. It's not a cut because they don't owe any tax. This is a transfer."
McCain's take on fairness is questioning whether the government should not be limited in how much it "can take out of anyone's wallet, and 35 percent is more than enough," Rove said to applause.
http://www.nilesstar.com/articles/2008/09/23/news/ndnews3.txt
By WALTER R. MEARSBY JOSHUA M. SMITH
Lions’ Pride Online Editor
My, my, how the tables have turned.
Just a few weeks ago, Senator Barack Obama was considered unbeatable in this presidential election. Now, he, his running mate, Senator Joe Biden, and his campaign managers are scrambling to find a way to deal with Senator John McCain, who has surged ahead in the polls after a hugely successful Republican National Convention and his unconventional choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.
In a brilliant political move, McCain announced Palin as his running mate the morning after Obama’s would-be triumphant coronation ceremony at Invesco Field in Denver. There were 80,000 people screaming for him in the stadium, 38 million people watching him at home, but, when day broke, Obama’s spectacle was literally yesterday’s news.
Palin has taken the nation by storm. Left-wing kooks at DailyKos.com did their very best to issue forth the absolute worst possible slander against her. The national media picked up on the rumors and did what they could to break Palin before she could properly introduce herself to the country. All of that negative attention only fueled national interest in Palin, which resulted in the highest number of viewers in history for a running mate’s speech at a national convention. Palin’s RNC speech was watched by even more people than had watched Obama one week before, and her flawlessly delivered speech was a grand slam home run.
Republicans, many of whom were disheartened and depressed by the drawn out and bruising primary season, had little reason to get excited about McCain or the individuals he had been rumored to be considering for the V.P. slot. Many feared McCain would pick a pro-choice Republican and send the entire party into revolt. McCain’s choice of Palin changed all of that.
Republicans are motivated by the Palin pick in a way they have not been since at least 2004 or perhaps, 1984. Palin is well-liked, strong, smart, and scrappy—exactly what Washington needs. She has reinforced McCain’s reputation as a reformer and helped remind the nation of the GOP’s long tradition as the party of freedom and progress.
The Angry Left, of course, is burning up. They can’t stand the possibility of a conservative, pro-life woman in the White House because it overturns the very idea of what a “feminist” is. Feminism was once about the advancement of women and their right to determine their own destinies. Later, the movement was hijacked by the pro-abortion movement in this country to such an extent that a successful, ambitious working mother like Palin is the ultimate threat. So, they will likely continue their attacks to the bitter end.
And that’s just fine for the McCain campaign. Every sexist attack leveled at Palin from the Left serves to energize the conservative base even further. Every new lie about Palin keeps the media talking about her (and McCain’s campaign) and not about Obama.
And every attack on Palin’s supposed lack of experience only reinforces the fact that Obama has less experience than she does. Every pundit who claims McCain did not properly vet Palin reinforces the fact that the Democrats and the media did not properly vet their own messianic candidate.
http://pride-online.net/wp/2008/09/19/the-republican-resurgence/
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter and member of the Democratic National Committee’s Platform Committee, will endorse John McCain for president on Wednesday, her spokesman tells CNN.
The announcement will take place at a news conference on Capitol Hill, just blocks away from the DNC headquarters. Forester will “campaign and help him through the election,” the spokesman said of her plans to help the Republican presidential nominee.
Forester was a major donor for Clinton earning her the title as a Hillraiser for helping to raise at least $100,000 for the New York Democratic senator’s failed presidential bid.
Sarah Palin, Alaska Governor and
Vice-Presidential Candidate 2008
The Media and Elite Snobs Just Don't Get It
The op-ed page of today's (Sunday's) New York Times is full of (more, though tiresome and unoriginal) invective toward Governor Sarah Palin. Maureen Dowd mocks her as a retro nitwit, Frank Rich turns her into a cartoonish life preserver tossed by a desperate John McCain, and even Tom Friedman needles her for advocating drilling here at home as part of a comprehensive approach to energy independence.
Last night's "Saturday Night Live" also poked fun at Palin, albeit more gently, with deadringer Tina Fey satirizing her American optimism in a sing-songy voice.
What the hyenas at The New York Times and the comedy writers at "SNL" don't get is that what they mock and satirize is precisely what resonates with so many American voters. They LIKE that she's normal, enjoys her family, and has an intact marriage. They LIKE that she's her own person, secure enough in herself to wear whatever hairstyle and eyeglasses she likes. They LIKE that she's confident in her abilities and keenly knowledgeable about one of the biggest national security issues of our time: energy. They LIKE that she's done what feminists for a long time called their objective: women who could have a career and a family, and find both rewarding.
http://monicamemo.typepad.com/weblog/2008/09/marge-large-and.html
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Meet the Real Sarah Palin
