You know, Michelle Malkin and I don’t actually agree on all that much, but we do agree on this: it is perhaps not the most objective thing in the world to have as one’s VP debate moderator a woman who has written a book entitled “Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.”. Particularly when it’s scheduled to come out on 01/20/2009. (Via Hot Air Headlines)

Some of Ms. Ifill’s objectivity here:

As Ms. Malkin goes on to suggest:

Ask the Commission on Presidential Debates if she will acknowledge her conflict of interest: 202-872-1020.

And here’s the e-mail address of Janet H. Brown, Executive Director of the Debates Commission: jb@debates.org

Note that neither Ms. Malkin nor I am suggesting that Ms. Ifill stop moderating the debate; merely that she let the viewing public know right from the start that it’s in Ms. Ifill’s long-term financial interest that Senator Obama win the Presidency. They call it “transparency:” it’s quite the coming thing. The media should try it sometime.

Moe Lane

PS: Drudge has noticed, too.

Copyright violations, you understand. 1.2 million views first, though. And, thanks to Protein Wisdom here’s the backup version, complete with some introductory comments about how much money Time-Warner’s people have thrown at Obama, anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4

Either Nancy Pelosi knew that the vote was going to fail yesterday, or she didn’t. If she didn’t know, then the failure of passage can directly laid at her uncritical willingness to permit her own caucus to slide on an unpopular vote, while doing less than nothing to bring in equally-concerned Republicans - which could be seen as another way of calling her a blithering incompetent fool. If she did know, then she lied, to all of us, and is currently risking the health of the American economic system for partisan political gain. Which might convince one to refer to her as, hmm, what’s the word?

Oh, yes. “Unpatriotic.”

Via Instapundit, this stepped over a line.

[Crud, the video doesn't work. Until I find code that does, it's a video where Pelosi called the House Republican absence at a bailout meeting 'unpatriotic.' Yes, that word.]

Try inviting us next time first… Madame Speaker.

Dems Forget to Invite GOP to Negotiations

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) emerged from a half-hour meeting to sheepishly admit to reporters there had been a communication mix-up with the time and location.

“Apparently there was some confusion,” Dodd said. “We thought that an invitation had been extended to both the House and Senate Republicans, but for whatever reason we’re going to have to reschedule… We’ll just reconvene, and we’ll continue working.”

I am getting thoroughly sick and tired of having my party be accused of the sins that actually lurk in the hearts of my political opponents.

Moe Lane

The latest Plouffe email that’s come across my screen is… interesting. Let’s take a look at it, shall we?

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It’s their title: I’m merely the one repeating it with malice aforethought.

See also The New York Post.

If you indent the first line of a paragraph (or cut-n-paste one with an indent) in a comment or post, the formatting ends up all messed up.

So, umm, don’t do that.

The Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star is a little upset over Senator Obama right now:

NOT ALL COUNTRIES guarantee their citizens the right to virtually unbridled freedom of speech. The United States does. Would someone please tell the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama? And the dozing guardians of liberty at the University of Mary Washington?

Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, is scheduled to speak at a rally at the university today. The public is invited to this forum, on property it, the public, owns. However, signs and banners will not be allowed, according to the organizers and compliant campus officials. Suddenly, UMW is a First Amendment-Free, or at least a First Amendment-Crippled, Zone, subject to the self-serving preferences of politicos. Why does an Obama rally–or a McCain rally or a Nader rally–justify taking a little off the top of Americans’ most fundamental rights?

(H/T Michelle Malkin)

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Guess that means that Iowa’s out of reach for us this cycle anyway.

Iowans should not be pleased about this, by the way. There’s no neglect like the neglect of a Democratic Party that doesn’t need to particularly exert itself for your vote.

Sorry: I got comprehensively shut down on the internet about 40 minutes in, so you all had to lose my deathless prose. Such as it was.

First impressions: Obama was prepared, but not comfortable - and he got less and less comfortable as the debate went on. There were at least two or three times where he tried to needle McCain, and about four or five where McCain successfully needled him. Oddly, in some ways Obama flubbed worst the economic answers, most of which he didn’t actually answer. In contrast, McCain just looked happier to be there; if you asked me which one was supposed to have the temper, I’d say Obama. There was a spot on the ABC news feed where Obama was grinning, then went right to a scowl; video pranksters, take note.

Also, as I noted in the live-blogging before I got shut off, the progressive movement needs to understand that Obama really does love you, baby: it’s just that he gets so worked up sometimes. He’ll make it up to you, really he will. It’ll just be like the old days, just you and him. So… where’s your purse?

Brutal? Sure. So was the way that he shafted them on missile defense, offshore drilling, nuclear power plants, and how swell Petraeus is.

Moe Lane

PS: Will it help McCain? Beats me: I’m a GOP partisan. I certainly feel a heck of a lot better about supporting the guy after this debate, though - which is nothing to sneeze at, after the week we’ve had.

Nothing personal, Ben - but I wanted to punch that up for you.

Interesting message difference:

Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) on Friday suggested Democratic leaders did not solicit enough input from House Republicans on the financial rescue package.

[snip]

Asked whether House GOP lawmakers are right to believe they were slighted, Kanjorski replied, “I don’t know that we included them in enough, and that’s always a dangerous thing in politics. Remember, you’re dealing with egomaniacs. We’re all egomaniacs down here.”

[snip]

Kanjorski said, “Now, what we have to do is open that door for the House Republicans, bring them on in and say, ‘Guys, you know, we can’t cast your idea aside.’ Let’s listen to it … I think we have to allow them to talk their idea out. We have to be willing to listen.”

(Via Hot Air)

The article notes that Barney Frank doesn’t agree with Kanjorski: it also notes that Kanjorski is in the middle of a tough re-election fight (regrettably, Frank is not). That should be kept in mind: if this was a popular measure they’d be climbing all over each other to sign off on it. Also bear in mind that when it does pass it’s not just going to be our side that’ll be screaming, which is at least something to look forward to.

Audio clips for comparison below:

…with the ones for comparison from a woman called Vicki Kaywood, a Chicago voice artist whose voice certainly sounds like the one in the ad allegedly created by LA native Ethan Winner. Personally, I thought that exploring the links between Winner & Associates - we will dispense with the absurd nonsense that Winner acted alone - and PR giant Publicis might prove of interest, but then I hadn’t realized that Winner had possibly gone quite so far afield in his quest for voice talent.

I mean. LA. I understand that there’s a bit of an actor’s colony there.

(Cross-posted at Obama’s Con)

Moe Lane

PS: Ethan Winner can announce at any time that Vicki isn’t the actual voice actress, and that thus she won’t be paid for her work.

Remind me never to wish for a shakeup in the race ever again. You’d think that I’d have learned my lesson in 2000, when I hoped that the election wouldn’t be the usual “we all knew the answer by 9 PM” lopsided victory. Clearly, somebody listens to my errant whims - and, yes, that worries me, too.

But seriously: this is going to be different; say what you like about the results, but McCain has shaken up the landscape thoroughly in the last two days. So we need to take a look at what each candidate needs to accomplish tonight. Discussion after the fold.

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Carl Cameron likewise unloads after the fold. By the way, here is what nobody really wants to talk about, but everyone involved is well aware of.

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He’s resuming campaigning.

And there’s this (Via Hot Air Headlines):

ABC News’ Jonathan Karl Reports: John McCain made an urgent appeal to House Republicans at their 9:30 leadership meeting Friday morning.

A senior House GOP leadership aide involved in the negotiations described McCain’s message this way, “We need a deal. We need a deal. We need a deal.”

[snip about how the debate is a factor, and how McCain needs progress on this it - I'm trying to keep to fair use here, and I don't want to try to obscure what is a fair point - Moe Lane]

House Republicans seem poised to cave on this (says one House Republican, “We don’t want to be seen as obstructionists”), although they have been assured that some of their ideas can be incorporated into the final deal.

Also, Rep. Boehner has sent a letter to Pelosi, which includes the phrase “serious consideration;” that means precisely what you think it means.

So, let’s see how this plays out. I need food. Badly.

As Glenn notes, it’s not especially vicious. One issue, yes. Unsympathetic, also yes. But this is hardly “Obama drinks baby blood,” or something. So why is Obama sending out the legal dog pack against stations that air it?

Choice of words there deliberate, by the way.

I am perfectly serious. The usual rules about how it has to be a minute or less, or it’s useless? They don’t apply here.

The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5tZc8oH–o, if you’re thinking of passing this along to people, and you damn well should be thinking of doing that. Like, before 9:30 AM.

Moe Lane

While we’re waiting to see whether there’s going to be a world economy come Monday, some good news, here: the Feds decided to rattle Illinois Governor Blagojevich’s (D) cage. With a jackhammer.

Sources tell CBS 2 News Chicago that Federal agents claim to have enough evidence to indict Blagojevich on fraud and conspiracy charges. However, the report says the investigators aren’t the ones who make the decision to prosecute. That would be up to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and the Justice Department in Washington.

(Via Gateway Pundit; Cross-posted at Obama’s Con)

Fitzmas is such a wonderful holiday: I’m glad that the Online Left invented it.

Moe Lane

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Whoops! Sorry: Mitch McConnell’s bored and making Reid say goofy things again. Hey, you have to make sure that the mind control chip is still working, right? Anyway, via the Corner we have the latest Need of Reid:

With the economic news only getting worse each day, I call on the President, Senator McCain and Congressional Republicans to join us to quickly get this done for American families.

I hope that this crisis resolves itself soon; if we use the chip too often on Reid, he gets nosebleeds…