No more word about the debate, so we’re still not sure if it will be happening Friday night. But regardless, we will be here at 8:45 ET Friday night, to provide a preview of the debate or non-debate, as the case may be. See you then!
The biggest news of the day is the continuing saga of negotiations between Congressional leaders and President Bush about the $700 billion bailout. The principles agreed on are an installment plan that will provide $250 billion now with the rest potentially available later. Read about it on CNN, Fox News, Time, the BBC, or The Economist.
The plan is moving along, slowly, with opposition from both conservativves and progressives. What shocks me about the move is that our supposedly-conservative current President has proposed a government intervention in private enterprise that costs nearly as much as the entire Iraq war. This point has not been lost on free-market capitalists or progressive community organizers (gràcies a Arnau for the link).
Meanwhile, McCain has rushed back to Washington to take immediate action to help the economy. The problem, as the votemaster from electoral-vote.com points out, is that there is nothing McCain can do right now. Any legislation must begin in the Senate Banking Committee, chaired by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and ranking membered by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL). McCain is not on the committee; he won’t get an opportunity to contribute to the debate until the bill reaches the Senate floor, which will likely be sometime next week. Meanwhile, 75% of Americans want the debate to go on. This continues to seem like a huge strategic mistake for McCain.
It may be too early for reaction to show up in the polls, but Obama continues to maintain a solid lead. Currently, Obama is ahead in the Electoral Vote 286-252. Here is the map (as always, I’m deliberately not using red and blue – McCain is orange and Obama is green):
Election map as of September 25th
Changes to note since two days ago:
- Montana’s color has switched from medium orange to deep orange
- Maine’s and Colorado’s colors have switched from light green to medium green
- Ohio’s colorhas switched from an exact tie to light orange
- New Hampshire’s color has switched from light orange to light green (a pickup for Obama), but is still too close to tell for sure.
