First things first,since it’s debate night, the election. Things are starting to look real hopeful in the long run for Obama even though the short term until November is grisly and ugly as the slurs are starting to come out in force. Crowds at McCain rallies have even started to yell racial epithets & fearmongering slogans along the lines of “Terrorist!” & LITERALLY “Kill him!” when McCain has been mentioned Obama by name. This is some intensely scary stuff. The public consciousness is starting to see this and become afraid. They don’t want to be associated with this hatemongering and this violent swing of the McCain campaign (while not deliberately intentioned, it is an obvious consequence of the bullshit they’ve been stuffing into gullible people’s ears).  I really feel that this is going to be the straw on many undecideds’ backs to break them into supporting Obama. I hope I’m right.

Please check out Five Thirty Eight to get up to date with where the election is at from a statistical point of view. It’s obviously skewed towards Obama. I believe that’s because the author has knowledge of an advanced skill outside of mouth breathing. (Hey look, I’m skewed, too!)

Next, the economy. If there’s one odd thing I pride myself on, it’s being pessimistic. Specifically, when it comes to the economy. You should have gleaned that from prior posts if you read somewhat-regularly. September of 2008 has been the month where the country has finally put two and two together and realized we are in a serious recession. I am expecting there to be more bank failures but I feel that they start to subside with all the Federal Reserve plans that have hit in the past few days. There are really trying to give banks the money they need to recapitalize to stay afloat (this means that the companies don’t have enough money to lend out anymore because of bad loans. What this does is halt their lending. Our economy depends on regularly available credit to live, so we need to resuscitate them as much as it pains to do so).

At one point it’s necessary to not have a severe crash. On the other hand, this is socializing loss and privatizing profit, which is incentive to take crazier and crazier risks. I wish there were a reset button but there is not. I personally think that no matter what we do, we will have some sort of crash, even if it’s not a societal reset button sort of crash. Even if I didn’t just spend our savings on a new home, I would have pulled all my money out of the stock market. 3% in a high-yield checking account is way better than -25% and growing. It’s probably somewhat safe at this point to just short the Dow Jones. (If you take my advice and lose money, I am not in any way responsible. You make your own choices and I can’t guarantee anything.)

The only good thing to say on the economy at this point is if you have money saved, buy something that’s lost a lot of value and enjoy the upswing in 5 to 7 years.

Also, may Jebus have mercy on the United States of America if Palin is anywhere near the Vice President’s office. She scares the shit out of me and enrages me to the fullest extent possible at the same time.

Too cool for school pretty much guarantees the presidency. Us Americans love our “personable, familiar” candidates.

John Digby has a great post explaining progressive disappointment with Obama and general Democratic strategy for the election. It also sums up much of my feelings towards the candidate. Yes, we meh.

Hell yeah. I’m a big fan of Chris Dodd’s. When he was in the primary race, he was the only candidate who was actually leading as opposed to talking about leading. He’s been a key figure against the latest FISA passage as well as many other civil liberties pushes. I was really sad to see him leave the race, even though he was a non-starter. I’d be happy to see him in the VP slot with a bit more push to fight for his ideals. He certainly would not an exciting or flashy VP. But, he believes in the rule of law and fighting for the constitution, which is more than I can say for most people in Congress. Literally.

Obama/Dodd. Wow, that does not have a ring to it. It sounds like a Saudi transformer robot. That being said, I’d support the campaign more than I would with just Obama.