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One of my cousins (and one of the smartest people I know) is serving in Afghanistan right now. He just sent this update and it’s worth a read from someone in-the-know. We hear how things are going over there, but rarely first-hand. It seems we rely too much on pool reporters with agendas.

I have been here in Afghanistan for almost a month now, and two days ago we received the shock that we were not here for 4 1/2 months, but closer to 6 1/2. My initial reaction was a bit of surprise and frustration, but then I went to church mostly with soldiers who are here for 6 months minimum, most of them for 12. And I realized that my life is not that bad.

Most all of the soldiers I meet have volunteered to come back here again and again because, unlike me most of the time, they have come to know the locals both here and in Iraq, have come to love them, and really believe and see the difference that there presence has made in people’s lives. So they leave their own families behind again and again to come over here and get the job done. Regardless of what you think of the politics of the war, you cannot help but swell with emotion when talking to these “Joes,” as they are called. Where they come from I don’t know, but their parents obviously taught them a thing or two about selfless service.

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I was a huge fan of ‘The West Wing’. To this day, it remains my favorite TV show, and this is coming from a guy who’s television diet consists primarily of sports and politics, rarely of network primetime dramas and sitcoms.

Did the show skew to the left? Absolutely. Is creator Aaron Sorkin a bit of a nut job? No doubt.

But ‘Wing’ and Sorkin brought the drama of White House politics to us in a way that had never before been experienced. The show was smart, funny and a lot of vets of the real West Wing praised it as pretty darn close to the real thing, with a little creative license thrown in for dramatic effect.

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Hold it, please! Hold it! This is Sir Obama from the court of Chicago — a very brave and influential knight, and my special guest here today.

Hello!
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I realize no one wants to pick up a $700 billion dollar bill, but have you considered what can and will happen if we don’t do something to get this economy moving?

Right now, as you read this, our entire financial system is in gridlock.  There is no confidence in the market place and banks are not lending to each other.  These loans are a vital piece of our economy.  Few businesses have enough cash to operate entirely on cash flow and require loans to grow their operations.

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I’m against the $700 Billion dollar bailout. Instead, I’m in favor of giving the $85 Billion for the bailout of AIG to American Citizens instead. We deserve a dividend and it will save America $615 Billion.

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bona fide U.S. Citizens aged 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child.

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The $700 billion bailout plan for imperiled financial institutions was defeated in the House this afternoon, sending stock markets plunging.

The impact on the campaign remains to be seen, but it is unlikely to be good news for the McCain campaign, who’s poll numbers have taken a considerable hit in the days since the first cracks in the dam started appearing two weeks ago.

Look for the Obama campaign to continue to paint the current economic mess on the policies of the Bush Administration, and then make the link that a vote for McCain is a vote for those policies.

McCain needs to tighten up his economic message, and try to bring Obama into the mess with him to keep the crack of daylight that has opened between them in this race from widening into full blown landslide mode.

Put another one in the “are you really serious?” pile. Apparently Camp Obama is trying to pressure TV and radio stations in Pennsylvania to not air National Rifle Association (NRA) ads. They were up to these same antics a few weeks ago with Chicago radio station WGN and guest David Fredosso. Click to read more …

Welcome to the latest edition of “If the election were held today”

Using the RealClearPolitics poll averages, I’m going to post an electoral map with the results as they could happen if votes were counted today.

Now obviously, this is all based on polling, which I’m sure to have several of you grumble about. But I think this could make for an interesting, occasional snapshot of which way the tide is flowing in the battleground states.

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The Palin sketch isn’t nearly as funny as last time. But the debate is clever.

I’m not even going to attempt to be fair and balanced in my assessment of last night’s Mississippi debate. I think McCain scored a majority of points in an area where he obviously has a wealth of knowledge. Time and again he proved the point that he’s been there, done that, and has several t-shirts from places Obama can barely pronounce.

I think Obama stretched himself to a point that would have impressed even Mr. Fantastic. He knew his talking points and had obviously been well schooled by his debate coaches. It was by far his best un-TelePrompTered performance. That said, he was obviously uncomfortable with McCain’s jabs and I agree with Politico’s Roger Simon - Obama kept looking to Jim Lehrer for help saying: “Let’s move on.”

Sorry, Barry. In the Oval Office there is no moderator.

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Most of us agree that last night’s debate wasn’t quite as exciting as we hoped.  McCain a few good punches, I’ll admit that Obama had one or two, but McCain drove home the fact that Obama is not ready to lead this country.

Obama said he agreed with John McCain eight times and the McCain camp released an ad immediately following the debates using Obama’s words against him.  Does this ad help McCain show the American people that Obama is not ready to lead and will Obama ever say he agrees with McCain again?

I’ve been on the road and out of the PD loop quite a bit lately, but I’m surprised this interview didn’t get any attention. This is just about a “jaw dropper” on my scale.

Is there anyone else who thinks this is a problem? If this is how she performs with Biden, she’s in trouble.

So there were only three of us at the live blog tonight. (Thanks Kaiser for setting it up.) Where were the rest of you? Don’t tell me you’re putting personal lives before politics.

We had a great time, and since we all agreed the debate was a little ho-hum, we ranged in topics from our age to Kaiser’s upcoming nuptials, to being liberal vs conservative, and even some text-messaging lingo. But it was also amusing to poke some fun at McCain’s smirking and Obama looking ticked for the first time, like ever. We almost wondered if either one was going to blow a fuse. (They seem slightly annoyed with each other).

I think I’m going to hand this one to McCain……but only by a little. He started out kinda rough (shall we say….vague?), but then came through with some great one-liners as well as some hard facts.

In your opinion, who won this round?

Barney Frank, that long-standing beacon of legislative power and insight is now telling us that the Republican members of Congress need to “drop the revolt” against the Bush bail out plan. Really? Drop the revolt? How about listen to what the other side has to say Mr. Frank. The GOP legislators are only responding to the American people, their constituents, the people they are supposed to represent and care about. Frank also was shocked at the “level of divisiveness” that surfaced in Thursday’s talks on the plan. I don’t know how Mr. Frank can be surprised, unless he is living under a rock, or not looking out his window, or on the internet, or the poll numbers or any news broadcast. Americans all over the country, from all political persuasions, are frustrated, and mad about this bail out, and they are letting their frustrations be known. I’m glad that some in Congress are standing up, and saying NO to the blank check plan offered by Hank Paulson and George Bush, and agreed to by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

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