Rep. Michele Bachmann, furthering the McCain campaign's attack on Barack Obama's patriotism, told Chris Matthews on Friday that she is "concerned that [Obama] may have anti-American views." Matthews asked Bachmann if Obama stood alone among elected representatives who harbor an anti-American agenda.

"What I would say - what I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating exposé and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an exposé like that."

What a great idea. Some intrepid reporter should be going door to door in the congressional office buildings with a survey. "How do you feel about America? For it or against?" Maybe elected representatives could be asked to sign a loyalty oath. Michael Tomasky explains why the reporter's first visit should be to Bachman's office: [more ...]

Fixing the nation's infrastructure will create jobs, save lives, and keep the economy moving.

One of every four bridges in the country is either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, and bringing them up to snuff will cost $140 billion, according to the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials. America's drinking water infrastructure is woefully underfunded; the Congressional Budget Office says we must invest at least $11.6 billion over the next 20 years. Highway congestion costs us $78 billion annually through the 4.2 billion hours and 2.9 billion gallons of gasoline we waste each year, according to the Texas Transportation Institute. The list goes on.

Dave Demerjian finds both presidential candidates wanting in their commitment to infrastructure rehabilitation, although Barack Obama has been more attentive to the issue, and more specific in policy proposals, than John McCain. Demerjian believes both are too timid. He proposes a national infrastructure initiative modeled after the WPA. That seems at least as worthy an investment of taxpayer dollars as the financial industry bailout.

Bump and Update (TL): White Collar Crime blog weighs in with good suggestions. I'm with TChris, let's reduce the number of agents assigned to drug investigations.

Original Post by TChris 10/18/08

The Bush administration's top law enforcement priorities have been terrorism and (especially of late, it seems) voter registration fraud. The investigation of financial crime has suffered.

Since 2004, F.B.I. officials have warned that mortgage fraud posed a looming threat, and the bureau has repeatedly asked the Bush administration for more money to replenish the ranks of agents handling nonterrorism investigations, according to records and interviews. But each year, the requests have been denied, with no new agents approved for financial crimes, as policy makers focused on counterterrorism.

[more ...]

Iraq wants the US out:

The Iraqi parliament's biggest political bloc is calling for all American troops to leave this country by the end of 2011 as a condition for approving a new agreement extending the U.S. military presence in Iraq, a senior official said Sunday. . . . If the conditions are not met, "I cannot see that this agreement will see the light," said Sami al-Askeri, a Shiite parliamentarian and political adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

It was not immediately clear if the U.S. would accept the conditions, which would make significant changes to the draft agreement produced in recent days. The bilateral accord is aimed at replacing a United Nations mandate that provides the legal authority for U.S. troops to be in Iraq. It expires on Dec. 31.

(Emphasis supplied.) It seems the only people whgo want the US to keep spending 10 billion dollars a month in Iraq indefinitely are George Bush and John McCain. After all, as John McCain says:

One of our readers asked for an open thread to discuss the Sunday morning talk shows. Here it is. Open to all other topics, as well.

Update: Houston Chronicle:

Perhaps the worst mistake McCain made in his campaign for the White House was the choice of the inexperienced and inflammatory Palin as his vice-presidential running mate. Had he selected a moderate, experienced Republican lawmaker such as Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison with a strong appeal to independents, the Chronicle's choice for an endorsement would have been far more difficult.

...Back in the spring, Obama's sentiments seemed more a hope than reality. Since then, we have watched him grow in the roles of candidate and leader, maintaining grace under fire without resorting to political expediency. He is by far the best choice to deliver the changes that Americans demand.

The Detroit Free Press: [More...]

See TChris yesterday. Anti-American? Socialist? Yes, the Red Scare is upon us again. Saturday, John McCain said:

You see, Obama believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that help us all make more of it. Joe [the sort of Plumber], in his plainspoken way, said this sounded a lot like socialism. And a lot of Americans are thinking along those same lines. In the best case, "spreading the wealth around" is a familiar idea from the American left. . . . At least in Europe, the Socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives.

The Democratic Party as a secret Socialist cabal? I guess McCain is jettisoning the bipartisan schtick too, running as an anti-FDR Republican now (McCain like Joe the Plumber and Joe McCarthy, thinks Social Security is Socialism too.)

The last refuge of a Party of Scoundrels:

Two weeks to go and the tracking polls are converging - Obama with a significant advantage but not a double digit lead. Today, DKos/R2000 stays steady with Obama +7, 50-43. Ras has Obama up 6, 51-45. Hotline has Obama up 7, 48-41. IBD/TIPP has Obama up 7, 48-41. Gallup has Obama up 7, 51-44 (up 10 in the RV).

Obama has more money than any candidate in history now (justifying his opt-out of public finance), having raised $150 million in September and likely to top that in October. He will be swamping McCain in every battleground state with money. I do not see what John McCain can do to win this race. I think it is over.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Reacting to news that Barack Obama set a record by raising $150 million in donations in September, John McCain said:

I mean, Senator Obama raised $150 million in — I understand, during the month of September, completely breaking whatever idea we had after Watergate to keep the costs and spending on campaigns under control — first time, first time since the Watergate scandal.

And I can tell you this, that has unleashed now in presidential campaigns a new flood of spending that will then cause a scandal, and then we will fix it again.

Chris Wallace helpfully asked McCain whether Obama was "buying the election," a suggestion that McCain happily embraced. [more ...]

Will Colin Powell endorse Obama? Find out Sunday morning when he appears on Meet the Press.

Update: Powell endorsed Obama.

Shorter version: McCain doesn't have a grasp on the economic problems we face and Palin isn't ready to be President, which is the job of the Vice-President. Biden is ready. [More...]

We wrote up the LA Times, Washington Post, Denver Post, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution on Friday and the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday.

Today we have:

The New York Daily News: Overly wordy and infused with the editorial board's own position on issues and more a plea for bipartisanship. You get the picture the minute they call McCain's position "dead-on" about Iraq. So why not McCain? He's hampered by Bush and the last 8 years. [More...]

Saturday Night Live will have not only Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin, but Sarah Palin herself.

We'll post video when it's available. I'll update with my thoughts after the segment airs here.

If you're in an earlier time zone and have seen it, feel free to weigh in.

Update: Huffpo has video here. Reuters recap here, AP wrapup here.

Update: My take: The opening was ho-hum, the Weekend Update segment with Amy Poehler's rap was great. I highly recommend watching Amy in that segment. All Palin did was sit there and play the good sport, which was fine by me. The sidelines is where she belongs.

Opening skit below the fold: