Here's the summary of the Bailout Proposal from Nancy Peloisi's office.

It's now a $350 billion bailout, at least up front. I'm not seeing anything that prevents home foreclosures or that helps those who underwent foreclosures in the past year.

The government can use its power as the owner of mortgages and mortgage backed securities to facilitate loan modifications (such as, reduced principal or interest rate, lengthened time to pay back the mortgage) to help reduce the 2 million projected foreclosures in the next year

There's tax relief -- for banks. [More...]

Two tracking polls have been released that include Saturday polling (the day after the debate. In the DKos/R2000 poll (9/25-27), Obama ticked up a point overall (he had a +9 on Saturday), and leads 50-43. In the Ras poll, Obama maintains his 6 point lead, 50-44. At the least he did not lose ground in Saturday polling. Update - Gallup has a big Saturday move for Obama - he now leads by 8, 50-42. Hotline has Obama by 5, 47-42.

We'll add other polls as available, but so far it seems the debate did Obama no harm and probaly helped.

By Big Tent Democrat

Via TPM, the Times of London reports:

In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one -- the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.

Inside John McCain's campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. "It would be fantastic," said a McCain insider. "You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week."

The strange thing is it very well may be McCain's best bet.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Jeralyn does not like the deal, I think it is the right thing to do. The NYTimes reporting, as opposed to the wire service report Jeralyn read, explains why.

First and foremost, on helping distressed HOMEOWNERS:

[The proposal] requires the government to use its new role as owner of distressed mortgage-backed securities to make more aggressive efforts to prevent home foreclosures.

In my view, this will be HOLC in the next Administration should Obama win. Barack Obama needs to run on this issue from now until the election. The bill will be vague on how the government will be "required" to prevent home foreclosures. Obama, and Hillary Clinton., and every good Democrat should say HOLC will be how it is done.

MORE . . .

Just after midnight on Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a bailout deal has been reached.

The plan calls for the Treasury Department to buy deeply distressed mortgage-backed securities and other bad debts held by banks and other investors. The money should help troubled lenders make new loans and keep credit lines open. The government would later try to sell the discounted loan packages at the best possible price.

At the insistence of House Republicans, some money would be devoted to a program that would encourage holders of distressed mortgage-backed securities to keep them and buy government insurance to cover defaults.

More...

This ad came on my tv during Saturday Night Live. Check it out. There's one person accused of wrong doing in the ad -- with a caption under him referring to CEO rip-offs. He's also, besides Obama, the only African -American in the ad.

The "victim" in the ad is a white woman with white hair. Her caption reads "Protect your savings and pensions."

Is he playing to perceived prejudices of elderly white women? Seemed like it to me. When I think of CEO's who rip off the public or their own companies, I think of Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, Bernie Ebbers and a few others. Why did McCain pick this guy? (And no, I have no idea who he is, which leads me to believe the average voter doesn't either.)

The clip should be making the Internet rounds shortly. A very funny version of last night's Obama-McCain debate -- with Hillary waiting in the wings to debate Obama in case McCain didn't show.

It mocked them both, but I think McCain came off worse. What did you think?

Update: I only tuned in at the debate point and missed the opening skit. Here's the opening skit with Tina Fey as Palin and Amy Poehler as Katie Couric. It's very , very funny. Palin could not seem dumber. The musical guest who came on after the debate was just terrible, I thought it was a joke. Someone named Duffy who had one move, throwing one arm in the air, couldn't sing and had the same hairstyle as Sarah Palin, only blonde. Paris Hilton has more talent.

This is an open thread.

The New York Times reports on John McCain's ties to the gaming industry and his personal gambling habits.

Only six members of Congress have received more money from the gambling industry than Mr. McCain....

....For much of his adult life, Mr. McCain has gambled as often as once a month, friends and associates said, traveling to Las Vegas for weekend betting marathons. Former senior campaign officials said they worried about Mr. McCain’s patronage of casinos, given the power he wields over the industry.

About McCain's role in taking down Jack Abramoff for his representation of Indian tribes: [More...]

Via John at Square State, I've found out there's a site called Sharpy News that has no original material and is misappropriating the blogposts of hundreds of blogs, reposting them without proper attribution or authorization, allowing people to comment on our blog posts at its site, and inserting hotlinks within our posts that redirect the reader to its site.

Example of some TalkLeft posts reproduced at Sharpy News (with their tags inserted):

• Can Evangelical Voters Win Colorado For Mccain?
  (TalkLeft version here.)
• Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s Day In Gitmo Court (TalkLeft version here.)

Go check them out and see if your posts are there. John says they are also misappropriating material from OpenLeft.com, Firedoglake and fivethirtyeight.com. [More...]

The baffling logic of John McCain:

"I was a little disappointed the media called it a tie, but I think that means when they call it a tie that means we win."

And if the public calls it an Obama win, does that also mean McCain wins?

I've been blogging so much I completely forgot that my birthday is Sunday. It's not the big one, but close enough to make me less than cheerful.

We're all been working really hard here. Not just at keeping you up to date with the latest on the election, but in making sure the site stays civil and weeding out the drive-bys and blog-cloggers who come here not to have a reasonable debate but to slam and insult our readers or try to hijack or dominate the discussion.

If you appreciate our coverage, or want to buy me a birthday drink, here are the links. If you're short on funds, don't give it another thought, we'll get by:

Here's the paypal link, it's very easy. If you don't like paypal (which takes credit cards if you don't have a paypal account) feel free to pull a few dollars out of your pocket and send it snail mail. The address is below the fold.

More...:

John McCain's claim that the bailout bill required his personal attention, a claim that prompted him to suspend his campaign (except for all the campaigning he did during the suspension) and to blow off the debate (except for his participation in it), is all the more difficult to swallow today. If the bill is so important that only McCain can lead his party's negotiations, where is McCain today?

Mr. McCain remained in his condominium in Arlington, Va., until 12:30 p.m. Saturday, when he emerged and made a one-minute trip in his motorcade to his campaign headquarters around the corner.

Mark Salter confirmed that McCain won't go to Capitol Hill today, but will make sure negotiations "move along" by talking on the telephone.

Asked why Mr. McCain did not go to Capitol Hill after coming back to Washington to help with negotiations, Mr. Salter replied that "he can effectively do what he needs to do by phone."

Apparently McCain didn't learn until this morning that telephones exist. At least McCain is likely to do less damage if he stays away.