Now that everyone agrees that lobbyists are bad, shouldn't we do exactly what they are arguing against? dday points to this Hill article reporting that the bank lobbyists are in a panic over the Dodd bill:

Krugman:

The premise of the Paulson plan– though never stated bluntly — is that these assets are hugely underpriced, so that Uncle Sam can buy them at prices that help the financial industry a lot, without big losses for taxpayers. Are you prepared to bet $700 billion on that premise? But how can we help the financial situation without making that bet? By taking an equity stake. That way, if it turns out that the feds are pumping money in at above-fair prices, at least they get ownership, just as a private white knight would have.

There is no, repeat no justification for refusing to grant equity warrants that provide some taxpayer protection. This is, for me, an absolute deal or no-deal point.

(Emphasis mine.) Why is Paulson resistent on this point? It makes perfect sense.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Quinnipiac released new poll results today:

By 19 - 24 point margins, voters in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin say Democrat Barack Obama, not Republican John McCain, is the candidate of change, helping lift Sen. Obama into the lead in these battleground states, according to four simultaneous Quinnipiac University polls of likely voters in these battleground states, conducted in partnership with The Wall Street Journal and washingtonpost.com and released today.

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As Gov. Sarah Palin meets with foreign leaders today and bans the press from attending (Added: and then changes her mind after protests, but only sort-of), here's former US Army Brigadier General (retired) Janis L. Karpinski's op-ed at TruthOut today on how Palin would turn back time:

I know enough about Palin's character to assess her as ill-equipped, clueless and unprepared to take control of our nation in the event of McCain's early demise or incapacitation, much less qualified to serve as the commander in chief of all military forces. Unfortunately for Palin, leadership is not derived by a process of osmosis.

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Earlier I wrote about the Levine/Wyeth preemption case and it was discussed today among many other cases, in the PFAW/SCOTUSBlog conference call on the upcoming Supreme Court term.

Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSBlog and a Partner at Akin, Gump, stated that he believes this case could have far reaching implications. Goldstein stated that while the SCOTUS has read a broad concept of preemption in FDA approval of medical devices (as it did in Reigel, where the legislation at issue included an express preemption clause. By contrast, it has not in the pharmaceutical drugs area. In the Levine case, the legislation in question does not contain an express preemption clause (indeed it seems to contain an express disavowal of preemption.) In fact, Wyeth is arguing conflict preemption (as opposed to implied preemption) - that it can not comply with federal regulation while avoiding potential state law liability. The twist in this case is that the FDA issued an agency comment that supported Wyeth's position, thus bringing the Chevron deference issue into play.

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Since John McCain and Republicans like Elizabeth Dole and Mel Martinez now claim to have great concerns about lobbyists for Fannie Mac and Freddie Mae, perhaps they can explain why John McCain is expected to choose a Freddie Mac lobbyist to head his transition team:

The lobbying firm of the man Republicans say John McCain has chosen to begin planning a presidential transition earned more than a quarter of a million dollars this year representing Freddie Mac, one of the companies McCain blames for the nation's financial crisis. Timmons & Co., whose founder and chairman emeritus is William Timmons Sr., was registered to lobby for Freddie Mac from 2000 through this month, when the federal government took over both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

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The Senate Banking Committee (Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman) hearing on the proposed Wall Street Bailout begins around 9:30 am ET this morning. I believe all the cable news channels will be broadcasting the hearing. C-Span certainly will have them. You can find the C-Span Live stream here. Here is Fed Chair Bernanke's opening statement.

Below the fold, I will point out issues that catch my interest. Please provide your own thoughts in the comments.

This is an Open Thread.

VastLeft at Corrente has two You Tube videos of Bill Clinton on The View. The video below includes an interesting discussion of the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which I discussed here. I think Clinton gets it right. An interesting discussion and kudos to Bill for not patronizing the audience of The View. He treated them like adults.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

So what issue are voters focused on now? In my opinion, it is the economy. It is NOT Sarah Palin's favorability rating, Troopergate, or any other aspect of Palinpalooza.

Here is an ironic passage from DemfromCt:

Lifetime has a poll getting some play, showing McCain-Palin is making strides with women, at least in terms of understanding them. That number (McCain 44-Obama 42, a big jump for McCain) is very different than who women will vote for.

(Emphasis supplied.) No kidding. Of course that poll result is pretty meaningless in terms of votes. It is about as meaningless as Palin's favorability rating. Time to realize that Palin is an asterisk in this election now. No potential swing voter cares. We're playing by Carville's Rule again - "It's the economy, stupid." Not Sarah Palin.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

We wrote days ago that Gov. Sarah Palin had peaked when polls began to show a noticeable decline in her favorability ratings.

PPP will have a new Colorado poll out this morning. They offer one stat as a teaser. Palin's favorability rating in the has dropped 3 points and her unfavorable rating has increased 9 points.

I'm 100% with Markos of Daily Kos on this:

Again, for those who counseled leaving Palin alone because she was too popular and because it took attention off McCain, had we done so, she'd be entrenched as a woman of the people, propping up the Republican ticket. Instead, she's been relegated to the far less glamorous (and helpful) task of keeping the GOP base intact, nothing more. She may be popular with the base, but people outside wingnut circles aren't impressed.

With Palin neutralized (and there's a reason they're hiding her from view), it's much easier to knock down McCain on the economy, his desire to deregulate healthcare just like Wall Street, his lies, and so on.

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Just starting here. I'll update. This is an open thread.

Update: Chris Rock follows Clinton and is laugh out loud funny on Palin. He talked about her killing a moose (here's a photo)and holding a dead bloodied moose and quips, "Michael Vick is like, 'Why am I in jail?'" (Video here, start at 1:50 in, although the whole thing is funny.)

Update: They talked about the Clinton Global Initiative and the economy. The economy discussion was too complicated for me. (Letterman said the same thing when Clinton was done.) It got a little easier to understand when Clinton changed the subject to how the Bush Administration could have prevented this by having policies that focused on investing in jobs and clean energy rather than giving tax cuts to the rich who just kept investing in real estate, and leveraging the investments, but only a little.

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Colorado has 18 initiatives on the ballot this year, one of which is the dreaded Amendment 48, the Personhood Amendment. The Amendment reads:

"As used in sections 3, 6, and 25 of Article II of the state constitution, the term 'person' or 'persons' shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization,"

In other words, a fertilized egg would be deemed a person. The Denver Post, in an editorial today, urges voters to reject it.

The three sections mentioned are part of the state's Bill of Rights that protect our rights to life, liberty and property. Simply put, Amendment 48 asks that society grant a free-floating fertilized egg the same protections we enjoy as living Americans.

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