1.  How can anyone conscientiously have respect for this Republican administration after they continuously voted to fight and fund the Iraq War after it was positively proven to be launched on lies?

2.  After the deregulation of U.S. banks and financial institutions, with 2 ½ million mortgage foreclosures, the Republican Party refuses to recognized that the deregulation policies created by eliminating the laws established in the 1930's following the Great Depression were the end result of Ronald Reagan's "get the government off the people's backs."  

Phil Gramm, dismissed by the McCain campaign officially after calling America "a nation of whiners" wrote McCain's economic plan and has been an avid deregulation devotee.  He is thought to be McCain's pick for secretary of the treasury should the Arizonan succeed to the White House.

3.  After the Reagan administration tripled the national debt, Republicans, so proud of Reagan, succeeded in naming a Washington airport after him.  If digging a national debt represents an achievement to honor, Republicans, using this twisted logic, ought to rename every U.S. airport after George Bush.  Why?  Because Bush's national debt is greater than all other U.S. national debts combined.

Ronald Reagan's "mantra" of "get the government off people's backs" has taken quite a while to display the end result of this destructive philosophy.

Anyone who has understood the lessons of history and comprehends human psychology recognizes the significance of sensible government oversight.

Common sense tells us that without traffic lights to control, traffic chaos would take over.

Likewise, even a small measure of common sense should acknowledge the absolute necessity of close supervision of banks and every financial institution.

Reports are numerous about Senator John McCain's fondness for crap shooting.  It is therefore unsurprising that he is also known for making quick, gut level decisions.  His selection of Sarah Palin was cited as an example of McCain in quick operation.

What could we therefore anticipate if one of those 3 a.m. calls came from McCain's secretary of the treasury concerning an economic crisis?  Would your confidence be further bolstered with the knowledge that a likely treasury choice would be Phil Gramm,

The same Phil Gramm responsible for the legislation terminating Glass-Steagall banking protections?

The same Phil Gramm whose aid to Ken Lay's Enron caused California's economic shakedown and power collapse?

When U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson announced the desperate need for a $700 billion bailout to save our economic system, hopefully reality finally has set in.

The Seattle Times' September 26 headline read:

END OF WAMU; FEDS SEIZE SEATTLE THRIFT IN NATION'S LARGEST BANK FAILURE

To explain what happened the newspaper added "massive withdrawals" while Washington Mutual Bank's shareholders saw their stock plummet to "worthless."

In the 1984 presidential campaign, despite the temporary boost of the Geraldine Ferraro first female nominee effect, saw incumbent Ronald Reagan begin his ultimately successful re-election effort by visiting the northeast, the traditional Democratic Party's bread basket stronghold.

The reason why the Republican candidate's strategists chose to commence the campaign there was due to the changed electoral college dynamics beginning with the sixties and the passage of historic civil rights legislation that put the south into the reliable camp of the Republican Party.

By the time that Bill Clinton was running in 1992 Republicans were so inured to the idea that the electoral college arithmetic favored them that they were utterly shocked when what an increasing number of mainstream media pundits were citing as continuing political inevitability that he was ever reviled to the point of abject disgust, commencing with an effort to remove him from office.

If the Arthur Schlesingers Senior and Junior along with Kevin Phillips are correct, American politics runs in cycles.  This theory is becoming increasingly popular this election cycle as it appears that the cycle of the Republican right is coming to a crushing halt.

Having grown up in and written about the Hollywood scene, I admired Paul Newman for standing up to the heavy weight imposed by international film stardom and remaining his own person.  Like so many great people a secret for accomplishing this status was never taking himself too seriously.

During the 1968 presidential campaign Paul Newman was one of the most deeply committed figures in the artistic community to urge an end to the tragic Vietnam War that was tearing out America's heart and soul as the death toll mounted in a campaign that realists observe, as they now do in Iraq, that there was no way to achieve "military victory" in the manner that super hawks believe could be realized.

Newman became a mainstay in boosting the campaign of Senator Eugene McCarthy, who surmounted astronomically low odds to playing a major role in derailing any thought President Lyndon Johnson had for winning another term.  McCarthy served as a forerunner of Barack Obama with his success in drawing young voters to his campaign.

Initially a scoffing mainstream media referred to McCarthy's efforts as a "children's crusade" with the Minnesota senator ultimately turning what was intended as an insult into a proud plus as he invoked the name with relish in campaign speeches.

Presidential campaign teams notoriously seek to spin debate performances, especially the first in a series, where momentum is seen as especially important, into "wins" for their respective candidates and the aftermath of last night's Oxford, Mississippi is no exception.

What is observable, however, from the McCain forces is the level of apparent frustration along with lack of imagination for the nature and shape of their post-debate strategy.  In a new ad released following the debate the spin was to capitalize on how many times Barack Obama used the word "agree" in references to points discussed in the debate.

Considering that McCain had at one time sought to postpone Friday's encounter because  America faced a financial meltdown crisis, the strategy appears all the more absurd along with contradictory.

It appears that the McCain strategists feels that this is the best they can do, which reveals how truly lamentable the candidacy of the Arizonan is at this juncture.  If it is so important to rush back to Washington to meet regarding the crisis and political partisanship has become temporarily irrelevant, then wasn't Obama reflecting that spirit?

Glenn Hendler of New York City, writing in the New York Times Letter to the Editors September 24, had this to say:

"From now on we should view anyone who says he believes in the 'free market' with the same attitude that we reserve for an adult who says he believes in the tooth fairy.

"Any long-term solution to the current situation must abjure 'free market' ideology and acknowledge that our long experiment in loose regulation without serious enforcement has been a failure.

"Only then can Congress evaluate whether a $700 billion bailout will actually help the nation as opposed to simply rescuing Wall Street."

One of the tragedies resulting from a changing presidential election process is the manner that, with so many cable companies and so much time to fill, and with competition events from the Super Bowl and World Series to "American Idol" and "Dancing with the Stars", what should be a solemn process to choose a national leader all too often and sadly gravitates in the mainstream media to a quadrennial entertainment event.

As soon as one cycle ends another begins as C-Span launches the latest "Road to the White House" installation.  In the early stages the fields become so large and unwieldy that so-called debates involve selective one line opportunities with any effort to achieve substantive dialogue dead in arrival.

In the outdoor Democratic multi-participant "debate" at Chicago's Soldier Field earlier this year Chris Matthews became deeply immersed if, on a given point, the home team player, former Windy City community organizer and later state and U.S. Senator Obama or local Chicago suburbanite who had ultimately become a New York senator, Hillary Clinton, had prevailed.

Matthews and Pat Buchanan along with others on the panel debated the issue in a manner  expected by an Al Michaels or John Madden discussing a potential winning drive for the New York Giants or New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.  Buchanan concluded that Obama won the point by one measure and that Clinton prevailed by another barometer.

What in God's name is Thomas L. Friedman doing writing a fantasy letter in the September 24 New York Times?

The letter is supposedly from George Bush to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal Al-Maliki.  

Friedman's fantasy letter begins:

"Dear Sirs:

While certain mainstream media analysts and political professionals point to what they view as an unprecedented strategy to run away from a titular leader of a party, these are not typical times and this effort can be understood.  The major question to be begged, however, is how workable is the strategy?

John McCain came out of Arizona early in his career proclaiming himself to be a "maverick," someone operating outside the typical and more traditional aspects of America's two party structure.  When he ran for the Republican presidential nation in 2000 he presented himself in this manner.

It has been carefully analyzed frequently and carefully noted many more times what happened during that pivotal race.  When McCain secured an advantage with an impressive victory in the New Hampshire primary Lee Rove and the Republican right attack machine surged forth with one of the most venomous campaigns in the key state of South Carolina ever seen on U.S. political soil.

McCain understandably was shaken and outraged by being subjected to such an outpouring of outrageous lies, the most hurtful of which involved questions evoked about his personal sanity as well as an attack on his wife and a racist frontal assault on his adopted Bangladeshi daughter.

The most predictable aspect of the ongoing financial earthquake begun last week was a response by George W. Bush to a point raised by Democrats.

While former Goldman-Sachs head Henry Paulson, currently treasury secretary, seeks $700 billion for a bailout package for badly afflicted investment giants, indicating he wants no strings attached where he is personally concerned, prompting some to refer to him as King Henry, Bush delivered a monarchical response of his own.

The twice un-elected King George was an alcoholic, failed oil man and congressional candidate when his resuscitation began.  It was launched as one would expect, by a group of wealthy Texas titans seeking to use his name and family influence.

The process came through with magical precision as a group of wealthy and enterprising Texans sought to build a baseball stadium.  George was used as a standing branch of a money tree as donations were sought for this cause.  

John McCain happens to be the favorite of the religious right in the 2008 presidential election.

When President Clinton had a consensual extra-marital affair, the moral guardians vowed to impeach him.  Much of his time was taken away from his vital presidential duties to answer to endless investigations.

Approximately $40 million was spent by Republicans desperately trying to make a case of for business corruption with the Whitewater land case, but they failed.

These are the same people who apparently refuse to investigate and impeach George Bush for launching a war against Iraq with lies.  The death, destruction, debt and Iraqi displacement has not bothered their consciences.

That was Time Magazine's cover headline with the sub-title:  They had a party wow, you're going to pay" (meaning the U.S. taxpayer).

Of course, what happened took much more than Wall Street to generate such a colossal economic collapse.  It was far more complex, than finger pointing at Wall Street.

The savings and loan $200 billion bailout in the late 1980's was only a preview of things to come.  If at that strategic point in time, regulations had been demanded of banks, with carefully controlled oversight, perhaps the 2008 economic meltdown could have been avoided.

Instead, in 1999, then President Bill Clinton signed the mislabeled Financial Services Modernization Act, also called the Gramm-Leah-Bailey Act.  This act, simply stated, pulled down Glass-Steagall's reforms.  It eliminated the wall separating security firms and investors.

Events reveal that the McCain Bunglers, also known as his presidential campaign staff, have taken the vice-presidential candidate decision and enhanced on the momentum that the Arizona senator generated when he was unaware of how many houses he owned.

A significant element of the McCain campaign strategy as it sought to run away from the record of its own party with the George Bush-Dick Cheney stewardship was to paint a picture of the Arizonan, with better than a generation in Washington as a congressman and senator, as holding a large experience edge over Barack Obama during tense domestic and international times.

In an endeavor to spurn McCain's apparent preference of Joe Lieberman for the vice-presidential nomination due to pressures from the religious right over Lieberman's pro-choice belief, Sarah Palin, a newcomer with an astounding level of inexperience, particularly in the foreign policy field, was selected.

When the mainstream media understandably questioned McCain's choice and began examining her qualifications to serve one heart beat removed from a cancer survivor of 72, the Arizonan's "gang that can't shoot straight" began howling "sexist smear" while choosing not to recognize that any choice resembling someone of Palin's background would have been given curious and thorough media scrutiny.