Richard S. Fuld Jr. was chief executive officer at Lehman Brothers Holding when it collapsed.

In the New York Times account of this dramatic economic crash of a 158 year old business investment giant, Fuld, battered by the reality of his position at the helm of this U.S. business, and formerly highly respected landmark, had a lot to say at a congressional hearing according to the New York Times October 7:

"Richard S. Fuld Jr. blamed the news media.  He blamed the short-sellers.  He blamed the government as well as what he characterized an `extraordinary run on the bank.'

"Instead in his first public appearance since Lehman's collapse, Mr. Fuld said in sworn testimony before a congressional panel on Monday, that while he took full responsibility for the debacle, he believed that all his decisions `were both prudent and appropriate' given the information he had at the time."

More than one hundred years ago, in speaking of America, British historian Lord Macaulay warned:

"Your Republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire was in the fifth, with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from without and your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own country by your own institutions."

The October 3 Seattle Times headline on the opinion page in a column by Lance Dickey read:

"As American empire wanes, the world shrugs its shoulders."

Ever since the announcement of the nation's economic meltdown John McCain has been seeking to turn the tide of battle.  When he compounded a problem whose ripple effect could in itself have signaled the realistic end of his chance to prevail, he caused further damage by stating that "the fundamentals of the U.S. economy are strong."

Two debates followed that the Republicans hoped would change the dynamics of a campaign running away from them through an economic tide over which they had no control.  Republican strategists spun the debates as mightily they could, but the sum effort was caught up in a floodtide of reality.

The reality involved was too many people realizing that Democrats McCain and Biden had successfully demonstrated that the "change" promised by operatives of the "Straight Talk Express" were doing no more than desperately seeking to hijack the other side's campaign theme.  McCain and Palin loomed as no more than unconvincing copy cats seeking to jump on what they realized was a resonant theme.

What John McCain could not shake was that he was very much a Washington insider who had been there 25 years with his strong support of Bush's agenda militating powerfully against his own frequently proclaimed "maverick" claim.  

"The Bells are Ringing" musical comedy hit song "The Party's Over" sung by Judy Holliday fits uniquely for America on October 3 as the $700 billion bailout has been finally passed.  The song's melancholy message fits what ended that crucial day:

"Now you must wake up!
All dreams must end.
Take off your makeup,
The party's over,
It's all over my friend."

The ancient Greek empire lasted approximately 400 years while the Roman Empire lasted approximately 600 years.

The U.S.A. is 232 years old and our current economic meltdown is a warning call that if greed has replaced the motto on our currency "In God We Trust" we are in deep trouble.

Whatever might have remained of the objective of using debates as a source of voter information and guidance was rudely shattered last night on a St. Louis stage after Republican media spin hands did their best to banish reason and logic out of existence and replace it with chilling Orwellian style 1984 rote garble.

Based on any traditional debate format Joe Biden performed with precision skill.  Sarah Palin's "performance" and that is labeling her evening's activity kindly, was a totally different matter.

My discomfort level rose sharply as the chirpy Palin drone persisted.  I was reminded of a faithful pet parrot called Polly that long time family friends kept in their San Diego, California home years ago.  

The line "Polly wants a cracker" was once synonymous with the rote, unvarying response of a parrot doing what it was told, delivering a programmed response as the faithful pet entertained its owners along with visiting friends and relatives.

Columnist Thomas Friedman in the New York Times October 1 explained succinctly what his perception of the credit crunch crisis amounts to:

"I've always believed that America's government was a unique political system -- one designed by geniuses so that it could be run by idiots.  I was wrong.  No system can be smart enough to survive this level of incompetence and recklessness by the people charged to run it.

"This is dangerous.  We have House members, many of whom I suspect can't balance their own checkbooks, rejecting a complex rescue package because some voters, who, I fear also don't understand, swamped them with phone calls.  I appreciate the popular anger against Wall Street, but you can't deal with this crisis this way.

"This is a credit crisis.  It's all about confidence.  What you can't see is how bank A will no longer lend to good company B or mortgage company C.  Because no one is sure the other guy's assets and collateral are worth anything, which is why the government needs to come in and put a floor under them.  Otherwise, the system will be choked of credit, like a body being choked of oxygen and turning blue."

One of the key elements psychiatrists look for in patients that have gone over the edge is the failure to exercise self control and a given propensity for, whenever differences in opinion surface, to succumb to towering rage.

Another important sign of such dangerously dysfunctional behavior involves an inability to reason and construct thinking not on realistic application of facts, where even then a person can reach a wrong conclusion, but in absurdly dysfunctional applications of subject matter to reach nonsensical conclusions.

Fox's right wing propaganda panderer Bill O'Reilly has succumbed in both areas with disastrous results.  

His interview of Jeremy Glick, whose father died as a first responder to the 9/11 tragedies, provided an instance of a frothing at the mouth O'Reilly who shut off Glick's microphone after he strayed from the acceptable course set out by the moderator of a love feast for George W. Bush and the acceptance that he was the hero and national symbol for 9/11 leadership.

In 1988 David Gergen commented on Dan Quayle prior to his debate with Lloyd Bentsen after much criticism and doubt had surfaced about the Indiana senator's qualifications for the vice presidency.

"If Quayle shows up he beats expectations," Gergen noted.

The question that now surfaces is the situation Republican current vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin occupies.  Given the rocky sledding the Alaska governor has encountered, particularly in the last disastrous week with fallout over her less than awesome interview appearances with Katie Couric, it could be said that Palin will beat expectations if she makes it to St. Louis on debate day.

With the comedic onslaught about Palin with that epicenter being Tammy Fey's brilliant satires on "Saturday Night Live", in which some of her best lines were verbatim from transcript, some analysts have stated that with the bar being set so slow, or perhaps with no bar at all, the Alaskan can benefit by just being herself and seeking to avoid any serious gaffes.

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?