Who is giving McCain this advice? Doe she realize how stupid he looks? I loved Rachel Maddow last night, she had a great segment on "Suspended" She is the best thing to happen to MSNBC.

I agree. Since you apparently watched her show, their viewership has at least doubled!!

Proudly liberal, Oxford, Rhodes scholar, doctorate in political science...

What's not to like? I've listened to her for years on AAR - starting when she co-hosted their Morning show with Liz Winstead (Daily Show creator!) 

Best show since Olbermann (who's a tad better than Donahue)

And, as Keith points out to a blushing Rachel, her ratings are VERY good!

COURIC: Meanwhile, John McCain was also on Capitol Hill today, suspending his campaign so he could be part of the negotiations. We also spoke late this afternoon.

By all accounts, the McCain Campaign continues.  Correct reporting would simply entail stating that McCain claims to have suspended his campaign for the White House, not that he has in fact done so.

From the September 25 broadcast of NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams:

WILLIAMS: Senator, as you may know, you took some heat today. One Democrat said you parachuted in, trying to ride to the rescue of this deal. And you also said yesterday that you were suspending your campaign, yet it's been pointed out your surrogates were out all day doing campaign work against the Obama campaign, as they do each day. Are you happy with how you've played this so far?

I find that last question very interesting. Chess match anyone?

OT and Btw, does anybody else have problems receiving email on hotmail?

OT and Btw, does anybody else have problems receiving email on hotmail?

Julia, I haven't received anything in my hotmail since yesterday afternoon. I wonder if anything I've sent has reached anyone?

Yes it has. But not working the other way.   

You might try yahoo. I just created an account there since hotmail seems to be having problems.

THANKS for sharing :-0)

Beat it, Jeter, she was asking me.  So anyways, JuliaJayne, my Hotmail has been ok today and yesterday.

Who's been receiving from a hot male?

I do whenever possible :-0) Or at least when his email ain't all funky.

If by "hot" you mean "angry" and by "male" you mean "McCain" then I think the answer is the NYT, Newsweek, WP, Bill Kristol, a very confused Arby's Manager, and a handfull of campaign surrogates.

Beat it, Jeter, she was asking me

Yeah Gov you wish. Miz Julia is my lady :-)

To juliajayne:  About the hotmail issue, yes.  I have several friends who cannot get my e-mails and some even say they can't access their mail daily.  This gives me great distress because I want to share stuff with them.  It is easier for me to communicate with the good people at this post than my personal friends.  My own gmail account has been terrific.  

On THIS current topic:  why is Couric still on the air?  She is the Sarah Palin of network news.  Why is it obvious to everyone that McCain's shills continue with the campaign HOURLY, but a highly paid anchoress doesn't get it?

Jeffrey Toobin: Ummm, can we please stop saying McCain suspended his campaign already? By: SilentPatriot @ 5:30 AM - PDT     Jeffrey Toobin injects a much-needed dose of reality into a panel discussion on “The Situation Room” about John McCain’s decision to “suspend” his campaign and postpone the debate.

TOOBIN: Well, can I just quarrel with the premise of this? Who says he suspended his campaign? He didn’t suspend his campaign. He’s been campaigning all day. He gave a speech in New York. He’s giving interviews all night. He’s raising money. His surrogates are attacking Barack Obama.

I think this is posturing of being apolitical. And, frankly, I think we’re being kind of gullible in falling for it. He didn’t stop his campaign. He’s campaigning. Now whether it’s successful or not…

HAYES: He’s pulled his ads down, too, Wolf.

TOOBIN: No, he didn’t pull his ads down. His ads have been on. And he’s done exactly what Obama has done all day. And Obama admits that he’s campaigning. It’s the middle of the campaign. I don’t see why we should treat what he’s doing as anything different from what Obama is doing.

John McCain will attend the debate. From his campaign:

Senator McCain has spent the morning talking to members of the Administration, members of the Senate, and members of the House. He is optimistic that there has been significant progress toward a bipartisan agreement now that there is a framework for all parties to be represented in negotiations, including Representative Blunt as a designated negotiator for House Republicans. The McCain campaign is resuming all activities and the Senator will travel to the debate this afternoon. Following the debate, he will return to Washington to ensure that all voices and interests are represented in the final agreement, especially those of taxpayers and homeowners.

This, after reports of:

WASHINGTON — The day began with an agreement that Washington hoped would end the financial crisis that has gripped the nation. It dissolved into a verbal brawl in the Cabinet Room of the White House, urgent warnings from the president and pleas from a Treasury secretary who knelt before the House speaker and appealed for her support.

Straight Talk Express = Train in Vain.

so, ol stuporman flew in at the last second and savaged the day!

Released this morning BEFORE McCain decided to attend the debate.

Game over.  McCain is done.

Then why is he still gaining ground in the polls?

This morning's NBC/WSJ poll asked this question:  Is Sarah Palin ready to be President?  47% said NO, 40% said YES.  Remember, the question was "Is Sarah Palin ready to be PRESIDENT", not VICE President.  FORTY PER CENT SAID YES. (I don't like to use caps, but this time it is necessary.) FORTY PER CENT!!!!! Said she was ready to be PRESIDENT.  If that isn't horrifying proof of a huge number of morons who will be voting in November then I don't know what is.   

Meh, Donald, I guess that's why I try to never overestimate the American public, and don't get too crushed by the usual results of our political process. Considering that Most Americans believe that angels and demons are active in the world, and nearly 80 percent think miracles occur, I can't get very upset knowing that 40% of us think Mrs. Loopner would be a smashing president.

Donald, thanks for the info on hotmail. And I do agree with you on Couric. She gets paid too much (well they all do) to be that dumb. Unless they're paying her to be dumb? That thought gives me some pause.   

"If that isn't horrifying proof of a huge number of morons who will be voting in November then I don't know what is. "

YES..you mean that 50 percent in some polls who are picking Obama?  The MOST ill-prepared candidate for President in this country's HISTORY.

That is REAL scary

Noleftie, how can you really believe that.  If you do believe it, guess you're an unreflective moron.

No, Noleft, I think it was pretty clear he was referring to the percentage of Americans who think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president. If you can't come up with anything better than " I'm rubber, you're glue", you may want to re-think your positions.

I realize you posted this before the debate tonight, and you're working entirely off of what you've been told by the media,so I'll cut you some slack.

Just remember (if you watched the debate) that Grampy is the brains of the McCain/Palin team. Ouch.

McCain has been consistently slipping in the polls for several days ....

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/

If this last gambit didn't put the fork in him, I don't know what will.

Ummm....That's a fake. Haven't you heard?

Says who?

Found the transcript online of the part of the Couric interview edited out:

"COURIC: Senator McCain, what is your favorite dessert?

McCAIN: Well, you have your meat group, and your dairy group, and your grains group, and your chocolate group.  And people realize how important nutrition is, and we need to explain that it affects your health as well as your figure.  And I don't have to remind you, Katie, that for 5 years, I was thankful just to have the occasional plate of disgusting slop slid under my cell door, but I am confident that my food now is nutritious and tasty.  And I understand it is important for U.S. Americans to have food they like, such as.  And they will eat it."

I guess we can expect this. It is part of a pattern, the surge worked, because he comes back and offers a definition of the surge that sort of fits the facts on hand. He says the economic fundamentals are sound, comes back with a definition of fundamentals that sort of make sense, but are not fundamentals that any learned in any ecomoics class. Of course he has never passed an upper level economics class so we should forgive him that misunderstanding. He apparently is clueless except for the ability to read cue cards that someone has prepared for him that sort of kind of explain away his non sensical statements.

Put the country first my ass. This is nothing but a campaign ploy.

Yes it is. We are less than 40 days away from the election and McCain has yet to articulate his positions on anything. He's just a posturing pompous old fool with no plan, no vision, and an ego so big he has to be the center of attention. He must have choked big time when he picked that ninny palin to be his running mate, she draws a bigger crowd than he ever did.

Again, this is a non-issue. The campaign was indeed suspended. However, ads and appearances that had been arranged prior to the suspension still went off as coordinated. This is a weak arguement. Once you pay for advertising and make commitments to appear on television, you keep those obligations. McCains suspension meant that no further campaign business would be conducted.

...until after the meeting at the Whitehouse disintegrated and he jumped on a plane and headed down to Mississippi.

By the way, I'm suspending writing any more comments...

Okay.  That's about long enough.  Suspension lifted.

Who are you & what have you done with the REAL solon?

Whew...thanks jeter for the validation...been wondering the same thing.

I've been seeing these concise and sane posts by someone under the signature of solon...and I thought I was in bizarro world.

Pretty much.  You're in Conservativeland, which has pretty much the same funhouse illusions and warped mirrors, just with different clowns.

NEON DESERT:  I have stopped watching MSM "news" for the most part.  The real news is on "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report".  Jon Stewart's summary of McCain's "suspension of his campaign" NAILED it for what it is.  Catch the re-run today.

I wish the real Solon would return and clean the fake one's clock.

The campaign was indeed suspended. However, ads and appearances that had been arranged prior to the suspension still went off as coordinated.

Can you help me understand the quantum physics timing of this post-suspension, pre-resuspension timing of this McCain Ad?:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/09/mccain_wins_debate.html

Can you help me understand the quantum physics timing of this post-suspension, pre-resuspension timing of this McCain Ad?

Werner Heisenberg is out for a drive when he's stopped by a traffic cop. The cop asks, "Do you know how fast you were going?" Heisenberg proclaims, "No, but I know where I am."

Heisenberg's gamma-ray microscope for locating an electron (shown in blue). The incoming gamma ray (shown in green) is scattered by the electron up into the microscope's aperture angle θ. The scattered gamma-ray is shown in red. Classical optics shows that the electron position can be resolved only up to an uncertainty Δx that depends on θ and the wavelength λ of the incoming light. of course in the case of McCain-Palin the entire equation is skewed unpredictably because of the presense of slime and a smear of pig's lipstick in the aperture.

Yada...yada...yada

I'm beginning to think that whoever is truly running the McCain campaign is really an Obama supporter. Look at all of the stunts McCain has pulled, especially now with this whole "suspension" thing. These stunts are stupid and haven't really helped his campaign. I think it's over for McCain - and I think he knows it, too.

McCain did indeed suspend his campaign. How do I know? He SAID SO...that is the standard MMFA uses for The Chosen One. If Barack SAYS it, it's TRUE

Oh yeh, McCain said so.  Even though he was campaigning the whole time and so was his staff.  His grandstanding was embarrassing and disruptive.

Hi Mary. I think NothingLeft is a little panicky. He's got one " I know you are, but what am I?" post here, and this one;Calling accusations against Obama with no support = accusations against McCain with objective, black & white support. I think we should just be kind to him.