One TPM reader says that John McCain's refusal to look Obama in the eye last night is the "behavior of a low ranking monkey."  Our friend is also a real monkey scientists, so I'm ready to believe.

But, if you're skeptical about comparing monkeys to humans (and I know most of you aren't, but just in case) I'd say that McCain's refusal to look Obama in the eye is quite the same as hoping that the bully who roamed the halls in your middle school couldn't see you if you didn't look at him.  Monkey or bullied midschooler, McCain did reveal his own feelings about his chances last night.

I think that Obama turned the phrase "Let's talk about that..." into a verbal assault.  Every time McCain tried to distort Obama's positions, Obama just calmly said "let's talk about that," and then he explained himself, in pret5ty clear language.  The bit about talking to Ahmadinejad was a good example.  Obama does really seem to think that voting aged Americans can process and explanation and make the right choice.  I sure hope he's right.

So the verdict is that there were no game changing moments last night.  I disagree.  The only thing McCain had going for him, heading into this debate, was his stature as a leader with a long record and I think that's diminished now for anyone who watched the debate.  There's no way an undecided voter turned off the TV thinking that McCain proved he had the greater stature.

No one debate is going to decide the election but last night was not a good night for John McCain.  If, at 847 years old, you're still the low ranking monkey, face it -- you're not climbing higher.

The lame duck President said we have to give $700 billion to Wall Street because if we don't even people with good credit won't be able to get loans for cars, college and housing.

Um...

Why in the Hell do people who work every day need loans to by simple things like cars, education and housing?

The real failure here doesn't have anything to do with any capital markets, the failure is that our government allowed an economy to develop where the totally reasonable wishes of everyday workers have been priced to the point where those workers have to go into debt to get them.

Personal transportation, education, housing. Those all strike me as reasonable desires that any person might have. If they perform labor in the service of others on a daily basis, seems to me like those three things should be givens.

The crisis right now is not a credit crisis, it's a compensation crisis. People who work day in and day out  shouldn't have to borrow in order to meet basic needs. The problem is that managers and executives take too much and they pay too little to the people who do all the work.  Credit shouldn't be considered liquidity.  Cash should be.  For that, workers need to be paid more.