Fascinating article in the Washington Post that suggests that the economic crisis gripping the U.S. and John McCain's hawkish views towards the Middle East - make him the best candidate suited to further cripple the United States.  Here are some key excerpts from the article:

Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market's downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America's economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents.

This is a scary scenario indeed. 

Read the article in it's entirety here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/21/AR2008102102477.html?hpid=topnews

The Wednesday evening debate has been the talk of the political town in large part due its tabloid nature.  This isn’t to say that tabloid issues haven’t been a part of previous debates.  But the previous debates did manage to do a better job of proportionally allocating horserace questions alongside issue related questions which gave the debates a better balance and made them more substantive.  The initial 45 minutes of this last debate has been panned by an overwhelming number of viewers as well as other journalists.  These critiques are valid – whether ABC chooses to admit them or not. 

However, debates are a fundamental element of elections.  And as an Obama supporter, I would hate to see him make the same fatal mistake that Clinton did dismissing caucuses by blowing off debates.  Obama shouldn’t waive off debates because he had a bad one.  Whether Obama likes it or not, the debate is as much of a measure of an effective campaign as are town hall meetings and arena sized rallies.  And no matter what your opinions are of how the debate was handled by ABC, even the most fervent Obama supporter must admit – Obama’s performance could have been better.   He should take the opportunities he has in the primary elections to improve his debating skills.  Obama has shown himself to be a brilliant and talented orator who can take the most mundane talking points and bring them to life with rare communication skills that most of us don’t have.  But no one is perfect and although Obama can take control of the room when he sets the agenda – he’s not so great when others set the agenda for him.

 So what does he need to do?  He needs to practice!  And he has an able and willing sparring partner with Clinton.  When Obama takes on issues that could be perceived as negative, he often turns them into positives.  He needs to do this with his debating skills.  I believe that if his debating skills had been truly up to par, he could have taken that debate on Wednesday with all of its flaws and turned it into a game-changing debate.  Obama has the opportunity to debate Clinton in North Carolina prior to their May primaries.  If he participates and his performance is an improvement over the Philly debate – he helps no one but himself.  And if you think about it, if he wins the nomination he will debate McCain come September.  McCain hasn’t had to participate in a debate in a while so McCain may come into the general election with rusted debate skills himself.  This could help Obama too – especially if he continues to practice.  So Obama, I implore you to KEEP DEBATING!  Debate as often as the opportunity presents itself during the primaries.  If you do this that will be the most effective way of wiping that dirt off of your shoulders.