If there ever was a sentence that summed up John McCain's vision for the 21st century, that was it.   And it isn't pretty.
When he suggested a spending freeze on everything but defense, he crystallized what it is that sets him apart from Barack Obama.  
McCain really wants to be a war time President.  And that's dangerous.  
Because it means that our  enemies stay enemies and our allies might well become them.  

 No one's ever charged $700,000,000,000 for a speaking engagement.  But John McCain won't debate until a check is issued.  
In terms of priority,  the bail out of Wall Street should be postponed, not the first and arguably the most consequential presidential debate in American history.  
Just a little update;  as I understand it, the democrats are folding again;  they gave up their idea to start with 150 billion to see how the bail out works first.  Now they're all in for 700 billion up front.  

Reports of Iraqi parliamant moving forward with provincial elections have overshadowed the climbing death toll.  Also, due to unclean drinking water, over 300 Iraqis have been diagnosed with cholera.  Here's a link to the story.

Not the best news to precede tomorrow night's foreign policy debate, which may be, perhaps not so coincidentally, postponed. 

That's my point of view on his recent move to cancel the debate on Friday evening, so he can focus on bail out procedures.  
You can't ask the world to stop when you're President because you can only focus on one crisis at a time.  

It seems politicians stand up for ethics reform once they're in office, but before they get there, ethics don't even exist. 
It's an anything-goes-sleaze-fest, teeming with slander, libel, hate speech, character assassination and false advertising.   

Would any candidate champion such an effort?

I know, not in a million years.  But suppose you could craft a proposal, what regulations would there be?  What penalties?

The alleged "emergency financial crisis" that was brilliantly scheduled to transpire the very last week of congress before the election is getting all the attention. 
Meanwhile, the very same week, the entire ban on offshore drilling will expire. 
"First come first serve, drill to your heart's content.  Let's also steal 700 billion before we break."

When it comes to lying, everyone has a "tell".  Some subtle gesture that gives that person away.    
A slow blink. A slight finger tap. A barely discernible furrowed brow.  
So what's John McCain's tell?  Talking.  
Watch him very closely the next time he's at a campaign rally, or when he's being interviewed.   As soon as he opens his mouth to speak, that's the tell.  He may hesitate slightly, with mouth agape, as if to rethink the order of words, but it's too late. 
He's already activated the launch sequence of a complete fabrication.  

Remember, keep your eye on the opening of his mouth. You should be able to pick up on this your first try.  
Now cultural anthropologists and those who study sociopaths will tell you that no two tells are alike. Not even in the animal kingdom.  But recent observations of the McCain campaign may disprove that theory.  
In one study, respondents were each given a short video clip of different McCain spokespersons and asked to determine if there was any dissembling behavior.  And if so, they were to write down what they thought  gave it away.  
To establish a baseline, the first video was of a gorilla being truthful about wanting to kill a former research assistant that worked here for years.   
The respondents all answered correctly;  the gorilla was being honest. 
Then they watched the other videos and they were asked to fill out a multiple choice questionnaire that indicated "most likely lying, possibly lying, not sure, etc.  
The results were startling.  

Respondents who watched videos of Rick Davis, Steve Schmidt and Tucker Bounds all checked the same answer on the questionnaire.  "E"-- lying through the skin of their teeth.  
After asking each respondent what the different "tells" were for each of the McCain spokespersons, they all said it was when each started talking--that was the dead giveaway.  
We're taking a survey.  
Have you noticed the "tell" of the McCain campaign? 

Maybe in years past a good percentage of voters didn't feel passionate enough about a presidential candidate and wanted to wait and see what they had to say.  
But if you don't know what the two candidates stand for by now, you have to be living under a rock.  
Anyone have a gut instinct about whether or not there really are undecided voters out there?  15%?