Marc Ambinder has been talking with contacts he maintains in the Republican campaign.  Apparently, as we might have anticipated if we gave it thought, there is a game plan for the last 10 days:

McCain advisers say they're saving their best material for the last ten days of  the race, when, the campaign hopes, three quarters of the remaining undecided voters will make up their minds, and their minds will be concentrating on Barack Obama. When the urgency of the presidential election impresses itself, the hope is that these voters will swing back to the familiar, rather than the unknown.  The last ten days, according to a McCain aide, are when the "imponderables" come into play.

We need to keep the magnitude of whats going on with international markets firmly in view and to also understand the swift action with which they are now supposedly recovering.

The british, in the short span of 5 days, forged legislation and +implemented+ it.  In so doing, they stopped a market contagion that had spread from America to the entire world.

This was obviously triage. So today, as you watch the markets hop upward (as I predicted they would yesterday) please be aware that in financial analysis, there is something called a "dead cat bounce". This is the sharp upward spike in the price of a share, or the value of an index, that occurs after a precipitous drop. The off-color analogy refers to the fact that if a cat fell from a skyscraper, when it hits bottom, even though its dead, its going to bounce upward.

The damage to the markets, as a result of the republican block of common sense legislation and the half-measures of various GOP presidential candidates, is far-reaching. Even as the conservative wing of the GOP debate the merit of the rescue proposal, the very fact that a country (Britain) implemented a rescue proposal, directly warded a great depression.

That said, the risk is still there. This may only be a dead cat bounce. What do you think?

Super fresh update

James Cromwell is asked by the uppity Chuck Todd why the version of events in "W" should be taken seriously (he actually asked why it wouldn't be seen as the angry liberal version of reality...is he living in this country?) Cromwell lists several books from which the material was drawn, Chuckie scoffs at the mention of Kitty Kelley...Cromwell says to Chuck: your opinion is supposedly (heh) researched, my opinion is researched. Oliver researched this story and this play and it should be viewed as such. I fucken heart James Cromwell. That'll do pig, that'll do.

Fresh update...the mayor of America, thinks...wait, don't let me ruin your reverent moment...that...ACORN is perpetrating massive voter fraud. OK fine. How does he explain the polling numbers then? No one asks and no one answers. Sonofafuckingdouchnozzle.

UPDATE: I think Joe Scarborough is Canadian. After his last screed on the HORRIBLE, HIDEOUS deficits ::collapses into heaving laughter:: his mouth...I swear to God and this bottle of Jim Beam that I saw daylight between his mouth and the back of his head. He was literally unhinged. So HEY INS. Morning Joe is clearly a Canadian infiltrator...wake up white more southern than where joe came from people. I mean shit...what kinda country is this???

I'm pissed and am typing from the spoken word so please be kind...

With the latest SurveyUSA poll continuing to show a close race in Georgia between Republican U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin [Source: SurveyUSA, "Democrat Martin Still Hot on Heels of Incumbent Republican Chambliss in GA Senate Contest", October 13, 2008], the Chambliss campaign announced Monday that they will spend the next 22 days defining Jim Martin as unacceptable for Georgia voters.

"We won't be attacking Martin," Chambliss campaign spokeswoman Michelle Grasso said Thursday. "We will be defining Martin based on his past votes. He has a long record in Georgia that a lot of people are not familiar with and need to be."

[Source:  Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Chambliss-Martin senate race getting tighter", October 13, 2008]

Yesterday, Obama pursued a steady course towards election day and unveiled the following economic stimulus proposals:

1. Three month moratorium on home foreclosures
   
2. Temporary tax credit for job-creating firms
   
3. Allow withdrawals of up to 15 percent of retirement accounts without penalty.

As Obama demonstrated his competent stewardship, McCain was pursuing a new flail: "the reboot."

A person whom I'd consider to be one of my primary mentors and colleagues in my career--someone who's now one of the top advisors in the Obama-Biden campaign--turned me onto an old adage a long, long time ago which I've frequently repeated ever since: "Experts are people that make quiet mistakes."

So, as we all follow our national "expert" on the economy, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, off of the cliff, consider his own not-so-prescient words:

(As relayed, third-hand from Barry Ritholtz over at The Big Picture.)

Curious choice to spend -3- days this week?

PHILADELPHIA -- Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain landed in Philadelphia on Monday night.
McCain touched down at Philadelphia International Airport and then headed straight to a Center City hotel.

The senator will hold a town hall meeting Tuesday morning at Montgomery County Community College, and will appear at a rally in Downingtown on Thursday morning.

The National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) today kicked off a national road show and outreach campaign designed to inform voters about the healthcare proposals of both leading Presidential candidates.  5 swing states will be targeted before the election for this healthcare outreach.

As one nurse from St. Mary's Medical Center Reno put it, "Our patients are voters too, and we're here to get them the information they need."

The road show hits 11 different Nevada cities stops this week--everywhere from Reno to Elko to the Shoshone Reservation--with a striking wrapped bus featuring the nurses' report cards on Obama and McCain.  Next week, the bus turns left and heads to Ohio, Pennsylvania, Manchester NH and Bangor ME (along with a visit to healthcare hero Eric Massa, running for Congress in New York.)