Riehl World View

Relentless

Theya ren't going to rest until they believe they've destroyed Sarah Palin.

Snappy comeback - hey, I know, Obama might not be a citizen, after all.

Fortis Going, Brits Talk Of Nationalizing Another Large Bank?

After being tipped to this from TWS, I decided to do some News Googling - links below:

I've received phone calls in the last hour from two economists I respect, one of them Larry Lindsey, the other in a position where he'd prefer not to be named. Both have government experience, neither is alarmist by nature, and they say this:

The huge European bank Fortis is apparently about to fail. The ripple effect on the American banking system could be disastrous, with bank runs, liquidity crises, and stock sell offs possible Monday. Wachovia may well fail next week. As Larry put it, this really will be 1933 soon if we don't move rapidly to stabilize the banking system.

And here's the bad news: the current bailout bill, whatever its merits and likelihood of passage, does nothing to address this.

Congress should pass by Monday simple legislation doing two things:

1. Giving the FDIC authority to provide unlimited deposit insurance through the FDIC for transaction accounts in banks.

2. Authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to provide unlimited protection of principal in money market funds through the Treasury's exchange stabilization fund.

Maybe my acquaintances (and I) are too worried; maybe this legislation wouldn't quite be the right solution. But I wanted to sound what may be, unfortunately, a needed alarm.

William Kristol is editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

This below from EuroNews, while Forbes has the latest on negotiations. See link.

Investors in the Fortis banking and insurance group face an anxious weekend as the Belgian-Dutch bank holds talks on its future with the Belgian government, market regulators and the Central Bank.

Friday saw Fortis shares plummet more than 20 percent, the 15th straight day of losses for the group.

Fortis is hoping to sell off parts of its business by Monday to show investors it can raise cash and restore confidence.

The United Kingdom faces yet more financial turmoil as the Bradford and Bingley, the eighth largest mortgage lender, has effectively closed for new business after cutting 300 jobs on Thursday.

The B&B has seen 90 percent of its share value erased since the start of the year.

The British Banking Association has tried to reassure the bank’s 2.5 million savers that their deposits are safe.

Banking sources say that with no private bank ready to mount a rescue bid the bank may have to be nationalised.

Sullivan Finally Cracked - Now He's Hearing Things

Sullivan's latest nonsense suggesting McCain said "Horsesh/t" during the debate. Too bad Andy didn't take the time to watch McCain's lips while he utters the first instance. He was saying "Of course not." And as soon as he had the mic, he said, "I'm not going to set the WH visitor's schedule before I'm President of the US."

Yep: McCain clearly swore twice when challenged by Obama on his disdain for the Spanish prime minister. You can hear him cuss Obama out at around the 4:30 mark in this video. A little taste of what most of his fellow senators have had to listen to for the last two decades.

It's at 4:30 in, listen for yourself. And even if he were correct, which he is not, you'd think Andy wouldn't mind a little rough language now and then given some of his past Internet pursuits.

Paul Newman Dead At 83

Plenty of links via Google News, I'm sure.

On August 23rd I mentioned that he recently went racing - they called the original item - Last Laps.

Rest in Peace.

Newman always seemed to be a a class act. And he did some terrific work, on screen and off.

There are some truly terrific anecdotes about Newman here, mostly from just regular folks who met, or raced with him over the years.

PA Debate Reactions Slightly Favor McCain

Given some of the states in play, as well as the state of the race - this report out of Pennsylvania is slightly more positive for McCain than it is for Obama. And it's in, of all places, the LA Times.

The group of 14 scored it for McCain by a margin of 5 -2 with 7 scoring a draw. McCain led with leaners 6 - 4. The full article isn't long and worth the read, especially as this area of PA could be crucial come November 4. Obama can't win without PA.

ALLENTOWN, PA. — To a small cross section of crucial voters gathered in this presidential battleground, Friday's debate provided a slight boost for Republican John McCain but left him and Democrat Barack Obama with much to do to sway fence-sitters in the next five weeks.

More than a dozen undecided voters gathered Friday night at Muhlenberg College, a small liberal arts school in eastern Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, a region traditionally coveted by presidential candidates because of its high concentration of swing voters.

Six of the 14 voters said they were more likely to vote for McCain after the 90-minute session, and four said the same of Obama. Four said they remained unswayed.

Bruce Glazier, a registered Republican from Upper Macungie Township who has voted Democratic in the last two elections, said he was leaning more strongly toward McCain.

"McCain seemed a little more polished," said Glazier, who works in credit and collections. "He really unflapped [Obama] quite a few times." He declined to cite an example. "I just felt Obama lost it. He is not as believable as McCain."

Debate: If Nothing Else, We'll Have Gotten John McCain Out Of Our System

I don't believe tonight's debate was determinative, unfortunately McCain needed more than he got, despite winning the overall debate. He lost the first portion on the economy despite being presented the ability to take a swing at Obama like a baseball sitting on a tee.

Why that matters is because the media and the country have been obsessing on economics for a week and that obsession will likely continue. So while McCain made Obama look like an amateur when it came to foreign policy, I'm unconvinced that longer, very substantive portion of the debate will be what viewers remember most.

It was a critical opportunity lost for McCain, one that he may ultimately come to regret. He showed up prepared to debate on foreign policy, yet allowed Obama to win the economic portion of the debate with nothing more than standard liberal demagogy about executive salaries and middle-class pain.

Were McCain genuinely conservative on fiscal policy, I doubt that would have happened. Were a more genuine conservative running as President for the Republicans, tonight's debate might have been a tremendous victory for the Right. As it stands, McCain's poll numbers have been going down and it's doubtful he did anything to reverse that trend.

It's a shame that so many establishment Republicans seemed committed to giving McCain his long desired chance to run for the Presidency, though to be frank, there were few if any better alternatives as campaigners go this time out. So he deserved the shot. But they got what they got.

What remains to be seen is if the McCain campaign can find a game changer in the weeks ahead. Much to my dismay, I believe they once again need one and tonight's debate wasn't it.

If It's About Perceived Intelligence, Kathleen Parker Should Go

The more I think about it, if a genuine conservatism is to have a resurgence in America, NRO really may simply have to go. That's a shame given the legacy of Buckley in this regard. But what NRO is becoming, at least with respect to its on line presence, is something from which more and more conservatives might want to consider distancing themselves.

Poor Kathleen, I guess it is about the company you keep, after all. The Washington Post, Joe Klein, Andrew Sullivan? Well, that explains a lot. And it more and more appears to be the direction of NRO - an inside the Beltway vanity publishing affair for individuals who might just as well be Democrats, or moderates, at best.

Given the sheer stupidity it took for an allegedly Right-side pundit writing this item, let alone the stupidity of NRO in publishing it, there seems little reason to engage the substantive debate this Kathleen Parker would profess to engage.

Palin Problem
She’s out of her league.

By Kathleen Parker

So a week out from the VP debates, as crowds continue to pour out to see Sarah Palin, John McCain should throw the election to Obama - which is precisely what he would be doing for a multitude of reasons were he to take Parker's advice? Does this idiot Parker get a check from Obama's campaign? If not, she should start.

It's hard for me to respond fully given that I've never heard of Kathleen Parker before this. But then I doubt that I'll ever hear much of anything from her again and apparently very little worthwhile.

Congratulations on your some few column inches of blogospheric fame, Kathleen. You gave the far Left just what they wanted - evidently your only Outside the Beltway claim to fame given the search results. Now please hop back up into your little yellow bus - I trust it's a Mercedes - and go home. There's an election to win just now. And it would seem to me the Right would do well to ignore you given your elitist view supported by such an incredibly superficial analysis of events.

Senator Jim DeMint

John Hawkins at Right Wing News has an informative interview with Senator Jim DeMint on the bailout.

So, this is a house of cards that the government has created and my biggest frustration with this whole mess is that it is being blamed on free enterprise, capitalism, and corporate greed -- when in fact, this is a good example of what happens when the government gets involved in the private sector. It created a huge mess.

Also, DeMint has the Drudge-linked YouTube below up at his site, as well.

Feeling Bad For My Buddy Ace

Because according to him - it's never wrong.

Bummer, dude. Use the memory hole to flush that post, even if it isn't your, um ... preference?

McCain Camp's Genius Vs. A Rookie Mistake

Before one buys into the Liberal and media spun conventional wisdom about what just went down, it would be best to pause and consider what was happening and what is happening now.

The economy became central to the election and Obama seemed to have the upper hand.

Obama has made a critical, if not fatal mistake he hoped to avoid precisely because he was forced back to Washington by John McCain. At the White House meeting the Dems opted to let Obama take the lead - their plan is now his plan. Obama has had a problem going on record for or against anything. Now he's locked in to a losing hand.

McCain knew what they would come up with based upon his years there - spending too much, billions of it on the usual liberal nonsense.

I suspect McCain has rallied Republicans around an alternative proposal - less expensive and a bit more cautious, but serious - that Americans will likely prefer in the end. Up until now McCain was losing to Obama on the economy. This now sets the stage for the economy debate to hinge mostly on a single discussion in which I believe McCain will be proved to hold the upper hand in the minds of American voters.

It will be fascinating to watch as it's hard to imagine it not coming up in some manner in tonight's debate. I wouldn't be surprised to see McCain interject it whenever he can. When you can take an area in which you are losing and turn it around to beat your opponent over the head - any way you slice it, that's a win. Let's hope McCain can pull one off tonight, as well.