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Damn it, it's a center-right nation, and don't you forget it!

I swear to you that is the editorial slant taken by pretty much all the bobbleheads, but none so nakedly as This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Note the make up of the panel is basically four Republicans to one Democrat (with all their concern trolling, I generously figure that Brazile and Stephanopoulos together equal just one Democrat). What's with that ratio? The American public has soundly and decisively voted against the GOP policies and the Bush doctrine, so what are frightened little Villagers to do but put on some former Bushies, Matthew Dowd and Torie Clarke, along with conservative stalwart George Will.

George Will, the sagest one of all, metaphorically pats Donna Brazile on the head and suggests that perhaps all the doom and gloom on the economy is unnecessary, as if Donna Brazile is the one to blame for the bearish outlook. He suggests that the foreclosure rate isn't as bad as everyone seems to think, that the unemployment rolls aren't that bad (WTF? 94% of the people who want to work are working? WANT to work?) and that this is strictly a financial sector problem, ignoring the fact that if the financial sector cannot lend money, it becomes a disaster to the consumer and small business owner as well. Typical Republican missing the forest for the trees.

Meanwhile, former Pentagon spokesperson Torie Clarke rings the warning bell that all these bailouts (not questioned when AIG and BearStearns came a-calling, mind you) are going to cause us to "out-France France"! Quel horreur! And Matthew Dowd insists that if Obama really wants to represent change from how things are done in Washington, he's going to have to reject a Democratic party-led program.

Um, huh? The logic of this escapes me. The American public has rejected GOP policies and rule and so therefore, Obama must reject a Democratic program? I have an idea for you, Matt (along with all of the ABC news bookers): how about we give a Democratic program (and a Democratic panel) a try for once? THAT would be a change.

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This Week with George Stephanopoulos marks the passing of politician Cecil Underwood, playwright William Gibson and Broadway impresario Gerald Schoenfeld. In addition, the Pentagon has released the names of 4 servicemembers who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan this week.

The total number of allied troops killed in Iraq now totals 4,521, per iCasualties.org. For the same week, Iraq Body Count lists 134 Iraqi civilian deaths.

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This Week with George Stephanopoulos marks the passings of Olympic basketball coach Pete Newell, Slinky Company co-founder Betty James, theatre critic Clive Barnes, and former Texas Congressman Jim Mattox. In addition, the Pentagon released the names of five servicemembers killed in Iraq.

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For his many faults, you gotta love the politician in California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that admits that essentially, the majority of Americans want the government to focus on Democratic Party platforms, not the rigid ideology of the current Republican Party of cutting taxes above all else.

I think you can also make it very simple, and that is, you know, that Republicans have not provided for what the people need. And I think that's why Jindal is partially right on that, or he's right on that, because, you know, it is all about what the people of America need right now, and have we provided that as a party? [..]

Let me tell you something. When it comes to building roads and people driving on the roads -- it's Democrats, Republicans, independents, decline to state -- everyone wants to use those roads.
Everyone's kids -- Republicans' kids, Democrats' kids -- everyone is in the school. They want to have great education. When it comes to clean air and protecting our environment and fighting global warming, everyone in America wants to be part of that.

They absolutely do. Americans want to know that levees will not fail and force them out of their homes, bridges will not collapse during rush hour and that we're providing our children with the most opportunity to succeed for the future, not to mention a non-polluted world to live in. And as is patently obvious, that won't come from Republican governance. Even the Governator know that the Republican Party has lost their way:

Remember that so many times there's dialogue about, you know, we have to go back to our core values. What is that? What is core? How far does core go back in history in America, the word core? Does it go back 30 years? Does it go back 50 years? Because we know that Teddy Roosevelt talked about universal health care. So they're off the core for a long time ago already. He has talked about protecting our environment. So they've been off for a long time on that. I mean, let's be honest. Ronald Reagan -- let's go to Eisenhower, for instance. Eisenhower has built the highway system in America and he's poured billions of dollars into infrastructure. Where Republicans today say, well, that's spending. We shouldn't spend. That's not spending. That's investing in the future of America.

So there's a lot of things that they have been off on, if they want to go and talk about the core values. But maybe their definition of core values is maybe different. But I mean, so I think it's all nonsense talk. I think if they just talk about one thing, what do we need now? Now, America needs to be rebuilt, because we haven't really rebuilt America for decades. So we need to rebuild America, fix the bridges, fix the highways, fix the buildings, tunnels and all of those kind of things we need to do. And then we have to go and create great relationships with our partners overseas, with the world, and to build those relationships again. And we have to take care of health care. We have to take care of our environment. And we have to build an energy future. Those are the things that people want right now. And I know in the poll numbers in America -- I mean in California, that's what the people want.

See? Like Arnold says, the people don't want today's Republican Party.

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This Week with George Stephanopoulos marks the passings of South African singer Miriam "Mama Afrika" Makeba, Cleveland Indians broadcaster Herb Score and civil rights leader Rev. Abraham Woods, Jr. In addition, the Pentagon has confirmed the deaths of 7 soldiers this week in Iraq.

Per iCasualties, the total allied forces killed in Iraq is now 4,515. During this week Iraq Body Count confirmed the deaths of 128 Iraq civilians.

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This Week with George Stephanopoulos marks the passings of novelist Michael Crichton, photographer Cecil Stoughton, and Barack Obama's grandmother Madelyn Dunham as well as 3 soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to iCasualties, the total servicepeople killed in Iraq now total 4,507. During this same time, per Iraq Body Count, there were 128 confirmed Iraqi civilian deaths, 19 of whom were children.

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This Week with George Stephanopoulos marks the passings of the great journalist and champion of the common man Studs Terkel, jazz singer/actress Estelle Reiner and novelist Tony Hillerman. In addition, the Pentagon released the names of five servicemembers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According the iCasualties, the total number of servicemembers killed in Iraq now totals 4,503. During this same week, Iraq Body Count lists 95 Iraqi civilians killed. For the month of October, 553 Iraqi civilians lost their lives, 26 by US Forces; 33 were children.

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This Week with George Stephanopoulos notes the passings of fashion critic Mr. Blackwell, Mr Olympia contest founder Ben Weider and newsman William Headline as well as 9 servicemembers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to icasualties, the total number of allied servicepeople killed in Iraq now total 4,501. According to Iraq Body Count, there were 150 confirmed Iraqi civilian deaths this week.

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McCain booster Sen. Lindsay Graham has his talking points and he's not going to deviate from them, no matter how much logic and reality may interfere.

Even though highly visible (and amazingly, still respected) Republicans have openly criticized the choice of Sarah Palin for vice president and endorsed Obama, Graham will have you know that Palin has energized the base like no other. Pay no attention to those polls, people. Strangely, Graham asserts that even though her appeal is to the Republican base, if she was a Democrat, she'd be more popular than "sliced bread". How does that work, Huckleberry?

But incongruously, even though that base is energized by Palin, McCain is still that mavericky man unafraid to take on his party. Does Graham think that might depress the energized base? Maybe this is where those sliced bread Democrats come in. But even more incongruously, Colin Powell (that 'not-real-Republican', according to Graham) is nervous about McCain's SCOTUS picks, which would be just like Bush's selections of Roberts and Alito. How mavericky that is.

My head is spinning from this bizarre, logic-free rationalizations of a campaign without a clear narrative and imploding on itself. So I'll merely leave with the best line from Graham:

Governor Palin is what John McCain has been trying to do in Washington, she has done in Alaska. She has -- filing a complaint against a sitting attorney general of your own party with a Democrat takes a lot of guts. Taking on the oil interests, you know, cutting taxes. She is -- running against an incumbent governor. John sees in her many of the qualities he sees in himself.

And this is a good thing?

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I've complained about the Democratic TV surrogates before so this is just a follow up. Donna Brazile, you have to do better. Please, Obama needs your help. The Newties are trotting out their "Pelosi-Reid" liberal deck of cards to try and intimidate Americans to not vote for Obama. "Don't vote for Obama because the Democratic Party may control the White House and Congress and America can't afford that!" Right, because as we've seen, Conservatives really know how to govern this nation. Gingrich---for the most part is running McCain's campaign already (with Hannity's help of course) and gets enough time on FOX already so whay is he on ABC? OK, let me stay on point. When I watched ABC's THIS WEEK, I wondered why Donna was already throwing cold water on Obama's head if he actually does win the election in November.

Newt Gingrich: If Obama won and had a moderate House and a moderate Senate, he would probably be a moderate president. His temperament would lead him to be much more like Richard Daley than like Reverend Wright. He's not gonna have that. he's gonna have card check to take away your right to a secret ballot. He's going to have an effort to eliminate freedom of speech for Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. He's going to have a congress that wants to raise taxes, that wants to increase government --- is he really going to veto and fight with Pelosi and Reid? ... As the Wall Street Journal said on Friday, here is what their promising their allies they're going to do.

Donna Brazile: Yeah, but they're not in office Mr. Speaker. Senator Obama will inherit a 10 trillion dollar deficit and he's going to have to put things on the table that perhaps many of us would not like to see a Democratic president put on the table in terms of cutting back on spending, freezing hiring and making some real tough decisions. So, I think he will be constrained by the deficit and also by the fact that we're still in two major wars.

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With Obama taking the lead in Florida via the newest polling data on the battle ground states, ON ABC's THIS WEEK, Republican Senator Mel Martinez actually said that the economy is no big deal. The people of Florida will get past it and McCain will win the state! How insensitive can a man be?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Martinez, let me begin with you. Florida has one of the highest foreclosure and unemployment rates in the country right now. And four Florida polls since the financial crisis hit all show Barack Obama ahead. So as the Obama campaign charges, is your campaign desperate to
change the subject?

SEN. MEL MARTINEZ (R), FLORIDA: Well, look, for sure, the
economy hurt the McCain campaign in Florida. Florida has been very
hard-hit, as you just stated. The fact of the matter is that there is
much to be done yet. The fact of the matter is that Florida is far from being over. Florida is going to be close all the way to the end.

McCain was well ahead in Florida before the economic crisis hit. I believe once this campaign gets beyond that immediate crisis that Florida is going to come back to the McCain camp.

How do the people of Florida get past an economic crisis of this proportion in thirty days? Or ever?

Dude, you're losing ABC...that's like FOX-lite.  That's not going to keep the base motivated.

When even McCain's Media points out that the Straight Talk Express has derailed, you know you have some problems.

Transcripts below the fold

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  I wonder if McCain was expecting a soft-ball interview today on "The View" because he sure didn't get one. Joy Behar and Barbara Walter grill McCain on how he could possibly approve of ads that are so riddle with distortions and outright falsehoods.

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"There are ads running from your campaign... Now we know that those two ads are untrue, they are lies. And yet, you say at the end of it you 'approve these messages.' Do you really approve these?"

Who would have thought the ladies of "The View" could be so hard-hitting?: 

CNN: McCain Gets Grilled on The View. 

Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, appearing Friday on ABC's "The View," was aggressively pressed on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's qualifications to be vice president as well as his new campaign ads that several independent fact-check groups have called misleading...read on

HuffPo has more clips.

  To his credit, Charlie Gibson actually did a pretty good job of grilling Sarah Palin in her first interview since accepting the Republican nomination. When asked whether or not she agrees with the Bush Doctrine -- the idea that the United States should be able to reserve the right to launch unprovoked attacks on nations deemed a threat to us -- a visibly confused Palin simply doesn't know how to respond coherently.

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GIBSON: Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?

PALIN: In what respect, Charlie?

GIBSON: The Bush -- well, what do you -- what do you interpret it to be?

PALIN: His world view?

GIBSON: No, the Bush doctrine, enunciated September 2002, before the Iraq war.

PALIN: I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hell bent on destroying our nation. There have been blunders along the way, though. There have been mistakes made. And with new leadership, and that's the beauty of American elections, of course, and democracy, is with new leadership comes opportunity to do things better.

GIBSON: The Bush doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense, that we have the right to a preemptive strike against any other country that we think is going to attack us. Do you agree with that?

PALIN: Charlie, if there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country. In fact, the president has the obligation, the duty to defend.

 Cernig wonders: The Most Dangerous Woman In The World?

For more on the Bush Doctrine, see Jon Perr's great series of posts:

The Death of the Bush Doctrine

This Just In From Afghanistan: Bush Doctrine Still Dead

The Myth of the Bush Doctrine

     Joe Klein is calling the McCain campaign's assault on the media "insidious", "bullying" and "not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme."

The story of the day out here in Minneapolis is the McCain campaign's war against the press ... So what's going on here? Two things. McCain is just plain angry at us. By the evidence presented in the utterly revealing Time interview, he's ballistic. This is a politician who needs to see himself as the man on the white horse, boldly traversing a muddy field...any intimations that he's gotten muddied in the process, or has decided to throw mud, are intolerable. The second thing is more insidious: Steve Schmidt has decided, for tactical reasons, to slime the press. He wants the public to believe that there is an unfair--sexist (you gotta love it)--personal assault going on against Palin and her family. This is a smokescreen, intended to divert attention from the fact the very real and responsible vetting that is taking place in the media--about the substance of Palin's record as mayor and governor. ...There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

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