Today the online search giant Google released a candidate quote search from its Google Labs division. The tool lets users quicky find what each candidate has said recently about a list of clickable topics that include health care, education Iran, Iraq and economy.

It's worth a spin, even though some of the sources of information (The Canberra Times?) seem a little odd.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

The AFL-CIO is dropping brochures in 1 million mailboxes in seven key states, attacking Republican Sen. John McCain's plan to tax employer provided health care benefits and portraying him as clueless about the strugles of ordinary working Americans.

"McCain's rich," says an Ohio union worker pictured on the front of the flyer. "He's never had to sit at a bargaining table and choose between a $0.50 an hour raise and decent health care benefits."

In addition to Ohio, the piece is on its way to union households in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado and Virginia. The message will be reinforced in the four midwestern states with phone calls, work-site visits and door-knocking this weekend, the AFL-CIO says.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

Contrary to what was predicted here, and elsewhere, after the debate on Friday, the latest polling shows that there was a bounce, and it bounced in favor of Obama. He may also have been helped by the erratic McCain response to the bailout fiasco, and Palin's widely ridiculed CBS interviews. In any case, the Gallup tracking poll has Obama up 8 points today.

"Two days after a presidential debate many commentators scored as a tie, it's beginning to look like the public saw things differently, as several polls show a small but significant post-debate boost for Barack Obama," says Politico.

And, the collapse of the bailout agreement in Washington is going to put Palin/Biden on the back burner, and instead give Obama and McCain an opportunity to step into what may be a morass.

One hint of what they will do may have come in their initial statements.

Obama, speaking in Colorado, told everyone to stay calm, while McCain blamed the Dems.

But it also didn't take long for Obama to become more partisan.

Early reports are that there will likely be a Senate vote before the House takes up consideration again, which all but assures both candidates are going to step up and declare their support, or opposition. The first may mean they'll be called on to lobby their party's House members, the second that they come up with an alternatives.

For us citizens, it's a lot more fun to worry about Palin's sentence structure.

Meanwhile, the The Weekly Standard posted this observation yesterday:

"John McCain is having a “Small Business Roundtable Discussion” in Des Moines, Iowa tomorrow morning. Should be an upbeat discussion!

McCain can explain why his fellow Republicans defeated legislation that McCain had basically endorsed, apparently because Nancy Pelosi was mean to them."

Some conservatives are still claiming the banking collapse was not a deregulation problem, and are blaming it on Fannie and Freddie, even though the problems extended far beyond those two firms. Anyone remember credit swaps, for starters? 

"Congressional Democrats, and specifically Mr. Obama, are now saying that the problem underlying all this is “deregulation,” pushed by the Republicans...

First, this is not deregulation. This is not the private sector. Fannie and Freddie are government creations, that pay their executives millions of dollars but are shielded with your tax money from suffering the downside risk of the market. Engage in racetrack-style financing, they must be strictly controlled. Deregulation is about keeping government from hobbling the private sector and hamstringing its ingenuity and productivity. Deregulation does not apply." 

And over on the left, the Daily Kos was slipping into invective:

"Pelosi thinks we are stupid" was the head on a morning post by the Koster.

He then suggested this:

 "As for "doing something" in this crisis, there's a perception that Bush's plan is the only one. It's not. It's just that none of the others alternatives have been allowed to see the light of day. But for one, how about taxing any number of Wall Street transactions, as well as temporary increasing the tax rate for those at the highest income levels -- you know, those who have most benefited from this "party"? Make this thing revenue neutral, and my opposition melts away."

Someone might note that even Democrats aren't saying more taxes are the answer.

Meanwhile, everyone have a happy and healthy New Year. (It's Rosh Hashanah.) 

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

Congressman Chaka Fattah, D-PA said Democrats will attempt to fashion another plan, but that plan must be solid before it goes up for a vote. “The last thing we need to do is have another vote that fails,” said Fattah, who voted along with U.S. Rep. Bob Brady and Rep. Allyson Schwartz, the other two members of Philadelphia ’s House delegation, for the plan.

With Congress off for the Jewish holidays Tuesday and Wednesday, Fattah predicted “there’s going to be dominoes that will continue to fall,” and worried about the financial markets during that time.

“The real challenge is what’s going to happen in the credit markets over the next few days,” Fattah said. Fattah blamed the defeat of the bill on a fight for Republican House leadership and with a “lame-duck” president in office and administration officials asking Congress to act fast. “This was almost an attempt to embarrass the Republican leadership,” Fattah said.

Before the vote, Fattah addressed the House, urging the bill’s passage. “Now I know that we are tempted to see this as just another train wreck of the Bush administration. But we have to look past that to protecting the jobs of our constituents, their 401s, their pension funds, their ability to own and run and borrow to establish small businesses. We have to see this as a responsibility to protect our community banking institutions,” said Fattah.
Acknowledging the “varying positions” on the plan, Fattah said Congress has a responsibility to “defend this country and to stand on behalf of our constituents” in the face of economic calamity.

“And I do that reluctantly in some respects,” Fattah said. “But on this day I think all of us should rise to the occasion and support this bill, and for those who can’t, we understand that you think there should be a better way -- there is a bill in front of us today to stand in the breach and I stand in favor of it.”
US Rep. Robert A. Brady, D-NJ issued this statement this afternoon:

“Eight years of Republican failure to oversee financial markets have now caused what Secretary Paulson and Fed Chair Bernanke called the worse potential crisis since the Great Depression. Just today, we saw Wachovia bank sold in a fire sale. Also, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its biggest closing point drop in history after the GOP killed this bill.

The Bush administration proposed a plan to satisfy the markets. Democrats wanted a plan to help the homeowners. I voted for the legislation because, after reaching across the aisle we were able to draft a bill that included protections for taxpayers and homeowners as well as stepping up to avoid a meltdown of our economy. We were able to fix the worse problems in the Bush plan and to provide important protections for taxpayers and homeowners. We were able to work with Republicans to cap executive pay and to end golden parachutes for executives who retire from failing companies.

We were also able to drop the price tag of the rescue plan from $700 billion to a phased in cash infusion; to add tough independent oversight and transparency; and to prevent home foreclosures crippling the American economy by allowing the government to work with loan servicers on new mortgage terms. If the experts are correct, the nation is facing a major financial crisis that may include the shut down of our credit system. It is regrettable that a Republican president and GOP Congressional leadership were not able to bring their Members along for this vital vote.”

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

YES
Rob Andrews, D-NJ
Bob Brady, D-PA
Mike Castle, R-Del
Chaka Fattah, D-PA
Patrick Murphy, D-PA
James Saxton, R-NJ
Allyson Schwartz, D-PA
Joe Sestak, D-PA

NO
Charles Dent, R-PA
Jim Gerlach, R-PA
Tim Holden, D-PA
Frank LoBiando, R-NJ
Joseph R. Pitts, R-PA
Christopher Smith, R-NJ

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

The Spin predicts Congress will pass the bailout plan, the markets will fall before stabilizing, and the political obsession this week will be the Biden/Palin debate. Not very daring prognostications, huh?

How about this. GOP insiders panic and call for Palin to be replaced if she doesn't - at least - come close to holding her own with Biden at Thursday night's debate.

Fareed Zakaria, the Newsweek foreign policy writer and editor, has this to say:

"Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, "to spend more time with her family"? Having stayed in purdah for weeks, she finally agreed to a third interview. CBS's Katie Couric questioned her in her trademark sympathetic style. It didn't help. When asked how living in the state closest to Russia gave her foreign-policy experience, Palin responded thus:

'It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where—where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to—to our state.'

There is, of course, the sheer absurdity of the premise. Two weeks ago I flew to Tokyo, crossing over the North Pole. Does that make me an expert on Santa Claus?"

And here's the link to Newsweek's cover story, Mr. Hot and Mr. Cook.

New York Times columnist William Kristol wrote today that a worried McCain dispatched his two top campaign aides to prep Palin. Biden, of course, could make one of the gaffes that are rapidly becoming his campaign trademark, but if Palin gibbers on as she did with Couric, McCain's market liquidity will take a big hit.

Perhaps the McCain operatives will recommend she emphasize her "Sexy Puritan" side, as described by this Slate writer, Tom Perrotta, who says Palin is the quintessential example:

"Sexy Puritans engage in the culture war on two levels—not simply by advocating conservative positions on hot-button social issues but by embodying nonthreatening mainstream standards of female beauty and behavior at the same time. The net result is a paradox, a bit of cognitive dissonance very useful to the cultural right: You get a little thrill along with your traditional values, a wink along with the wagging finger. Somehow, you don't feel quite as much like a prig as you expected to."

Perrotta also does us the service of ferreting out this web site: Christian Nymphos. We kid you not. Type it into Google and enjoy.

A final prediction. We'll soon see another McCain effort to change dynamic of the race in advance of Palin's appearance. Why?

The latest aggregated poll results have Obama with 302 electoral votes. It just takes 270 to win.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page and the Real Clear Politics poll tracker. (Scroll down.)

 10:41 p.m.

Who won?

I'll call it a tie. No big mistakes by either. Obama was clearly more comfortable on economic issues, McCain generally more assertive on foreign policy.

I bet the polls don't change much.

10:39 p.m.

Lehrer ends on a high note (only in a journalistic sense): What's the chance of another 9/11? McCain uses it to say he wanted the 9/11 commission over Bush's objections. Says the chance of another major attack is less than it was then. Comes out against torture.

Obama gets the last comment. "We are safer in some ways." Haven't done enough with ports and transit. Raises issue of terrorist and nukes. Says not spending enough to prevent that. But says to really keep the country safe, need to mend fences with allies.

Oopps...not the last comment. They are running over on time.

McCain goes back to Iraq. It is an impassioned plea. "That is the central issue of our time." I.e. keeping terrorists out of Iraq.

Obama says yeah, but in the mean time Bin Laden is still out there, and we aren't paying attention to China etc. "We have viewed everything through this single lens" and weakened our status in the world and hurt the economy at home.

Pretty stark contrast.

McCain comes back hard.

"I honestly don't believe Sen. Obama has the knowledge or experience," to be president.

A pretty tough attack from McCain. And says Obama is inflexible on Iraq, like Bush, but on the other side. That will be a stretch.

Obama comes back with...how his father wanted to come to America because it was the best place in the world, and Obama wants to make it so to a new generation. A weak response.

10:25 p.m.

"I looked into Mr. Putin's eyes and saw three letters, a K, a G and a B," says McCain. The gist of all this is that under McCain America will have a muscular and aggressive, though necessarily in military terms, foreign policy. Have to wonder how that will play in a country already fighting two wars. The great American middle has not been fond of going to look for more places overseas to spend money.

McCain gives a long discourse on Russia and eastern Europe.

Obama says he agrees with McCain on those issues. Is it just the way he says it, versus McCain's more aggressive personality.

But then Obama says better diplomacy could have avoided, maybe, the conflict between Georgia and Russia, an option McCain seemed to have left off the table.

10:19 p.m.

McCain raises Iran and Israel for the third time. A cynic would say he is worried about the Jewish vote in Florida.

McCain is hammering away on Obama's "precondition" statement, ie talks without preconditions. Obama attempts to explain it away.

A biting riposte from McCain to talking to the Iranian president, Achmeidinajad (spelled wrong!) without preconditions.

Obama has no quick come back, and is saved when the subject switches to what to do about the Russians. 

10:12 p.m.

The Iran moment, which leads to Israel.

"We cannot allow a second holocaust," McCain says.

Can't trust the Russians, so we need McCain's league of Democracy to impose sanctions on Iran that the Russians would veto in the UN.

Obama is trying to stake out a macro view of dealing with Iran. He says that means cooperation from the Russians, and "tough direct diplomacy with Iran. This notion that not talking to be people we are punishing them has not worked."

Talk? McCain says the Iranian president is in NYC talking about exterminating Israel. "We're giving them more credence...because you will sit down" with them. Did McCain get Reagan's history of talking to the Soviet Union wrong?

Obama he'll meet with anyone to keep America safe. Here's a zing. Says McCain adviser Kissinger wants to meet with Iranians without preconditions.

10:02 p.m.

They both endorse more troops in Afghanistan.

McCain seems to say its OK to bomb Pakistan secretly, just don't tell anyone.

McCain calls for a second surge in Afghanistan. "It's going to be tough," he warns.

Obama refers to McCain's moment some years back when he sang "Bomb, Bomb Iran" to the tune of a Beach Boy's song. Sen. McCain is pissed.

McCain responds to his bombing Iran comment. He is pointing out he is not a war monger.

And he notes, correctly, he was against sending Marines to Lebanon in 1983, when nearly 300 Marines were killed. Notes he supported the Bosnia air strikes under Clinton. "That was the right thing to do." He effectively recounts his long foreign policy history in the Senate.

"I have a record...(involving) the highest responsibility and toughest decisions" a president can make, sending troops to war. McCain wins this round on delivery and style; no way Obama can compete. 
 

9:49 p.m.

Obama gives his lengthy, and eloquent critique of Iraq in response to McCain's noting, correctly, that he was right on surge.

Obama endorses military force "to keep the American people safe," which would not have included Iraq.

McCain comes back strong. The next president has to address not whether we go, but whether and how we leave. "He still says he would oppose the surge if he had to decide that again today."
Obama didn't go to Iraq for 900 days. "To this day he has never had a hearing" on NATO.

Obama strikes back. "that was a tactic designed to contain the damage of the previous four years." Not a bad come back. Obama lists all the wrong statements McCain made about Iraq, like there is no history of violence between Sunni and Shias.

McCain strikes back. "Let us win....they are winning. Sen. Obama refuses to acknowledge we are winning in Iraq."

It is compelling television. On this subject McCain is alive, animated, confident. It is strikingly different from his comments on the economy, often hesitant and uncertain.

9:38 p.m.

Lehrer is getting angry. How will the financial crisis effect your programs?

McCain. Spending freeze, except defense and veterans.

"You're using a hatchet rather than a scalpel." Obama says.

9:34 p.m.

 Obama mentions IRAQ and their billions in oil income sitting unspent.

Lehrer is one stubborn guy.He tries again to get them to talk about what impact the financial troubles will have on their plans.

Both candidates are talking to Lehrer rather than the audience, or each other.

Another McCain line. "I want to make sure we not handing the health care system over to the federal government." Sort of comes out of the blue. Very obvious when he is using a practiced line, and when he is speaking "off-text."

9:31 p.m.

McCain raps Obama on voting for a gift-laden energy bill a couple of years back, which is correct.

"Its just not true" Obama says about another McCain attack. McCain grins. Thinks he just slipped one in.

McCain is getting his groove back. Whacks Obama for being a liberal.
"Its hard to reach across the aisle from that far to the left." That line was practiced.

9:21 p.m.

Lehrer is having fun trying to get them to argue with each other. A debate for the special effects generation. A new standard for moderators?

Lehrer goes for specifics. McCain blames GOP for spending too much. Complains about spending $3 million on a Montana study of bear DNA. Cracks a DNA joke that goes flat, attacks Obama on earmarks.

Obama remains more assured and displays a better grasp of specifics. Hate to be petty, but McCain's striped tie is distracting.

He scores a point on Obama and earmarks. They are arguing about who wants to spend more money. Lehrer gets his fight! Obama interrupts McCain to deny McCain's description of his budget and tax proposals. McCain lets him do it.

9:13 p.m. 

McCain has been uncertain - Obama not.

9:11 p.m.

Sartorial. Lehrer is in a boring striped tie, light blue shirt, not button-down. A hint?

The candidates walk out from different sides of stage. Blue suits. Obama has redder tie. McCain looks like he doesn't want to look at him. Obama is wearing a flag pin. McCain is not!

Obama gets the first question. Doing well, but has an undercurrent of nervousness at start. Then warms up when he whacks McCain for supporting deregulation etc.

McCain is conversational. Not bad approach. Is more bi-partisan. but appears uncertain and drifts around his subject. Seems to oppose the bail-out. And yes, at 9:08 p.m. he refers to his trip back to D.C.!

Interesting. Lehrer tells them to mix it up! "We have 5 minutes here." Let's negotiate a deal!

Obama gives a policy answer. McCain on defensive, says "a lot of us saw this train wreck coming."

8:49 p.m.

The Spin is ensconced in his padded, tilting chair at home, hoping to experience the debate in much the same way as your average middle-aged American (sans the beer).

What to watch for? While the debate is officially about foreign policy, and will no doubt touch on Iraq, a safe bet is that McCain will, sooner than later, try to explain away that suspending-his-campaign-rushing-to-D.C stunt. He's been roundly criticized from left and much of the right, and even GOP senators weren't leaping to his defense today.

Obama? It's simple. He can't make a mistake. With only a modest, though growing, lead in the polls, he has to solidify that new support and attract Democrats who can't fathom voting for a candidate with 11 houses and 13 cars, but shrink from 1) an East Coast Harvard grad, college professor liberal-type, and 2) a president with the name Obama, and a black guy at that. Sorry to bring it up, but while there are lots of legitimate reasons not to vote for Obama, he'd  likely be up 10 points if he was other-pigmented.

It's not racism. Rather comfort.

Now we wait for the debate.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

The Daily Spin will be offering live reaction to the face-to-face showdown between McCain and Obama. We hope to hear McCain tell us exactly how it was he helped resolve the bailout negotiations, and why it is suddenly ok to debate. And perhaps Obama will tell us what he'd do if we pull out of Iraq and Shias start slaughtering Sunnis.

Should be an interesting evening. And we hope to provide some thoughtful analysis. The debate, and reaction, starts at 9 p.m.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

11:42 a.m.

UPDATE! This just in!

APNewsAlert ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Republican John McCain will attend debate. 

Our earlier post:

You still can't make plans for Friday night beyond an early dinner and not too many drinks. The debate may or may or may not happen at 9 p.m.

The Washington Post tells us that, and also provides some back and forth on why the much-ballyhooed Bush meeting failed to produce a consensus.

Meanwhile, the New York Times took a whack at the Obama campaign for imitating one of the less honorable traits of the McCain campaign - false campaign ads.

"...As Mr. McCain’s misleading advertisements became fodder on shows like “The View” and “Saturday Night Live,” Mr. Obama began his own run of advertisements on radio and television that have matched the dubious nature of Mr. McCain’s more questionable spots," the Times tell us.

It also appears that McCain's whole "suspend" his campaign shtick was pretty much just that. He was all over television giving interviews yesterday, his campaign offices were open across the country, and Sarah Palin arrived here in Pennsylvania to do some campaigning, with the media invited to watch. Sounds like a campaign, no?

One wonders whether any of this will backfire on him. That it hasn't probably - and this is getting to be an old refrain - speaks to the continued failure of Obama to close the deal with parts of the Democratic base. Or maybe that should be the Reagan Democratic base.

David Brooks of the New York Times tries to figure out what's wrong with the McCain campaign, and comes up with this:

"...it has no central argument. I had hoped that he would create a grand narrative explaining how the United States is fundamentally unprepared for the 21st century and how McCain’s worldview is different.
McCain has not made that sort of all-encompassing argument, so his proposals don’t add up to more than the sum of their parts. Without a groundbreaking argument about why he is different, he’s had to rely on tactical gimmicks to stay afloat."

And then we have the economy. Some semi-good news, economic activity expanded 2.8 percent in the last quarter, Bloomberg reports, less than previously believed, but still an advance.

The bad news - and you knew that was coming - is that stocks are certainly going to open lower.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.