John McCain

By Alexander Zaitchik, AlterNet.

The Jed Report put together this video mashup of WFTV's Barbara West, giving us a nice side-by-side contrast of her respective interviews with Joe Biden and John McCain.

As it turns out, Barbara West is a registered Republican and Barbara's husband, Wade West, is a Republican Media Consultant.

John McCain wants you to forget about his role in our country's last major financial crisis and costly bailout: the savings and loan crisis of the late '80s and early '90s.

But voters deserve to know that the failed philosophy and culture of corruption that created the savings and loan crisis then are alive in the current crisis -- and in John McCain's plans for our economic future.

Here's a superb 13-minute documentary about John McCain's role in that financial crisis --

Obama Expected to Better Address Housing Market Issues than McCain, According to Zillow.com Survey

Housing/Mortgage/Foreclosure Among Top 3 Issues New President Should Be Prepared to Address

The Washington Post notes the historically unprecedented attempt by a vice-presidential nominee to hide from press accountability:

Mr. McCain's selection of an inexperienced and relatively unknown figure was unsettling, and the campaign's decision to keep her sequestered from serious interchanges with reporters and voters serves only to deepen the unease. Mr. McCain is entitled to choose the person he thinks would be best for the job. He is not entitled to keep the public from being able to make an informed assessment of that judgment. Ms. Palin's speech-making skills are impressive, but the more she repeats the same stump speech lines, the queasier we get. Nor have her answers to the gentle questioning she has encountered provided any confidence that Ms. Palin has a grasp of the issues.

There are only a few weeks to go before the United States may pick a potential president who has never given a press conference as a candidate for national office. This is not a functioning democracy.

And McCain is even worse: 40 days since his last press conference.

Justin Wolfers posts competing charts on the candidates' tax plans on the Freakonomics blog.