The Daily Digest: 9-25-08

Posted at 8:29 AM on September 25, 2008 by Tom Scheck (4 Comments)
Filed under: Daily Digest

President Bush warns of a long painful recession if Congress doesn't act on the bailout package. He also invited John McCain and Barack Obama to the White House today.

AP says a deal is close.

John McCain suspends his campaign and wants to postpone Friday's debate so he can deal with the economic crisis. Barack Obama says no.

David Letterman skewers McCain for not showing up on his show.

Negotiators of the bailout worry that presidential politics could cause problems with the bailout.

Obama and McCain craft a joint statement on the economy.

Time takes a look at how the candidates would handle the crisis.

McCain's campaign also wants to delay the VP debate.

A poll says the debates could sway a quarter of Minnesota voters.

The latest national poll shows Obama with a thin lead.

2008 Race for U.S. Senate

DFLer Al Franken keeps up his criticism of GOP Sen. Norm Coleman's oversight in Iraq. Coleman's camp brings in former Democrat (now Independent supporter of John McCain) to defend him. Got all that?

The Star Tribune says the ads ripping Franken on taxes is misleading and omits key facts.

KARE wonders whether negative ads are hurting the candidates.

The AFL-CIO blog says Franken is holding firm on the Employee Free Choice Act.

Stu Rothenberg takes a look at whether Democrats can get to 60 seats in the Senate.

2008 Race for Congress

DFL Rep. Tim Walz and GOP challenger Brian Davis debate social security.

KSTP says the DCCC ad ripping Republican Erik Paulsen is misleading and false.

The Teamsters back Paulsen's DFL challenger, Ashwin Madia.

ECM takes a look at where GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann and DFL challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg stand on the bailout.

Pawlenty in 2012 Watch

Politico wonders about Gov. Pawlenty's plan to host a debate watching party in New Hampshire on Friday. Question - does he still go if McCain doesn't attend the debate?

Congress

GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann said she won't support the bailout without corporate tax cuts. Human Events says the Treasury Secretary didn't score points with some lawmakers like Bachmann.

GOP Sen. Norm Coleman says he sees statesmanship as a key to the bailout plan.

DFL Rep. Jim Oberstar blogs on the economic mess on Wall St.

An ethics panel launches a probe on Charlie Rangel. GOP Rep. Jim Ramstad is mentioned.

DFL Rep. Keith Ellison could become chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Federal aides target the Petters HQ.

State Government

Gov. Pawlenty is considering his lawyer for a judgeship.

Pawlenty also forms an economic team to deal with the financial crisis.

Minnesota State Moorhead freezes hiring.

2008 RNC

There were a wide number of complaints with how the police handled protesters at the RNC. MPR, the Pi Press and the Star Tribune have stories.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said St. Paul "would have been destroyed" if they didn't act the way they did.

Finally

I have to take a few days off. The ever capable and kind Molly Bloom will do the Digest on Friday and Monday.

Comments (4)

If our government is planning on using 700 billion dollars to bolster our economy, maybe they should consider giving it to the 200 million people who paid personal income taxes last year. That's around 350K per taxpayer. That way, people would pay off their mortgages, banks would get back their money, and people would have disposable income to spend at the retail & wholesale level -benifiting everyone. Isn't that that how economies work?? If I understand correctly, the last economic stimulas package of $600 per person bolstered our ecomomy about 3% for about 60 days. Imagine what $350K per person would do. Additionally, giving a bail out to the wealthy CEO's and CFO's on Wall Street who got us into this mess in the first place is like giving candy to spoiled children who have behaved badly. It seems to me that congress would just be lining their own pockets by bailing out Wall Street.

Posted by Scott Nelson | September 25, 2008 9:31 AM

I think that as a society we are neglectful in both knowing and learning from our mistakes. The last time the President told us that a crisis was eminent and there was an immediate need to respond we were brought into "regime change" in Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction and VP Cheney's Haliburton was handed millions and millions. Now we are to believe that our (the whole world) economy is going to collapse on Saturday morning if we don't act immediately to give Bush Administration appointees complete control of $700 billion.

We are more intelligent than that, Mr. Bush. Risk is just that, there are upsides and downsides. Let all of those who made poor decisions - be they brokers, banks, investment houses or homeowners who have no business buying a home on little or no income - suffer the consequences. Wake up America! Bad choices yield bad consequences.

Posted by Maureen Bellows | September 25, 2008 11:41 AM

Scott, your math is just a little off. $700 billion divided by 200 million taxpayers equals $3500 per taxpayer. Maybe you could use yours to buy a calculator.

Posted by Karl | September 25, 2008 3:17 PM

Karl,
Your absolutly right. My mistake. $3500 per person - not 350K - I apologize. I must be using the same caculator as Haliburton.

Posted by Scott | September 25, 2008 4:24 PM

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