Oh, Jane you so nailed that! McSame and McShame and we would all have to live with it. I actually find Palin more scary than McCain; he at least seems pragmatic-although stuck in a Cold War mentality, but her-she’s a brittle, harsh, robo-religious, wing-nut. Sorry, but as a responsible voter I feel it is my constitutional duty to make these difficult assessments (LOL). We can only hope that the Rove rage will backfire, implode and take the ticket to, well we will just say “away”.

Liz, Why in the world did the government decide to allow short-selling again? Do you think anything useful will come out of the Finance Minister meeting in DC? And I agree they better get the “bigs” to pull together and stop acting as though they can “maybe” keep their own @#% out of the fire, by just standing by. Like it or not this is the system we have, right now, and we better find a way to make it work, while we consider whatever changes are needed. I normally don’t think finger pointing is helpful, but, unfortunately I think the Bush administration’s lack of crediblity is part of the problem. Thanks for the info and your take on things at the moment. I hope we process whatever lessons this “crisis” has to teach us, so my grandchildren aren’t going through this in 25 years.

phyllis, Have you read DKG? I think all of her stuff is great, but I so loved her autobiography about growing up as a baseball fan. She is the epitome of grace and intelligence; I admire her.

Thanks WOW for featuring this most amazing woman. Her books are tremendously good and her insight as a commentator has, for me, been very helpful in placing current events in perspective. It is so refreshing to watch and listen to someone who doesn’t have their ego on the line all the time, and who leaves you room to form your own opinion. DKG-you rock!

Patty, What’s a few billion among friends. eh, Patty. In for a penny, in for a pound. I am truly astonished that we seemed to have moved on and do we really think the same people who flaunted what little regulation there was and benefited in the trillions, are going to honestly broker these deals? Come on!!! We need industry outsiders to restore credibility to the process if we have any hope of arresting the downward spiral. IMO

Liz, I see that the Fed is giving AIG another 25 billion and even after the execs went on a $400M spa trip. Why isn’t anyone talking about the obvious conflict of interest, with Paulson being a former Goldman exec, the current Goldman CEO being at the original AIG bailout meetings; and now Paulson wants to appoint another ex-Goldman exec as the Czar of the “bailout” plan? Do we not have the foxes guarding the henhouse? Where is the outrage? Where is Congress?

No way should anyone from Goldman Sachs be involved-too much conflict of interest with Paulson, even if only in appearance. And it most certainly needs to be more than one person. The concentration of power in the wrong hands has already gotten us in enough trouble. The GS people are knee deep in the AIG bailout.

Jane, A couple of my Republican friends, down here in Texas, started on the Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Barney Frank caused the mortgage crisis. (These are otherwise bright people) I asked if they thought Countrywide, AIG and WAMU took advice from Frank and didn’t, just maybe, GREED, have a little something to do with it. Well maybe, they said. Did someone lace our drinking water with the Bush kool-aid? What is wrong with these people? How can we fix it if we can’t agree on the problem? The lie and win at any price tactics are scary. But I believe that there are still many sensible people in this country and hopefully they will all vote! If Palin/McCain win-Ireland is looking mighty good.

Liz, What about the fact that, to some extent, lending is a psychological activity. I worked in banking during the 1980’s, during the last crisis. And I can tell you, from personal experience, that even when money is available, there is a natural tendancy to be very conservative with loan approvals in this type of market. I don’t believe that credit will flow quite as quickly or easily as some might imagine or have promised. And businesses tend to retract based on the same psychology. So I think we are in for a tough road for awhile; probably deserved considering the lax standards and predatory practices that have reigned supreme for quite some time. No matter whether you change the name from Wall Street to Main Street, too many fat cats are getting away with, what at best is a shell game and at worst is criminal.

Bonnie, I agree with you about the banks; one thing that has been conveniently ignored are the massive profits and great profits margins that the banks have earned over the last 10 years. To the extent that there was predatory lending by any institution; they should be fined and forced to renegotiate those mortgages with reasonable terms, if the buyers are qualified. I would favor a line of credit to restore liquidity, but not a total removal of bad assets from their books. No one knows better how to collect those assets than the banks who made them. And I have to agree, rarely have I seen a more inept performance by our government-in general. Certainly shows that you can campaign and run for office on ideology, but when it comes to governing, common sense and good intentions are a lot more effective. Very sad that the citizens of this country will pay the price-i hope incumbents pay the price as well, no matter the party. If any of us performed this way in our jobs, we would have long since been fired!

Sorry, Bonnie, not this independent voter. She needed to show more substance and knowledge. It takes more than a folksy manner to get my vote. I am worried about who will lead this nation for my children and grandchildren’s sake. The combination of Mccain’s cold war mentality and Palin’s lack of substance is too much for me. Have to go with Obama/Biden on the 4th!

She has her talkin points and is sticken to em! She adds extra words and repeats herself constantly. Ick-this is very hard to watch-how have we sunk this low? McCain doesn’t care about this country; he proved that by choosing this completely unqualified person.

Josie, Happy Birthday sweet girl. Glad to see you back at it. You, Julie Andrews and Jimmy Carter; three of my very favorite, wonderful people!!! Have a great day Josie!!!

Joan. You are a gem! Too funny!! And unfortunately. too true!

Diana, I saw McCain’s statement also and thought he looked very tired and overwhelmed. How will he handle the tremendous workload that the incoming President is bound to have? It is just too scary with such an inexperienced and out of the mainstream VP running mate. Also, why isn’t the news talking more about Rick Davis being on the Fannie/Freddie payroll. I get queasy just thinking about what is under the rock we call Washington DC. And where is Sarah? The VP slot on the Repub side has training wheels.