Brace yourself : CNN does an investigative piece on Joe Biden’s two votes for the Bridge for Nowhere and 116 earmarks this year. Can’t wait for the New York Times to do its front page piece. I know — it’ll run right after the above-the-fold story “Why Was Obama Put On The Annenberg Board By A Former Terrorist?” (The latter is more likely to be in a 527 group’s ad which will promptly be denounced as scurrilous by all the outlets that never investigated the story.)

I agree that Biden should ignore Sarah Palin at the debate — but how long can he possibly control himself?

Jonathan Martin is on the money: McCain’s best argument on the bailout negotiations is that he’s a doer and got in the mix while Obama “phoned it in.” Aren’t the MSM and Americans always complaining about a disengaged President?

Fred Barnes spots the same dichotomy.

There is good reason why the Obama camp wants Stanley Kurtz to shut up. Why the Clintons didn’t do this legwork remains a mystery to me –did they figure Democratic primary voters really would be charmed by Barack Obama’s relationship with an anti-American radical? Not a bad bet, come to think of it.

Is the MSM finally getting interested in the anti-speech Obama thuggery? Really, it should be something that interests them.

And despite their best efforts this story is getting out.

You really can’t tell the difference between Bill Clinton in real life (making clear that McCain is a great man while Obama merely has “personal accomplishments”) and Darrell Hammond in this week’s Saturday Night Live skit. It is funny that Clinton for once can’t bring himself to lie.

Fire Paulson! No vote for the bill! The luxury of being a pundit. (That budget stand-off with Bill Clinton never worked out, did it?)

A helpful summary of what the House GOP accomplished. My own take: their biggest “prize” which was an insurance plan is the least significant of their accomplishments (it is in the bill, but in a watered-down form). But sometimes in negotiations you have to insist on something really big , important and totally unacceptable to get smaller, more meaningful things as a consolation. That’s why they call it a negotiation.

The Wall Street Journal gives them some credit for just these “smaller” items: “Thanks to the House GOP’s intervention, the Paulson plan is also better than it would have been. Republicans helped to eliminate the Barney Frank-Chris Dodd slush fund for liberal housing lobbies; a plank to let judges shield deadbeat homeowners from bankruptcy laws; and a ploy to stack bank boards with union members.”

NBC can’t catch a break — when they bend over to be fair to McCain they get bashed for displaying a guilty conscience. Perhaps NBC should just run a banner at the bottom : “We’re not the same as the nuts on the cable side.” Really, there is a difference.

Any Democrat in a competitive race will need to do what Rep. Mark Udall (running for Senate) did — call for Charlie Rangel to step down. He won’t and he remains a useful target for the GOP.

Given these poll number, why is McCain spending time in Iowa?