A bit of heartwarming news for someone used to being represented by one of the stupidest people in congress(Bill Sali), it seems that the ID Congressional st has gone from Likely R to Leans R on the Cook Report site.

Sali isn't taking it lying down though!  He's deployed a Super Genius Fundraising Scheme to make up his money deficit!

....the freshman Republican is urging all of his supporters to host yard sales, with the profits from all those old clothes, dishes and furniture going to his Congressional campaign. Yard sale hosts also receive campaign literature to hand out to their bargain-seeking clients,....

Kos just polled the race!  He's the only one who ever Polls Idaho it seems.

Walt Minnick (D): 35
Bill Sali (R-inc): 46
Undecided: 19

This is AFTER Palin. So it's actually pretty good news for this area.  We may not win this year - but the 50 state strategy has really made a difference up here.

Every time I see a McCain/Palin donation request web-ad, it is labeled "Comliance Fund".  This is also on his website.  What the heck is that? 

I assume it's something to do with getting around public financing restrictions, but does anyone know what the actual deal is?

While the quote from Douglas Holtz-Eakin about McCain inventing the blackberry was pretty funny, it kind of sucks that everyone ignored the rest of the economic discussion to just focus on that.

NYT's Michael Cooper gets momentarily distracted, but in a surprising fit of journalism decides to also report what McCain plans to do in relation to the Wall Street crisis.

Not surprisingly, Holtz-Eakin lists a bunch of general woes and presents quentessential bogey men - mostly caused by McCain policy.  The final sentence is a killer though:

But Mr. Holtz-Eakin did not provide specifics. “I think that the moment when we write down a specific plan is the moment we send legislation out from a McCain administration to Congress,’’ he said. “That’s the moment that happens.’’

So essentially, they are saying the only way to find out how they would solve the crisis is to put them in charge and see what the hell they do!  And they figure to start working on it sometime around Jan 15th, 2009?

That bothers me way more than any blackberry gaffe!

I never paid much attention to Joe Biden before his nomination.  I must say, he's really grown on me.

If anyone's in the mood for some Biden speechifying ... it's a pretty decent one.  Has some great lines I never heard before, one I liked quite a bit (attributed to his father):

Don't tell me what you value.  Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.

That line led from McCain's budget to a great riff about McCain standing with special interests and wealth.  If Biden writes his own speeches, he's pretty damn good.

Oh yeah, and Biden's running mate made a speech today too :-)