(From AP via HuffPo)

While Palin explains the deep foreign policy gained because she can see Russia and has now gazed into the stare of Karzai ....back home in Alaska:

Parnell, meanwhile, said he has taken over giving many of Palin's speeches and has taken a more active interest in Alaska's budget and the governor's legislative agenda.

"I'm speaking several more times a week _ like, for instance, I'm about to go meet the president of Iceland," Parnell said.

Sooooo ... while Palin has 10 minute photo-ops with two puppet heads of state, her deputy is out doing real international business? 

Am I the only one who finds that ironic?

Should I get paid 50x what my house was really worth - or should I go to jail for fraud?

Real Clear Politics posted this article by George Will. Apparently he's not too happy with 'ole McCain.  The conclusion is great ... but you just have to read the article.

"It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?"

I think that McCain is losing a more important base than the loony-right.

In Phillidelphia today, McCain had this to say:

"We can't have taxpayers footing the bill for bloated golden parachutes like we see in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy... My friends, the top executives are asking for $2-and-a-half billion in bonuses after they ran the company into the ground."

Isn't that special!  On the same day Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, Merrill Lynch was sold for pennies on the dollar to Bank of America.  Which makes us wonder about top McCain adviser John Thain.

From USA Today:

John Thain became CEO of Merrill Lynch in December. Thain's $81 million pay package made him the second highest-earning CEO in the nation this year. Bloomberg News reported  that Thain could make another $11 million.

Apparently, John feels a little different about compensation if it's one of his chief advisers.

Holtz-Eakin says he sees no conflict about consulting Thain, who joined the McCain team before taking over Merrill Lynch. He says Thain did a great job taking the company from a "troubled place" to a "successful purchase."

In less than a year the guy took down amost a BILLION dollars while running the company into a ditch.  But because he found a tow truck to pull the totalled chasis out, he is considered a success in McCainland.  How many Merrill Lynch shareholders walked with a profit?  You also have to wonder what access to an extra billion dollars may have done for Merrill Lynch's position at the time of acquisition.

And McCain is complaining about golden parachutes?