I can see in the debate Obama saying to mini-me "Look. You were caught in the 1987 Keating 5 scandal, the 1999 Paxson/Iseman mess, and you have been a champion of deregulation. This $700 billion bailout comes directly from your incompetence, and yet you have an ad out saying that I caused the economic crisis the US is in. Do you have no honor?" The debates might end up with the two of them pounding on each other.

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For McCain, W's mini-me, this election is all about style over substance. Mini-me can't run on his policies so he has to pretend he is a great leader. Sadly, his true self came through in the Keating 5 scandal and the old dog can't
learn any new tricks. He is still pushing policies that give the fat cats an extra profit hoping that a few scraps will land his way.

Obama started the process in which the two presidential candidates were supposed to issue a joint statement regarding fixing W's failed economic policy. Remember "Mission Accomplished"? This is mini-me's attempt to grab any glory that can be
gained from this economic disaster. Rove had W stand in front of that "Mission Accomplished" banner and now is trying to push McCain into a 3rd Bush 43 term using any gambit at his disposal. Mini-me is trying to portray himself as the leader who will bend Congress to his will in the $700 billion bailout. The irony of the situation is that Congressional Republicans have spoken up against the plan. Suppose he can't even get the GOP to go along with him to support the bailout.

Why would the Democrats trust W--and anything from the GOP, including this bailout? The way this is getting rammed down our throats is very similar to how the Patriot Act was thrown onto Congress' plate who weren't even allowed to read it before passing it. We know how that worked out.

Now Rove has W and mini-me are acting in unison to put Obama in difficult positions. Obama originally didn't want to return to Washington. He'd been talking with Congressional members and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson daily. Now mini-me had W convene a meeting of congressional leaders, along with the two presidential nominees today at the White House. What other secret deals has Rove cooked up for mini-me's advantage?

When mini-me cancelled the debate Democrats were quick to criticize the move, saying that the involvement of presidential candidates would complicate the negotiations. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said "We need leadership, not a campaign photo op".

The way it stands now mini-me can't win. If he gets the House Republicans to pass this legislation that W and Paulson proposed the GOP base will hate him because it will cost the red staters money. If he doesn't get the House GOP to go along with him he doesn't get to say he was the leader who drew Democrats and Republicans together to pass the bill.

In the upcoming debate-if and when mini-me deigns to participate, McCain will label Obama "inexperienced" to which Obama can respond that McCain's experience has been awful.

The September 18, 2008 article "McCain hits Obama on Fannie Mae ties" states "John McCain unveiled a new TV ad this afternoon that tries to paint Democratic rival Barack Obama as so inexperienced on the economy that he has to
listen to shady characters. "Obama has no background in economics," the announcer says. "Who advises him? The Post says it's Franklin Raines, for 'advice on mortgage and housing policy,' " the announcer says, citing a Washington Post report this week. "Shocking. Under Raines, Fannie Mae committed 'extensive financial fraud,' " the announcer says, as another newspaper headline appears on screen. "Raines made millions. Fannie Mae collapsed."

Obama's equivalent retaliation to this has to include some slams on mini-me and his role in deregulating the banking and insurance industries which resulted in this $700 billion bailout. I thought GOP ghouls were against less money in the
government and limiting it. This bailout achieves the opposite.

The September 17, 2008 article "McCain Embraces Regulation After Many Years of Opposition" states "A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a
thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth. Now, as the Bush administration scrambles to prevent the collapse of the American International Group (AIG), the nation's largest insurance company, and stabilize a tumultuous Wall Street, the Republican presidential nominee is scrambling to recast himself as a champion of regulation to end "reckless conduct, corruption and unbridled greed" on Wall Street. "Government has a clear responsibility to act in defense of the public interest, and that's exactly what I intend to do," a fiery McCain said at a rally in Tampa yesterday. "In my administration, we're going to hold people on Wall Street responsible. And we're going to enact and enforce reforms to make sure that these outrages never happen in the first place."

Phil Gramm was economic adviser to mini-me's campaign until he called the US a country of whiners. We see people in our neighborhood having their houses foreclosed and we are called names by these ultimate insiders. These GOP ghouls have no honor.

In 1999 Phil Gramm's, as the article continues "Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act aimed to make the country's financial institutions competitive by removing the Depression-era walls between banking, investment and insurance companies. That bill allowed AIG to participate in the gold rush of a rapidly expanding global banking and investment market. But the legislation also helped pave the way for companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans and investments."

And let's remember some recent history about mini-me, The article continues "In the 1990s, he backed an unsuccessful effort to create a moratorium on all new government regulation. "I'm always for less regulation," he told the Wall Street Journal in March. He added: "I'd like to see a lot of the unnecessary government regulations eliminated."

Less regulation--as championed by mini-me and his economic brain Gramm, has caused this disaster which has resulted in the $700 billion bailout.

Thirteen years ago State Senator Alice Palmer introduced Barack Obama to William Ayers. Did Obama know that Ayers was part of the violent 1960's anti-war fringe? Who knows, but Ayers was, at the time Obama met him, a professor of education at
the University of Illinois-Chicago.

When McCain and Gramm were working together they were Senators in charge of deregulating the banking, investment and insurance industries.

From Lee Atwater to his friend Karl Rove GOP political advisors have one common trait-peddling propaganda for GOP partisan gain. Now we have Rove acting as anadvisor to mini-me while he is also being paid to be a FOX news commentator.

It is just a matter of time. Karl will decide when the surrogates bring up Obama's former minister. When mini-me's team brings up Reverend Wright Obama has to counter with McCain's role in Keating 5.

It was 1987, at the beginning of his first Senate term, when McCain intervened in behalf of Keating. It blew up in mini-me's face. That bailout cost taxpayers $2.6 billion, making it the biggest of the S&L scandals.

McCain should have learned by the Keating 5 to keep his hands out of the cookie jar.

So, why in 1999 was he intervening for his chums again? Broadcaster Bud Paxson said McCain met with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson's behalf. Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before mini-me wrote the letters in 1999 to the FCC urging a rapid decision on Paxson's quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station.

I can see mini-me at the debate accusing Obama for being to blame for the economic crisis the US is in. There are already ads to that effect.

Don't let mini-me rail on about Washington insiders causing this crisis as he is the ultimate insider. He was caught in the 1987 Keating 5 scandal and the 1999 intervention for Paxson. He doesn't seem to learn from mistakes.

He was Chairman of Senate Commerce Committee-therefore he has to know about the economy. If he doesn't then he's stupid and we should be concerned about his intellectual ability.

In the 1999 Paxson mess there was also a lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, he was playing footsies. Maybe he can't control his sexual urges either.

Authors Bio:
Winston Smith is an ex-Social Worker. I worked in child welfare, and in medical settings and in homeless settings. In the later our facility was geared as a permanent address for people to apply for welfare. Once they received that we could send them to facilities in which their welfare paid the bill and provided enough for a meager existence. We also referred people to vocational rehabilitation services. Many of the people who came to us were people who were clearly emotionally ill, but Reagan's slashing of the services for these people caused them to become homeless. One woman I dealt with-St. Jane, believed she was in direct communication with God, urinated freely without using the facilities and she had 47 bags of trash which were prized possessions. She got welfare and was sent to a facility were she could survive. The rule was that our facility could be used 1 time only as we had too many people who thought that the services that we provided we would lift them from the dire straights that they were in. Well, we provided our services for St. Jane around Thanksgiving. On Christmas Eve she was back with her 47 bags of trash and wanted to stay at our facility. I informed my superior of this situation, but we declined to provide services for St. Jane. She slept in front of our facility in a snowstorm. The local rag took the picture and excoriated us for what we did. The local welfare department asked her where she would like to live. St. Jane said Chicago because she liked the wind. She knew on one there. She and her 47 bags of trash of were carted onto a train for the windy city and never of again. The local welfare department was glad to get shed of her. Social welfare in the mid-1980's was geared to blame the victim. Ill people were sent home from hospitals were no one was going to help them because social welfare budgets were slashed by Reagan. Bush 41's â"thousand points of lightâ" was just another way to shaft the weakest in our society. Bush 43's faith based initiative was just another attempt to reduce social welfare services. Reagan's â"Just say Noâ" was the pinnacle of hypocrisy. No services for those who desperately needed them under the guise of tough love.

Obviously I became burnt out by too much indifference regarding our weak and weary. I couldn't look at desperate people and could not get myself to say that what I could offer them wouldn't really help themâ"”it would only get them out of my office to be another person's problem, until the local welfare department carted them away.

I had little interest in politics until the illegal Iraq War started. Growing up in the 1960's caused me to understand that the GOP used war to attract right-wing extremists to vote for them. When â"Tricky Dick'sâ" secret plan to end the Vietnam War unfolded into elongating our presence there for 8 years I knew that I would never believe a GOP war-monger again. I dislike Obama's plan to escalate our presence in Afghanistan and see it as a craven attempt to placate the GOP. Maybe he'll reduce the GOP's attacks against him, but it will at the expense of alienating his base.