BULLETS AND BRACELETS: But no Wonder Woman.

VIDEO FROM THE SARAH PALIN pre-debate pub party. She may be new to national politics, but apparently she’s already figured out that these things shouldn’t be watched while sober . . . .

JAY NORDLINGER: “Obama has mastered the trick of coming off as perfectly moderate — even when your career and thought have been very different. Listening to Obama last night, you would have taken him to be a Sam Nunn, David Boren type. No ACORN, no Ayers, no Wright, no community-organizin’ radicalism, no nothing. He certainly knows what it takes to appeal to people in a general election. Then, once he’s in — if he gets in — he will govern as far to the left as possible.”

THINGS THAT DON’T SUCK (CONT’D): I mentioned last week that my Sweetwater Creation Station computer, which I use for the podcasts, etc., had died. I shipped it to them on Friday, and got it back yesterday afternoon, all fixed. Hooked it up last night while watching the debates, and it works fine. Nice service. My brother has sworn by Sweetwater Sound for years on account of the service, and this is my first real experience with needing it. Good job, folks.

RAND SIMBERG WONDERS if gas lines in the South are being aggravated by anti-“price gouging” efforts. He may be right. Knoxville had shortages and high prices, but no lines. Other places seem to be facing shortages and lines, but not such high prices. Five-dollar gasoline does discourage people from topping off every time their tank drops below 3/4.

UPDATE: More on Charlotte’s situation here. And reader Robert Evans writes: “In Charlotte, as the article states, there is a low per capita amount of pumps available. Radio and TV stations have been panicking people by reporting shortages, causing runs on the stations, similar to the runs on bread and milk at groceries when a snowstorm is reported.”

Yes, especially with just-in-time inventories, you can create a shortage, and more panic, just by reporting on a potential shortage and panic. Can the press learn a lesson before we get bank runs the same way? I mean, without help from Charles Schumer.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader G.L. Carlson emails on Knoxville:

The panic-induced K-town gas shortage of a couple weeks ago was clearly created by the world-is-ending print story, picked up by other media.

Allowing prices to float to you-gotta-be-kidding, I’ll wait! levels equally quickly damped out the panic.

Market driven negative feedback works. Eliminate the feedback, or use positive feedback, and you get what you deserve.

Yep.

JOHN NOLTE remembers Paul Newman.

WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS? The Microwave S’mores Maker: A Gadget You Don’t Need…But You Know You Want. How have I lived without one?

MISSOURI GOVERNOR MATT BLUNT is condemning the Missouri Goon Squads:

JEFFERSON CITY – Gov. Matt Blunt today issued the following statement on news reports that have exposed plans by U.S. Senator Barack Obama to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics.

“St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.

“What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment. This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights.

More at the link.

JIM LINDGREN:

Much of the blogosphere is up in arms because of the provision in Senator Dodd’s financial bailout bill that might funnel profits from the bailout plan to ACORN Housing (related to the disreputable activist group ACORN), and other more reputable service organizations.

I have read Dodd’s proposed statute and in some respects, it is far worse than has been reported. Senator Dodd has placed a loophole in the bill that is explicitly designed to siphon off tens or hundreds of billions of dollars to the Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund even if there are no net profits in the $700 billion venture.

You know, it would be easier for me to believe this was a crisis, if the people in charge were acting like it was a crisis, instead of just an opportunity for graft. Then again, to some of these people, everything is just an opportunity for graft.

PAKISTANI TRIBES FIGHT BACK AGAINST TALIBAN: “Moderate tribesmen in parts of militant-ravaged north-west Pakistan are challenging Taliban extremists threatening to overrun their area, in what could develop into a mass resistance movement. . . . The resistance has parallels with the “Sunni awakening” in Iraq, where tribesmen took on al-Qaida militants in Anbar province and elsewhere. The Pakistani movement relies on tribal customs and widespread ownership of guns to raise traditional private armies, known as lashkars, each with hundreds or several thousand volunteers. These tribal armies cannot stop individual acts of terrorism, like the devastating suicide bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad last week that killed more than 50 people. But they aim to stop the development of an extremist mini-state in the north-west.” I think we should try to encourage this.

THE SECRET TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING: Housing you can afford. And a substantial down payment.

A GENUINE AND IMMEDIATE CRISIS? “The huge European bank Fortis is apparently about to fail. The ripple effect on the American banking system could be disastrous, with bank runs, liquidity crises, and stock sell offs possible Monday. Wachovia may well fail next week. As Larry put it, this really will be 1933 soon if we don’t move rapidly to stabilize the banking system.” We don’t want bank runs or liquidity crises.

LAST NIGHT’S DEBATE AUDIENCE smaller than Bush-Kerry’s. Hmm. You see a lot fewer bumper stickers, too. Could it be that outside of the political-junkie crowd people just aren’t that excited about this election?

UPDATE: Gerard van der Leun emails:

I don’t think “excitement” is what to look for in this election. What’s coming here is a reckoning.

Here in Seattle, you see endless signs and bumper stickers for Obama as you might well expect. Not a lot for McCain except in the suburbs. But I don’t think that represents the actual popular sentiment in any significant way. Washington actually has, via Rasmussen, McCain within 2. That’s optimistic but even within 6 represents a notable surge in a state where Seattle skews all elections substantially left. (It is a city, as I like to say, where it seems that somebody lifted up the Northwest by the corner, shook it, and everything loose rolled into Seattle.)

As a result, there is no frank exchange of political views between the camps that I can observe here either socially or in the local media. It is simply assumed that if you are not for the Big O, you have nothing to say and if you persist in saying it you will be shouted down in very short order.

I think you see fewer signs not because we are not interested, but because we are now so sharply polarized — to the point of vituperative arguments and outright vandalism. It’s as if we’ve all decided to just prepare and then show up on Election day ready to rumble.

There’s been no little of outright intimidation in this election so far, and I think for the most part, it all flows from the Obama camp. I can think of a number of incidents of hostile action against McCain supporters and even “moderates.” None come to mind when looking the other way. I think we’re seeing a secret sheaf of opinions held close to the vest and running up to a secret ballot. If we had to vote with a show of hands a la the caucus, it might tilt one way. But since we don’t do caucusing for the general, it might well tilt the other.

That’s not encouraging.

GAS SHORTAGES CONTINUE in Charlotte and western North Carolina. Here in Knoxville today, the Insta-Wife had to try three stations before she found one that had premium, but there’s no real shortage, and there haven’t been lines. Prices have been kinda high, though.

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY TO THE MODEL T: My grandmother learned to drive on one of these when she was 13. This modern road test notes that driving a Model T isn’t easy. “One hundred years ago, average Americans and early auto engineers alike praised the Model T for its ease of operation. But compared to a modern car, this thing’s a nightmare.” I remember my grandmother saying that the hardest thing was the spark control.

GAS-PRICE BITE: International kills its line of consumer-grade Semis.

THOUGHTS ON CLASSROOM ADVOCACY, rebellion, and indoctrination.

THE WATCH SALE I MENTIONED LAST WEEK IS STILL GOING ON, and now they’ve upped the ante by throwing in a free backpack with your purchase.

JOHN PODHORETZ: “But it seems to me, based on what has actually been happening in this country over the past 96 hours, the only person who was really at risk in this debate was McCain. Since he said he wouldn’t leave Washington until there was a bailout deal, and then he did, and since his presence on Thursday itself became a controversial subject, a bad night for him — especially on the economy — might have been fatal. Instead, he put on a credible performance on the economy, and a powerful and commanding one on foreign policy. . . . In this respect, doing well in this debate was actually far more important for McCain than it was for Obama; his campaign was on the line, and Obama’s wasn’t.”

And don’t miss these aesthetic points:

In the end, I’d say, McCain made more good points and got in more punches, but Obama stood his ground and maintained his stature on stage next to McCain, even as McCain repeatedly tried to portray him as a lightweight. I should add that McCain never seemed too old, short, or lacking in vigor, even on HDTV. Obama looked fine too, and I never saw that upturned face, with the eyes gazing downward, that made him seem supercilious in those old debates with Hillary Clinton.

You used to have to be ready for prime time. Now you have to be ready for HD.

SOME GOOD NEWS: Chinese Astronaut Makes Nation’s First Spacewalk. “A Chinese astronaut orbiting the earth slipped out of the Shenzhou VII spacecraft Saturday afternoon and performed the nation’s first spacewalk, establishing another milestone in China’s space program.”

Congratulations to the Chinese. And for those Americans who point out that the Chinese are just now doing what we did over 40 years ago, I’ll offer this counterpoint: The Chinese are moving forward, while we are — at most charitable — basically standing still.

UPDATE: Reader Ryan Howley writes:

Just wanted to add a bit to idea that they’re moving forward, while we’re doing …. whatever. I currently live in Beijing, and there is a lot of excitement here among the population. That can’t hurt going forward. While watching the live launch, my pulse was racing. It’s exciting to see, and wonderful watching humans pursuing their insatiable desire for knowledge and exploration.

I mentioned to a friend back home the spacewalk today and said it will be embarrassing when they pass us. His response was “really, though, what is there left to do?” With that attitude among our citizens, it’ll only be a matter of time before China does surpass us. I hope this can get our (friendly) competitive juices flowing once again, though.

China doesn’t have an intellectual class that views real-world accomplishment, or expansion — or, basically, its own civilization — as inherently suspect. That makes things a bit easier, I suspect.

CHARLES SCHUMER’S WASHINGTON MUTUAL CONNECTIONS: “For all the chest-pounding by Washington politicians, especially Democrats, about CEOs of failed banks and financial institutions receiving ‘golden parachutes,’ why is it these guys all tend to be big bucks Democrat contributors?”

CNN’S POLL VS. CNN’S SPIN: “CNN’s poll of debate viewers blares a puzzling headline: ‘Round 1 in debate goes to Obama, poll says.’ But the poll itself actually doesn’t say that.”

UPDATE: Rand Simberg noticed something in the debate that I did, too, but forgot to blog:

McCain just called for an end to cost-plus contracts in the debate.

I don’t know if they can be eliminated, but they should sure be cut way back. But good luck with that.

He also commented: “I have to say that so far, McCain is not doing very well. He’s letting Obama get away with a lot of lies and sophistry, calling him on very little of it.”

Yes, McCain didn’t go for the jugular. As somebody noted last night, Obama and McCain seem to kind of like each other. There’s nothing like the obvious mutual distaste we saw between Bush and Gore. Is that part of the Senate’s clubbiness, or is it genuine?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Todd Zywicki found the debate depressing, but comments:

For those of you who think that Barack Obama is qualified to be President more than Sarah Palin is to be Vice-President because of foreign policy issues, I’m sorry, but watching tonight’s debate that is simply an absurd position. Maybe they are both qualified (my view, although it is much easier to argue that Obama is qualified to be Vice-President as Obama’s lack of executive experience in making decisions and general aridity do worry me in seeing him as President in a world of Putins), or maybe they are both unqualified (although both seem obviously qualfied to be Vice-President). But the idea that Obama is qualified to be President and Palin unqualified to be Vice-President has never struck me as a particularly plausible position–and after last night, even less so.

And see what Joe Malchow thought, too.

MORE: Heck, it would be better if McCain had said “horseshit.” Oh, well, gotta save some excitement for the last debate . . . .

WELL, YES: PETA is a bunch of boobs. “Exploiting cows bad, exploiting humans good.”

SO DOES THIS MEAN MCCAIN WAS RIGHT TO WANT TO FIRE CHRIS COX? S.E.C. Concedes Oversight Flaws Fueled Collapse. “Friday, the S.E.C.’s inspector general released a report strongly criticizing the agency’s performance in monitoring Bear Stearns before it collapsed in March. Christopher Cox, the commission chairman, said he agreed that the oversight program was ‘fundamentally flawed from the beginning.'” (Thanks to reader Fred Lapides for the link).

UPDATE: More thoughts that this supports McCain’s claim.

POLITICO: “John McCain was very lucky that he decided to show up for the first presidential debate in Oxford, Miss., Friday night. Because he gave one of his strongest debate performances ever. . . . Sure, McCain is a pretty old guy for a presidential candidate, but he showed the old guy did not mind mixing it up. He stood behind a lectern for 90 minutes without a break — you try that when you are 72 — and he not only gave as good as he got, he seemed to relish it more.” Note that this is the other Roger Simon writing. I don’t think McCain’s performance was his best (he was much better in the Rick Warren forum); I’d say he gave a B-level performance and Obama was a B-minus. Edge to McCain, but not by a lot, and neither candidate distinguished himself. Both, I suspect, were tired and distracted from the economic events.

Interestingly, McCain was up several on InTrade right after the debate, but now he’s dropped a bit. I presume that means that traders who watched the debate thought that he’d done better than the ensuing spin suggested.