CHRIS STIREWALT TAKES A RIDE ON Joe Biden’s coal-fired gaffe machine. Plenty of horsepower there!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ON XM SATELLITE RADIO yesterday, the latest PJM Political is online.

POLITICAL WISDOM: “I have concluded the best way to deal with the election roller coaster is to commit yourself to cocktail hour.”

VIRGINIA POSTREL INTERVIEWS CAROL ALT, on her new novel, This Year’s Model.

THE EXAMINER ENDORSES MCCAIN-PALIN. “America is at war overseas and in an economic crisis here at home. Many of her citizens believe the country is on the wrong track. It is for times such as these that men like John McCain are made, to put country first so that it can be put right in its time of need. For this reason, The Examiner endorses McCain for president and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for vice president.”

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BIDEN GAFFE: “The media theme is Palin is unprepared and has zero knowledge of foreign affairs while Biden has decades of experience. So why does Biden sound like a complete idiot? . . . Dan Quayle is still a punchline 20 years later. Joe Biden gets a free pass.”

UPDATE: Victor Davis Hanson: “In short, the problem is not whether we think the affable Biden’s latest slip/goof/outrage is important, but whether we think anything he says any more is important. The next time he tries to offer something serious, from the AIG matter and coal power to campaign ads and Sarah Palin, I think we are at the point where most will smile, ignore him, and think ‘That’s just Biden being Biden.’ He could give the Gettyburg Address tomorrow, and the public wouldn’t know whether he wrote it, whether he was going to retract it, whether it was true, or whether he was serious.”

HISTORY: “Maybe it’s too much to expect anyone to remember the distant past–2003–but still, it seems remarkable that Barney Frank can make the rounds of the television talk shows, pontificating on the current crisis, without being reminded of his own role.”

Hell, nobody’s bringing up Chris Dodd’s issues, which are ongoing.

FACE OFF: New VW Jetta Diesel Tops Prius in Fuel-Economy Marathon Test. “We expected the Prius to dominate our city test, and it did. After all, the hybrid powertrain meant that every time we hit a red light or traffic snarl, the Prius would sit silently—burning absolutely no fuel. But the Prius’s overall 44.7-mpg count is still about 3 mpg less than the EPA City figure of 48. And, interestingly, the Jetta TDi’s 32 mpgs are exactly four mpg more than its EPA City rating. Still, it’s clear that in city-only driving the Prius has no equal—except perhaps a motorcycle. On the open road? Well that’s a very different story.”

So when do we get a diesel-electric hybrid?

POLITICO: Former Fannie Mae chairman Jim Johnson was dumped from Obama’s vice presidential search team, but he’s still playing a behind-the-scenes role on the campaign.

(Via NewsAlert).

UPDATE: Don Surber comments: “Here is the architect of the self-destruction of Fannie Mae constructing the Obama presidency.”

And Mickey Kaus comments:

Tom Daschle invites John Kerry, Richard Holbrooke, and James Carville to breakfast with former Fannie Mae CEO (and ex-Obama-veep-vetter) Jim Johnson. Hard to see how they can pass that one up. .. Premature Comeback Syndrome: Shouldn’t Johnson go have breakfast with John Edwards, wherever he is, is until, say, December?

You’d think. But he’s part of the operation.

ANDY KESSLER IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: The Paulson Plan Will Make Money For Taxpayers. Possibly quite a lot, he says.

MAN CANCELS ORDER FOR NISSAN GT-R OVER PRIVACY CONCERNS: “Nissan’s GT-R carries an on-board recorder that keeps track of the past few day’s worth of driving and cannot be disabled. In the case of Scott Weires, an attorney no less, that was enough to look elsewhere. Would it be for you?”

NASA: Solar wind weakest since beginning of space age.

BENEFITS for Filipino vets.

CHINA COUNTS DOWN to Thursday space launch. “Last year, China sent its first lunar probe into orbit. China’s longer-term goals include establishing a space station and landing on the moon. On this mission, two of the three ‘taikonauts’ — the Chinese name for astronaut, taken from the Mandarin word for ‘space’ — will don suits ready for a space walk, spokesman Wang told a small group of Chinese and foreign reporters. . . . One taikonaut would wear a Chinese-made suit, and the other a Russian one, Wang said, although it was not clear which would be used on the spacewalk.”

AND YOU THOUGHT JOE BIDEN WAS UNFRIENDLY TO COAL: “Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon.”

Will he be advising Obama on energy policy?

UGH: Roughly 75 Percent of Galveston’s Homes Are Uninhabitable. Or worse: “Many are coming home to nothing; Walt Burger’s house was washed out to sea. While his insurance will cover the house, his land has been swallowed up.”

I CAN’T SAY I’M SURPRISED BY THIS REPORT:

People who believe they have the greenest lifestyles can be seen as some of the main culprits behind global warming, says a team of researchers, who claim that many ideas about sustainable living are a myth.

According to the researchers, people who regularly recycle rubbish and save energy at home are also the most likely to take frequent long-haul flights abroad. The carbon emissions from such flights can swamp the green savings made at home, the researchers claim. . . . Some people even said they deserved such flights as a reward for their green efforts, he added.

Of course they do. They’re good people.

MACK OWENS: Our Generals Almost Cost Us Iraq. “Although the conventional narrative about the Iraq war is wrong, its persistence has contributed to the most serious crisis in civil-military relations since the Civil War. According to Mr. Woodward’s account, the uniformed military not only opposed the surge, insisting that their advice be followed; it then subsequently worked to undermine the president once he decided on another strategy.”

Thank goodness they failed. Though I’d want a better source than Woodward before taking this to the bank.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: “If it seems like I’m waffling on the merits of bailing out Wall Street, it’s because the facts keep changing.”

WILL ROBOT-DRIVEN AUTOMOBILES SAVE US FROM GLOBAL WARMING?

CHARM OFFENSIVE: Pakistan’s president tells Palin she is ‘gorgeous’.

UPDATE: Video, courtesy of Gateway Pundit.

THE OTHER DAY I noted that some people were upset by the demise of Amazon’s price protection policy. Reader Lois Brenner emails that it seems to have reappeared, at least in places.

UPDATE: Mike Daley thinks it’s no big deal: “Having time to waste, I just went thru the last year or so of my Amazon orders/pre-orders (pre-orders being the operative class), out of over $800 of purchases I found I’d saved $3.84. Super-saver free shipping has saved me at least 20X that amount.” Yeah, it’s not a big issue to me, but it is to some people, apparently.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Scott Boone says I’m confused:

I wanted to fill you in with a bit more info re: your 10:13pm post about Amazon’s pricing protection. The link you provided as an example of it “reappearing” does not reflect the policy in question; the policy that Amazon discountinued was the POST-purchase price protection. The policy that link shows is the PRE-purchase price protection. Given that Amazon promises that they will not bill your credit card until a pre-order ships, it just makes sense that they MUST provide a PRE-purchase guarantee. On the other hand, the POST-purchase price guarantee is a service that several other retailers (B&M and etailers) offer, Circuit City, Target, Best Buy, et al.

The reason that Amazon’s PPPG being cancelled is so egregious is that Amazon’s prices fluctuate more than the stock market. For instance, I routinely save about $10-$15 per month (or was) following my purchases over the subsequent 30 days. I saved $50 alone on a purchase of an iPod nano just recently. The primary harm, I feel, that will result from this action is it will significantly impact my Amazon Prime purchasing frequency. Up to this point, because of the security of the 30 day protection, Amazon Prime has become to me nearly as impulsive as the check-out aisle at the grocery store (which incidentally is a place I’m NOT impulsive). This will change.

Although what seems to be “unintended consequences” on Amazon’s part of discouraging purchasing, I’m beginning to think this shift in policy direction might in fact be a stealthy way of Amazon throttling back Amazon Prime’s success and, hence, subsequent costs due to the 2-day shipping resulting from impulsive high-volume purchasers like myself.

Er, and myself. I hope not. I live Amazon Prime.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Okay, that was supposed to be “I love Amazon Prime.” But it’s accurate as written, too . . . .

LOTS OF INTERESTING BAILOUT-BLOGGING at The Conglomerate.

UPDATE: Also from Tom Maguire. Just keep scrolling.

ANOTHER UPDATE: And does it mean anything that the “probability of recession” contract at Intrade fell by 1.9 today? And has been falling for a while?

OBAMA VS. BIDEN VS. BIDEN ON COAL: (Via Hot Air.)

JUST WATCHED BUSH’S SPEECH, and there was nothing hugely exciting; it was mostly an effort to underscore the importance of the situation. I liked Scott Ott’s version better.

UPDATE: Hmm: “What incentive to Dems in Congress have to approve a solution at this point? Why not let the financial system collapse? Obama would ride the wave of destruction into the White House, with coattails. He could then use the resulting depression in the real economy to expand the reach of government, as FDR did.”

Well, not if the Dems get blamed. But see Dale Oesterle: “Obama has a short position in the market; when it goes down his vote total goes up. Moreover, he is doing what short traders often do, running a bear raid for over a year and one-half, by talking down the market and the economy (‘Bush has messed up the economy….’). His high profile in the press aids the lack of confidence in the market by the millions which hear him daily, all of which helps the market sag making his position more valuable.”

I’m watching Jack Welch on TV, and he thinks the bill is important, but that the debate has helped.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Roundup here. Video here.