AUDI TO LAUNCH small, affordable electric cars. Well, good.

I LIKE THE SOUND OF THIS: “The 15-20 ton 27-30 MWe Hyperion nuclear reactor will be factory mass produced starting in about 2013. It uses ten to twenty times less material and less uranium fuel as current reactors which will allow society to scale this up a lot more. Goal of 12 month from order to finished factory product. Goal is to make hundreds to thousands each year.” Bring it on.

L.A. TIMES: COVERING FOR BARNEY FRANK at Saturday Night Live?

But a comparison of the two versions shows that actually a little more than that was cut. What also was excised was any mention of the involvement of Massachusetts’ Rep. Frank in the Sandler subprime mess.

Frank is the influential chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and an ardent political protector of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which participated in the subprime problem.

In the original skit Sandler addresses Frank, saying, “And thank you Congressman Frank as well as many Republicans for helping block Congressional oversight of our corrupt activities.”

To which Frank replies enthusiastically, “Not at all!”

All that’s gone in the new version.

Nice.

SO AFTER THE DEBATE I TALKED THINGS OVER with Stephen Green, James Lileks, Jennifer Rubin and Ed Driscoll. You can listen in here.

DRUDGE DIDN’T LIKE THE DEBATE, EITHER: But in retrospect I have to say that I think Obama did better than it seemed at the time. This morning, my strongest impression is that McCain seemed to be trying too hard to close the deal, and frustrated that it wasn’t happening. Obama, despite a lot of stammering and some ill-advised references to Delaware, seemed a lot more comfortable. I think he passed the threshold acceptability test with the audience, which — for people looking for “change” — is probably enough.

UPDATE: Reader Eric Norrgard writes: “In one sense, it was a huge win for John McCain. Given the seemingly unanimous opinion that the debate was boring, Obama has moved from awe inspiring demi-god to just another boring politician.” Yeah, but for Obama to close the deal now he has to be non-scary. Boring is non-scary.

GOOD THING I’M NOT RETIRING ANY TIME SOON: Retirement Accounts Have Lost $2 Trillion. Of course, if I were planning to retire soon, I’d have reduced my exposure to stocks.

FROM ACE, a Presidential Town Hall Debate cheat sheet.

OPINIO JURIS:

So the financial crisis has definitively moved from being a Wall Street phenomenon featuring a certain amount of European schadenfreude to a global crisis in which European banks are just as involved as American ones. That it is a global crisis and not merely an American one means two things.

First, early on in this financial mess, the sense that it was “global” meant that the foolish, bad, overleveraged lending by American banks was really an American problem although the capital that fueled it came from abroad, mostly from Asia and especially China: cheap Chinese goods, as Sebastian Mallaby explained a few days ago in the Washington Post, brought much cash to China which was then recycled back to the rest of the world in the form of asset inflation, which the Fed chose to ignore. In that regard, the flows of capital were global but the bad lending basically American.

Second, however, within the last few weeks (and it was actually clear earlier for those willing to look at UK problems), it has become clear that the crisis is global in the sense that banks in Europe and elsewhere have also loaned on the same super (by historical standards) leveraged terms and bought derivatives with the same difficulties in valuation and so have, on some measures, even greater exposure than their American counterparts.

The problem for Europe, however, is compounded by the amalgamated nature of the political and financial system.

Read the whole thing.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PROFESSORS WIN the right to march for Obama, and freedom from conservative political views. It’s a huge victory for free thought!

“NO ONE DOES THAT:” Now they do.

JAMES TARANTO ON “FACT-CHECKING:” It’s opinion journalism thinly disguised as straight reporting.

GERARD VAN DER LEUN on the only candidate who is “young enough and idealistic enough and man enough for the job.” Sorry, John.

WAS OBAMA WEARING AN EARPIECE? I’m going with “just a reflection” on this one. Wasn’t Bush accused of something similar in 2004?

UPDATE: Hmm. Now that I think about it, I’d rather believe the earpiece thing: “Actually, both candidates’ hesitancy and quick changes of topic, often within the same sentence, are consistent with their being whispered to. I challenge you to sound coherent when someone’s talking to you and you have to not repeat what they say but reformulate it into something that sounds good, while they’re still talking.” Because the alternative explanation is that they came up with those answers on their own . . . .

GARY BECKER: No, this isn’t the crisis that kills global capitalism.

STEPHEN GREEN: “Instant analysis? McCain won, but not by nearly enough to matter.”

UPDATE: John Althouse Cohen: “All of the first 3 debates have included the phrase ‘stinking corpse.'”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Charles Austin emails: “Tonight, Senator Obama said $18 billion in earmarks between 535 Congressional ne’er-do-wells isn’t that big a deal, but if we can only keep 500 CEOs from getting $350 million in tax breaks, well, that’s how we fix problems!”

Fred Barnes on Fox: “This was not ‘a dull civics course’ — but it was dull! . . . You heard Obama and McCain saying the same things that they say in campaign speeches . . . for about 3/4 of the debate they were on automatic pilot.”

Obama is currently showing a 24 point drop on Intrade in the debate-performance contract. That’s odd. I didn’t think it was that lopsided. [LATER: Now he’s up by 7. This contract seems . . . excessively volatile.]

ANOTHER UPDATE: Stephen Green on the phone: “Oh dear God, that was awful. Brokaw made me long for the days of Gwen Ifill.”

MORE: The Anchoress on Worst. Townhall. Ever. “Vodkapundit says McCain won, just barely. He might be right…but I think Obama did nothing good for himself tonight by sounding like a policywonk going-on-80, and failing to bring the charisma or even a modicum of humor. Obama made himself seem like any other politician. With his youth, he should have shown a brightness, a bounce to the step, even a cockiness; he should have walked all over the 72 year old McCain, and he didn’t do it. Instead, he was wonkish and grim to the point of coma, and he almost seems like he has to be prompted (in rebuttal) to say anything good about America. . . . They don’t expect it from McCain, but a little energy from Obama was really necessary. So, all in all, I think more than McCain winning ‘a little,’ Obama actually lost ‘a lot.’ He handed the ‘youth, energy and charisma’ ball to Sarah Palin.” Yeah, but not to John McCain.

INSTA-POLL:

UPDATE: From the comments: “Look, I’ve now made a sacrifice for my country. I sat through that whole debate.”

IT WAS NICE TO HEAR OBAMA SOUND SO HAWKISH ON IRAN: If the Iranians actually believe him, it would be helpful. Will they?

But is North Korea a good example for Obama’s diplomatic approach?

IN LIGHT OF THE “SHARED SACRIFICE” DISCUSSION here are some thoughts of mine from a little while ago.

BROKAW KEEPS TELLING THEM TO STICK TO THE TIME BUDGET: If they can’t stick to the time budget, why believe ’em on the federal budget? . . .

NEITHER ONE OF THESE GUYS IS REALLY ON HIS GAME, but Obama, for all his uhs and ahs, is looking like he’s having fun. McCain looks like he’s already bored with the whole thing. Hey, McCain, you asked for ten of these!

I DIDN’T LIKE MCCAIN’S REFLEXIVE TALK ABOUT GREED ON WALL STREET, but at least he paired it with “cronyism and corruption in the Congress.” Meanwhile, Obama’s going after McCain over “trickle down” economics. Didn’t they say that about Reagan, too?

UPDATE: Obama talks about Venezuela as one of America’s enemies. Does he know that Bill Ayers seems to like Hugo Chavez just fine?

LIVEBLOGGING TONIGHT’S DEBATE: Ann Althouse, Stephen Green (drunkblogging), Brendan Loy, and, of course, the gang at The Corner. Also, Jules Crittenden, Jason Pye, and TPM Election Central. Plus, Exurban League. And, a bunch of milbloggers, and Jacob Lybbert.

UPDATE: Also the folks at Contentions. And Jeralyn Merritt at TalkLeft.

So is Bob Krumm. And, in Nashville, A.C. Kleinheider. And Dr. Melissa Clouthier.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Stephen Green: “‘A middle class tax cut to 95% of working Americans.’ Just how big does Obama think the middle class IS?”

Plus, the McCain people email: “Barack Obama just blamed the very same bill that Joe Biden supported for the current economic crisis.”

Hey, Obama people, where are my rapid-response emails from you?

A WARNING ABOUT TONIGHT’S TOWN-HALL DEBATE: beware of “ringers.” Plus this warning: “It would be wise to dramatically lower your expectations of this debate. The town hall format lends itself to the worst pander-style, personal sob story politicking.” Ugh.

I’M GEORGE MCGOVERN, and I endorsed this ad.

DANA MILBANK CALLS SARAH PALIN A RACIST, Ann Althouse responds. “Look out, Sarah, if you inspire noise from the crowd, the press will choose which words to report. . . . If Palin excites the crowd, the press will listen hard for the nastiest remark. She’d better rein it in then.”