Sarah Barracuda Fails to Implode! More at 11!

My Sweetie had a good take on last night's rapidly disappearing Vice-Presidential debate. Did you notice, she said after the debate, which we watched on NBC that it was one of the most important debates in history until Sarah Palin failed to self-destruct, after which is became a hoo-hum so what?

She also remarked that Biden seemed...oily. Of course, I said...that's why we call him"Greasy Joe." Obviously, we're not alone..this from Roger Simon at Pajamas Media:

Tonight, Sarah Palin drove another stake in the heart of those fuddy-duddy reactionaries that constitute our mainstream media. Going toe-to-toe with a senator with decades of experience, she more than held her own, giving lie to the media constructed narrative that she was an inexperienced hick from nowheresville Alaska. It demonstrates once again why the media is held in such contempt. For economic and ego reasons, they consider themselves to be our gatekeepers, but frankly they are not that smart. They are not rocket scientists – figuratively or literally. They are certainly no smarter than Sarah Palin. I would be willing to bet that in a free debate with Katie Couric, Palin would come out the victor. (Frank Luntz’s focus group saw her winning literally by acclamation over Biden.)
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But if McCain-Palin actually pull this one out, it is the MSM that will be the big losers here. They have put heart and soul behind Obama without really knowing him. For shame.

You'll notice I haven't made comment on the bail-out...I just don't know. My libertarian baseline, best articulated by Dr.Ron Paul, tells me that the bail-out is a huge, huge mistake. From Dr. Paul:

I believe that our economy faces a bleak future, particularly if the latest $700 billion bailout plan ends up passing. We risk committing the same errors that prolonged the misery of the Great Depression, namely keeping prices from falling. Instead of allowing overvalued financial assets to take a hit and trade on the market at a more realistic value, the government seeks to purchase overvalued or worthless assets and hold them in the unrealistic hope that at some point in the next few decades, someone might be willing to purchase them.

One of the perverse effects of this bailout proposal is that the worst-performing firms, and those who interjected themselves most deeply into mortgage-backed securities, credit default swaps, and special investment vehicles will be those who benefit the most from this bailout. As with the bailout of airlines in the aftermath of 9/11, those businesses who were the least efficient, least productive, and least concerned with serving consumers are those who will be rewarded for their mismanagement with a government handout, rather than the failure of their company that is proper to the market. This creates a dangerous moral hazard, as the precedent of bailing out reckless lending will lead to even more reckless lending and irresponsible behavior on the part of financial firms in the future.

This bailout is a slipshod proposal, slapped together haphazardly and forced on an unwilling Congress with the threat that not passing it will lead to the collapse of the financial system. Some of the proposed alternatives are no better, for instance those which propose a government equity share in bailed-out companies. That we have come to a point where outright purchases of private sector companies is not only proposed but accepted by many who claim to be defenders of free markets bodes ill for the future of American society.

I have spent the last 15 years living within my means. I survived the Internet bubble — where I was an almost-a-millionaire on paper for about three days, but since I had risked no cash, so what? — and the housing bubble — where my Sweetie and I opted for a boring 30-year fixed on a house we knew we could afford, much to the derision of some people and even our mortgage broker. Hell, it just galls me to reward fools.