Shots in the Dark

Remember how Katie Couric asked Sarah Palin if she’d ever conducted any negotiation with Russia? And how Sarah Palin responded by saying that Alaska had trade delegations with Russia?

Well! You’ll be shocked, I’m sure, but it’s a total lie, as Andrew Sullivan details.

When asked for examples of trade missions with Russia that have taken place under Palin’s watch, gubernatorial spokeswoman Kate Morgan refused to answer the question. Morgan said she could not legally discuss any trade missions with me because she’s a state employee and I had first heard this claim through the Couric interview, which was part of Palin’s campaign for the vice-presidency….

When Palin was first chosen, I originally predicted that she would become such an embarrassment that she would soon be forced off the ticket. I was wrong about that, but what’s happened is, I think, even worse for McCain. He’s now in a situation where he can’t get rid of her, because that would alienate the base voters who are fired up by her. But with everyone else, she’s become an embarrassment, and a walking, (kind of) talking reminder of McCain’s poor judgment in his most important campaign decision to date.

Two polls—surprising to me—show that more viewers thought Barack Obama “won” the debate than thought John McCain did.

Obama was widely considered more intelligent, likable, and in touch with peoples’ problems, and by modest margins was seen as the stronger leader and more sincere…

The stronger leader—that must drive McCain nuts. Especially after he went all out on Friday to appear forceful.

Paul Newman is dead. One of our greatest actors and most elegant human beings. A huge loss.

1960 photo by Leo Fuchs

I wrote a really, really smart post on what I thought of the debate…and then my wireless cut out and I lost the whole thing. Bleh.

So then, my very quick take: McCain better on foreign policy, surprisingly aggressive, occasionally patronizing; Obama slightly better on the economy, went for gracious over aggressive; no major gaffes by either side; not a game-changer.

Your thoughts?

In the Times, the sportswriter has written a remembrance of Yankee Stadium, his father, and love. Bissinger describes watching the Yankees come from behind twice in the 2001 World Series just days after his father had died of leukemia.

I cried on both those nights. I cried for the love of the Yankees, I suppose, but I knew I was crying out of mourning for my dad. The music of the team was pouring out louder than I had ever heard it in my life (despite the fact that they went on to lose the Series), and yet there was no one to share it with. And as odd as it sounds perhaps, I found myself longing for those hospital nights when watching the Yankees had offered us a tiny piece of momentary relief from the grief and fear that each of us felt but neither of us knew how to articulate.

I remember that World Series vividly. On the night of the seventh game, which the Yankees lost, 3-2, on a bloop single off Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the ninth, I was volunteering with a friend at a church near Ground Zero, serving food from 8 PM to 8 AM for the emergency workers at the site. It was a chilly night, and we bundled up to stay warm. I drank Red Bull to maintain some energy. At one point my friend fell asleep in a church pew. Someone had a transistor radio on playing the game, and I have never in my life wanted the Yankees so badly to win—not even in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS.

They have to win, I thought. For New York.

I am not exaggerating when I say that I thought Arizona had a moral responsibility to play below their best, so that the Yankees would win, so that a bleeding city would have something to cheer about. But they did not share my sentiment, and the loss was devastating. Mariano blowing a lead in the bottom of the ninth in a World Series Game Seven? Impossible. But it happened, and the Yanks haven’t come that close to winning the Series since.

(Look, I might add, at what has happened to the country during that time. Coincidence? I think not. As the Yankees go, so goes the nation.)

Anyway…read Bissinger’s piece. It’s lovely writing.

Is it my imagination, or has Cindy McCain been sexing herself up a little ever since her husband chose Sarah Palin as his running, um, mate?

Perhaps she’s feeling a little threatened…..

(NYT photo, today)

Those of you interested in finance—and these days, isn’t that pretty much everyone?—might find interesting this excerpt of my forthcoming Worth interview with David Einhorn, the founder of hedgefund Greenlight Capital and an outspoken proponent of shortselling companies when they cook their books.

A sample:

Hedge funds appreciate that if they do a bad job, if they blow themselves up, there’s nobody there who’s going to bail them out. They’re going to lose their business, they’re going to lose their reputation, their customers are going to lose their money, and it’s just going to be a sorry experience for everybody.

But if a big investment bank, like Lehman Brothers, makes a big mistake with their accounting because they didn’t have adequate systems, they believe that the Treasury or the Fed will bail them out….

“I used to love him - for years. I now believe he is a despicable, lying, utterly cynical pol.”

—Andrew Sullivan on John McCain

Andrew’s transformation into McCain-hater has been fascinating to watch….but I wonder if he isn’t going too far for even his audience.

John McCain isn’t the only one whose ads are stretching the truth/lying….now Obama’s doing it too, the Times reports.

In all, Mr. Obama has released at least five commercials that have been criticized as misleading or untruthful against Mr. McCain’s positions in the past two weeks. Mr. Obama drew complaints from many of the independent fact-checking groups and editorial writers who just two weeks ago were criticizing Mr. McCain for producing a large share of this year’s untruthful spot….

Silly. There seems plenty to criticize about McCain’s record without abandoning principle…..

“I think our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan will lead to further security for our nation. We can never again let them onto our soil.”

—Sarah Palin, as quoted by the AP, today.

It was almost better back when they weren’t letting her talk to the press…..