Awaiting The Debating

A few minor notes before the great dialogue begins:

--By my calculations, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed today 10.8% lower than the day George W. Bush took office on January 20, 2001; the NASDAQ is up 1.9%, the S&P 500 is down 26.1%.

--Credit where it's due: I read a fair amount of the right-wing blogosphere, and I have not once yet seen a single argument that the stock market is tanking as a reaction to the increasing likelihood that Barack Obama will be the next President, and investors know that he will be terrible for the economy.

--"[Obama's] nationwide [ad] buys have been climbing a systematic 20% a week since the beginning of September, while Mr. McCain's have flatlined.... The Obama campaign upped its daily spending to more than $2.8 million, almost double what the McCain team spends daily now." See full article here. Contrariwise, WaPo's Cillizza sez Obama's total ad spending is now triple McCain's.

--As a rule, political candidates don't want to be "linked" to "death squads" in the final month of an election.

--Chronicle of Higher Ed sez that Joe Lieberman is on the outs with the "Connecticut for Lieberman Party."