Hardcore Republicans are losing their minds, and showing their true colors:

Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

Wow, nice set of values you all have got there. And:

Palin, speaking to a sea of "Palin Power" and "Sarahcuda" T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. "One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," she said. ("Boooo!" said the crowd.) "And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,' " she continued. ("Boooo!" the crowd repeated.)

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

The level of hate at these rallies, and the absence of any sense of shame, is unbelievable. Yet the McCain campaign is making the fundamental mistake of thinking that this country is filled with small, bitter people.

It's not. Only their rallies are.

It really is beyond all satire that Hank Paulson has appointed Neal Kashkari to dole out the $700 billion in taxpayer money to Wall Street banksters.

And yes, that's pronounced "cash-carry."

This was the moment when the McCain-Palin shtick of referring to themselves as "hockey moms" (well, not McCain, but I have no doubt he'd use it if the focus groups showed it beneficial) and "mavericks" was revealed to be just that -- a shtick.

If you find you have to consistently apply an adjective to yourself in a self-referential way, chances are good that the adjective isn't entirely accurate.

Show, don't tell. Every writer knows that the effect of following that rule is greater emotive power.

Please click here and vote to give $1.5 million for malnourished children through the American Express Members Project.

228-205.

Thank God for the US Congress -- and I mean that absolutely without any snark.

Paulson should resign.

... another administration that believes it is above the law?

I'm sure she has the judgment and experience to criticize. Don't you?

Injecting presidential campaign showmanship into the crisis isn't leadership.

The bailout is a bad idea. But a man willing to play chicken with the American economy because his campaign is cratering doesn't have the judgment to be president.

The bankers are panicked. You must fork over $700 billion to calm them down.

Question: If there is a crisis of liquidity, and not solvency, why is the Fed rate still at 2%? Why has the Fed reduced in-flows into the banking system since last Wednesday?