The Drudge Retort

Boy, what a grilling Palin got from Sean Hannity last night. The questions included: "Is Obama using what happened on Wall Street this week for political gain?" "Why does everyone benefit if the rich pay less" in taxes? And this zinger: "How did you take on your own party, specifically, and do you think you'll be able to do as well in Washington?" It's a wonder she didn't start sweating.

By the way, with McCain and Palin vowing to crack down on Wall Street corruption, aren't they also using the week's events for political gain?

After McCain backed away from his "fundamentals are sound" comment, a new argument is emerging on the right: He's the steady hand and Obama is the sky-is-falling guy. National Review's Jonah Goldberg makes the case:

"McCain shouldn't apologize for his initial statements. Indeed, McCain should stop being defensive about his political instincts in areas like this. Obama wants this to be about 'the economy.' McCain's instinct is to make this about leadership in a crisis. That's the right instinct. Obama sees nothing wrong with screaming that the sky is falling during a stock-market meltdown in order to score political points. McCain's impulse was to argue for calm at the moment when it is needed.

"McCain's response to Obama's attack shouldn't be to ratchet-up his own panic language to keep up with Obama, but to scold Obama for making the situation worse. The narrative of the moment should be McCain is the grown-up, Obama the hot head. There's a thin line between hope and fear, and Obama is crossing it."

Well. Pointing out that the economy is struggling, Wall Street is imploding and the nation's largest insurance company needed an $85-billion bailout is hardly being a fearmonger.

Remember the biggest political battle of 2005? HuffPoster John Neffinger does:

"When George W. Bush made it to term #2, he decided to try to privatize Social Security to reward his supporters on Wall Street with a new source of capital, customers, and fees. (Those would be the same people whose firms are now cratering under the weight of the bad debt they recklessly took on while Republican regulators looked the other way). But as it turned out, we Americans were not about to let our elected representatives turn over our social security taxes to Wall Street financiers to gamble with if it meant losing the guaranteed income that has allowed millions upon millions of American seniors to live out their sunset years with at least a basic measure of dignity.

"But while ordinary Americans spoke out, John McCain stood with Bush (hugged him awkwardly in public, even), against the American people. In fact, just six months ago, McCain again let slip his fondness for privatization.

"I have been scratching my head why this has not been talked about more, especially since Obama has been having trouble winning votes among seniors."

In fairness, Bush's market-investment idea was to be voluntary. But the president pushed it hard, and got so creamed he couldn't even get a committe vote on the Hill.

Where's Hillary? The New Republic's Michael Crowley follows the clues: