He May Be Right, We May Be Crazy.

Billy Joel was not in a Washington state of mind.

The singer had come to the National Press Club yesterday for what was billed as a luncheon talk about "celebrity endorsements of political candidates." But the Piano Man didn't want to talk politics. "I was wondering why you guys wanted me here," he said. "I'm not going to get up on a soapbox here. I am a piano player."

Nobody complained when the musician instead played for the crowd a few snippets of "We Didn't Start the Fire," "Baby Grand," even some Gilbert and Sullivan. And for listeners of a certain age, there probably was no need for Joel to talk politics: His lyrics are a veritable soundtrack for Campaign '08.

Washington awoke Thursday to the happy discovery that there were just 12 days left in what has been the longest presidential campaign in history. The two-year election cycle has cost a cool $5.3 billion, the Center for Responsive Politics estimates.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, for the longest time.

Oh, oh, oh, for the longest time.

The Labor Department reported an additional 478,000 jobless claims, worse than expected and putting the economy at recessionary levels. Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman who presided over the mortgage bubble that has now burst, went to Capitol Hill to admit that a "flaw" in his regulatory model had failed to prevent a credit "tsunami."

Well we're living here in Allentown,

And they're closing all the factories down.

Out in Bethlehem they're killing time,

Filling out forms, standing in line.

Financial circumstances were rather better for GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who awoke Thursday to a second day of bad headlines about the $150,000 that had been spent at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus on new clothes for her and her family. The treatment of Palin infuriated John McCain, who told radio host Don Imus that Palin was the victim of an "elitist attitude" among Washington types who don't like Palin because she's not part of the "Georgetown cocktail party" circuit.