He May Be Right, We May Be Crazy.

By Dana Milbank
Friday, October 24, 2008

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.

Uptown girl,

You know I can't afford to buy her pearls.

But maybe someday when my ship comes in,

She'll understand what kind of guy I've been.

A new batch of polls released Thursday morning brought more grim news for McCain. The Republican was trailing Obama in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Florida. "Almost universally bad news for John McCain," wrote The Post's Dan Balz.

Sometimes I feel as though I'm running on ice, paying the price too long.

Kind of get the feeling that I'm running on ice. W here did my life go wrong ?

McCain's only good news, if it could be called that, was a suspect Associated Press poll showing Obama's lead at only one percentage point among likely voters.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, keeping the faith.

On the campaign trail, the two sides traded the usual barbs. McCain said Obama couldn't be trusted. "He'll say anything to get elected."

Honesty is such a lonely word.

Everyone is so untrue.

Honesty is hardly ever heard,

And mostly what I need from you.

Joe "Careless Talk" Biden, in turn, suggested that McCain is erratic. "John's getting a little loose," he said. "He doesn't have a steady hand right now."

You may be right,

I may be crazy.

But it just may be a lunatic you're looking for.

McCain continued his frantic scramble to distance himself from the poisonous President Bush. The Washington Times published an interview Thursday in which McCain denounced the president for just about everything that has happened over the last four years. "We just let things get completely out of hand," he said. For McCain, who once boasted that he voted with Bush 90 percent of the time, the divorce was nearly complete.

I don't need you to worry for me, 'cause I'm all right.

I don't want you to tell me it's time to come home.

I don't care what you say anymore, this is my life.

Go ahead with your own life -- leave me alone.

Over at the courthouse, jury deliberations continued in the trial of Sen. Ted ("An Innocent Man") Stevens.

But as jurors decided the fate of the Alaska Republican, things turned tense in the jury room, where jurors described a "stressful" environment and sent a note to the judge asking that one member of the panel be dismissed. "She has had violent outbursts with other jurors, and that's not helping anyone," the note said. But the judge left the violent juror in place and urged jurors to behave themselves.

You have to learn to pace yourself.

Pressure.

You're just like everybody else.

Pressure.

At the White House, Bush, all but forgotten, had but one meeting on his public schedule for the day: with participants in the U.S. Middle East Partnership Initiative. Nobody seemed to notice.

Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes.

I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again.

Say goodbye to Hollywood.

Say goodbye to my baby.

And at the press club, Joel had finished his hour-long talk and mini-concert. As a final question, he was asked to suggest which of his songs could be a theme for each presidential campaign. He declined, opting instead to sing one of his old ballads, "Summer, Highland Falls," which seemed newly appropriate for the times.

They say that these are not the best of times,

But they're the only times I've ever known.

And I believe there is a time for meditation

In cathedrals of our own.

Now I have seen that sad surrender in my lover's eyes,

And I can only stand apart and sympathize.

For we are always what our situations hand us.

It's either sadness or euphoria.