by Evie Stone

Good morning! It's one day post-equinox and already the morning light seems more autumnal here in Washington. There are 41 days to go before America votes...or at least before the 8 remaining citizens who won't be voting early. So let's get down to biz.

Big hearings today on Capitol Hill over the proposed federal bailout plan. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke are both urging lawmakers to swiftly pass the package — they're hoping for votes in both houses of Congress by Friday. But the plan is meeting resistance from liberal Democrats who want to grant bankruptcy judges the power to modify mortgage terms to prevent foreclosures, and also to allow the federal government to own shares of the companies it relieves of bad debt. The right isn't happy either: fiscally conservative Republicans hate the idea of taxpayer dollars being poured into a hastily-crafted plan to fix the so-called 'free market'. (Former Speaker Newt Gingrich gave the plan a thorough smackdown from the right on ATC yesterday afternoon.)

The major-party candidates both appear to have backed the plan, though they've expressed (remarkably similar!) reservations about Bush Administration's streamlined proposal, which calls for a huge infusion of money without Congressional oversight on how it's used. McCain has called for the addition of a bi-partisan oversight board, saying that while he respects Paulson, he is "deeply uncomfortable" entrusting him with sole responsibility over the $700 billion. McCain has also suggested capping CEO compensation at about $400,000 — a salary equivalent to the highest paid government employee (the President). Obama is also calling for more scrutiny (professing wariness over giving the administration a "blank check"), and says the bailout should be paired with a stimulus package to help ordinary workers. Obama is also proposing spending cuts to offset some of the costs of the plan. Meanwhile, USA Today points out that the enormous costs of the bailout will likely stand in the way of some of the candidates' lofty campaign promises (though Obama insists it won't affect his health care proposal).

 

Both candidates are spending the week feverishly preparing for the first general-election debate this Friday in Oxford, MS (focus: foreign policy). Will they show up at the Capitol if the Senate votes on the bailout proposal this week? This could turn into a bit of a game of chicken...the worst-case scenario for each candidate is that the other guy makes it to Washington to vote on the package but he does not...providing huge openings in the town-hall style debate October 7th and the domestic policy debate October 15th. ("My opponent was too busy playing politics to help solve the biggest financial crisis this nation has seen since the Great Depression..." etc. etc.) On the other hand, if one of the Senators votes for a package the other deems flawed, that's a potential landmine as well. What to do???

On the foreign policy front, Sarah Palin plans to meet with seven world leaders during this week's meeting of the UN General Assembly. She'll also meet with Henry Kissinger and Bono. On today's docket: the Presidents of Colombia and Afghanistan. Tomorrow: Georgia and Ukraine. Palin, who recently told ABC's Charlie Gibson she has never met a foreign leader, is endeavoring to bolster her resume before appearing opposite Sen. Joe Biden in the Vice-Presidential debate early next month.

And finally, the coveted Ron Paul endorsement has been bestowed upon Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party. (If you're wondering about Baldwin, one of his online videos describes him this way: "it's kinda like having one of the founding fathers as a presidential candidate.") Paul, who is running for re-election to Congress as a Republican, cites "the uselessness of continuing to support a process that a claims [sic] that one's only choice is to choose the lesser of two evils and reject a principle vote that might challenge the status quo as a wasted vote" as the reasoning behind his third-party choice.

Notably, Paul — who ran for President as a Libertarian in 1988 — did not endorse Libertarian nominee Bob Barr.