by Evie Stone

Good morning.

Wall Street's troubles continue to dominate the newsiverse, and the candidates are endeavoring to seem presidentially facile and authoritative on the subject.

The Obama campaign has released an ad repeating (several times) McCain's statement from yesterday morning that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" over what we can only describe as 80s cop-movie chase music paired with blaring bad-news headlines. Meanwhile, McCain made the morning show rounds and repeated his clarification from yesterday: the economy is in crisis, but the fundamentals of the economy are the American workers, who are the best in the world. And he called for a 9/11-style investigatory commission to look into the root causes of the meltdown. (For a full recap of yesterday's rhetorical crossfire, NPR's David Greene and Scott Horsley have got you covered.)

The campaign battlefield finally appears to be expanding to include the 527 groups both candidates decried last spring (feels like the Jurassic period now, doesn't it?). NPR's Peter Overby reported yesterday that Obama's cavalry may finally be trotting into town (though not galloping just yet). Indeed, the independent expenditures are ramping up on both sides — from the anti-McCain Brave New PAC to the anti-Obama Vets for Freedom and far beyond. Peter and Will Evans from the Center for Investigative Reporting follow the independent ad drops in real time on the Secret Money Blog.

 

Up in Anchorage, the AP is reporting that a McCain spokesman says Sarah Palin is "unlikely to cooperate" with an investigation into whether she improperly fired Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Palin says she fired Monegan over budgetary disputes; he holds it was because he wouldn't fire her ex-brother-in law, a state trooper. Alaska Democrats have accused the McCain campaign of "doing everything it can to stall and smear" instead of cooperating, but the campaign counters that the investigation is too "tainted" by partisan politics to be fair.

Palin had originally said she would cooperate with the inquiry, which was unanimously approved by a bi-partisan panel of state legislators. But after she joined the GOP ticket, her lawyer requested that the matter be looked into by the state Personnel Board rather than the state legislature, in order to avoid partisan motivations. The lawyer later requested that the Personnel Board dismiss the investigation entirely after emails were released that showed internal frustrations with Monegan's budget requests. But evidence has also emerged that Palin repeatedly contacted Monegan about the ex-brother-in-law. Last week the legislative panel voted to subpoena Palin's husband Todd, along with 12 state employees, to testify in the investigation. Palin herself did not receive a subpoena.

And finally, for those of you who don't get enough political theater in your daily lives...the NYT reports that "Farragut North" — a play about "a hotshot press secretary's rise and fall during a tight presidential primary race" — begins previews in New York next month.