The Democrats are unrelenting in attempting to spread their anti-deregulation mantra. Apparently they believe in the "Big Lie Theory," that, if you say something over and over again, it becomes true for the masses. A recent article in the New York Times relates the story behind former Senator Phil Gramm, the man behind the deregulation wave in the late 1990s. And of course, they quote various professors who claim that Gramm's actions "contributed mightily" to our current economic crises. Sigh.
Apparently, the editorial board of the NYT and the whole Democratic Caucus needs to read the series of articles from the latest edition of the Carolina Review where the real factors that caused the economic crisis are documented: the Fed's low interest rate, Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, the "moral hazard," the Community Reinvestment Act, and organizations like ACORN who pressured community banks to give loans to people who could not afford them. Hum... dereguation surprisingly does not appear on the list because, in fact, dereguation DID NOT cause the crisis! No credible economist (with the exception of Paul Krugman) actually believes this.
So, to the NYT and Democrats in general: please stop spreading myths about the economic crisis. Thank men like Phil Gramm instead of attacking them.

Well, this is what the McCain campaign needed. After the dust settled, even the liberal pundits on the networks were saying that Palin had re-established her credibility. She may not have won the debate. There were certain areas where some criticism may be leveled. There were questions that she didn't answer and she got the name of the general in Afghanistan wrong. But again, Biden didn't answer every question directly, nor did Obama; and Biden claimed that FDR was president and, that FDR announced the gravity of the situation in 1929 on television. So it goes both ways. I personally think that Palin's was of a lesser magnitude. She came pretty close. Biden was way off (Sort of like saying, "It was like when James Madison flew into the Mexico City airstrip to contragulate the victorious troops of the Mexican-American War." Not too historically accurate.). The benefit that Palin had coming in was that she had lost some credibility and was making the McCain ticket lag. People were beginning to question McCain's judgement in picking her as his running mate. The debate now completely changed that. Now she has re-established her credibility and the McCain campaign can focus on the matters at hand and not worrying about their VP pick. So Biden failed in the respect that he needed to make her mess up. He didn't. So now she lives to fight another day. A salutary event in keeping the McCain campaign afloat. Now those poll numbers can start swinging the other way.