Anchorage Daily News

Palin in the White House: Play the interactive game. Before we get serious about tallying up reviews of last night's final presidential debate, check in at the Stevens trial, listening in on VP candidate Palin campaigning in Maine this morning, and meeting Joe the Plumber (or at least figure out where to buy the T-shirt), let's take a pit stop in D.C.

Laugh you will at Palin in the White House, a site thinking ahead to Palin's 2012 run. Palin's at the presidential desk, oil derricks are pumping through the windows, baby names are tacked on the wall (try Carport, Cashew, Rake, Purple). Through a door, books burn or Katie Couric gets tortured. Click on Palin and hear Tina Fey proudly announce, "I'm a maverick!"

More on Palin in our psyches, below.

***

Palin pulls back on the pit bull. The Boston Herald reported that crowds turning out to see Sarah Palin in Dover, New Hampshire carried "ditch-the-nastiness" signs, and she seems to have responded.

"My America is Kind," read one. "Fanning the Flames of Hatred is Dangerous," read another. They were right next to the life-sized polar bear who held up his own message for Palin, "You're Darn Tootin'! Polar Bears Deserve Protection!"

Whatever the explanation, Sarah Palin, heretofore McCain's pitbull with lipstick, was mostly lipstick on her swing through this swing state. She was tougher in off-stage interviews, but on the podium, not a word about "terrorists" or the ranting Rev. Wright. She didn't repeat her ominous line: Obama's not a man "who sees America as you see it or I see it."

Palin has already picked up the Joe the Plumber line and ran with it in Maine, according to the Wall Street Journal.

***

Will Ted Stevens take the stand today? His wife Catherine already has, and Ted's name remains on the list of potentials. The Associated Press today offers to pros and cons of just such a move.

Defense lawyers have said they will call Stevens after his wife testifies, but legal experts say that move could be dangerous. They cautioned that the longtime Republican legislator and former prosecutor still could back out at the last minute.

Based on news media accounts, "it does seem like the government has failed to put on a compelling case, so why put him on?" said Carl Tobias, professor at the University of Richmond law school.

On cross-examination, prosecutors undoubtedly would replay for jurors secretly recorded telephone conversations of Stevens warning Allen that they could go to jail if the FBI caught them in a cover-up, said former federal prosecutor Steve Dettelbach. They could score points by simply asking, "You're not contesting that that's your voice?" he said.

"Defendants need to understand that cross-examination is rarely limited to the subject they wish to cover," Dettelbach said.

***

Who won the debate? Pretty resoundingly, pundits say it was Obama's to lose, and he didn't. Here's a sampling from around the U.S. and the world.

> The final contest was the best by far (The Economist)

But Mr. McCain also made two big mistakes. Bringing up Mr. Obama's association with Bill Ayers, a former terrorist, made him look petty on a day on which the Dow Jones had lost 8 percent of its value and people have much bleaker issues on their minds. The second - and more serious - lay in his body language. Mr. McCain let his contempt for the younger man shine through, harrumphing, grimacing, smirking and goggling his eyes whenever Mr. Obama got a chance to speak. The whole performance was reminiscent of Al Gore's sighing in his debate with George Bush in 2000, which many people think contributed to his defeat.

Mr. Obama's performance during all this was remarkable. He remained calm and unflustered. He listened respectfully to his opponent. He took every opportunity to change the subject to economics and the woes of the average American.

The instant polls all gave a big victory to Mr. Obama. Mr. McCain made the debate exciting, but Mr. Obama got the better of the evening, surely increasing his already high chances of victory in November.

>Did Barack "spread the wealth" Obama just blow the election? (U.S. News & World Report)

And by the way, I just noticed that the IBD/TIPP poll, the most accurate in 2004, has McCain down by just 3 points. If the contest is perceived by the voters as a contest between a wealth redistributor and a wealth creator, then it could be a long night come Nov. 4. This is still a center-right country, gang. Note this Gallup poll from June:

When given a choice about how government should address the numerous economic difficulties facing today's consumer, Americans overwhelmingly - by 84 percent to 13 percent - prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.

There you go.

> Sam Donaldson on the debate and what's next (ABC News)

So, if the plumber won, who lost? That's easy, John McCain.

Though McCain tried hard, scored some points certainly, nothing happened Wednesday night to change the fundamental direction of this race. And unless some outside event occurs which McCain cannot produce to shift the emphasis from the economy to his national security turf, this election would appear to be in the bag for Obama.

>McCain has a "...a pinched view of government"(The New York Times)

As for how Mr. McCain would create jobs, his big idea in Tuesday's speech - surprise, surprise - was that "the most effective way a president can do this" is to use "tax cuts that are directed specifically to create jobs." After the last eight years, that pinched view of government ought to sound depressingly familiar to the millions of Americans who are still waiting for that downward trickle of prosperity.

> The Irish call it for O'Bama (Irish Times)

Instant polls by CBS and CNN found that most voters believed Mr. Obama won the debate but Mr. McCain's campaign staff insisted that he had changed the trajectory of the race by finding a powerful closing argument on the economy and taxation.

> McCain slings mud (Chicago Sun-Times)

McCain has yet to apologize for the ugly and racist tones that have crept into his campaign rallies.

Instead of apologizing, McCain made excuses and claimed to have repudiated "every time somebody has been out of line."

Not true. Not even close.

> Why Ayers was a fair question (The Weekly Standard)

I'm not sure, tactically, that it makes sense for the McCain campaign to use the Bill Ayers attacks against Barack Obama. But I do think it's a perfectly legitimate issue and one that has been sidelined by the news media who have refused to ask what I consider to be a pretty obvious question: If Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says of Barack Obama and Ayers "they're friends," why is it improper for Sarah Palin to call them "pals?"

> "The best part was Bob Schieffer..." (Kathleen Parker, Washington Post)

The best part -- at least to some of us -- was when moderator Bob Schieffer pressed each candidate to explain why his vice presidential running mate was better qualified than the other's to fill the presidency should circumstances warrant. Obama gets points for recognizing Sarah Palin's political talent and more or less leaving it at that. McCain did neither Sarah Palin nor his candidacy any good with his response. Palin is qualified to be his running mate because she's a reformer, a role model for women, a breath of fresh air -- and because she understands special needs children better than anyone? Role modeling and helping children with special needs is surely important -- and fresh air is welcome -- but this is not the sort of resume that inspires confidence in the midst of two wars and a global financial crisis.

The night was Obama's to lose. He didn't.

***

Joe the Plumber becomes the new Joe Six-Pack. Joe's last name is Wurzelbacher, and he was evoked almost two dozen times by Obama and McCain in the debate. So here's the guy, here's the T-shirt, and here's what he thought of the debate.

> VIDEO: The pre-debate encounter between Joe and Obama at a campaign stop in Holland, Ohio, not far from Toledo. (Associated Press)

> VIDEO: Joe's take after the debate (You Tube)

Wurzelbacher, 34, unintentionally stepped onto the political scene over the weekend when Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, was campaigning in Holland, Ohio, just west of Toledo.

But what about being mentioned repeatedly in the debate? "It's pretty surreal, man," he said.

> VIDEO REMIX: A viewer's response to the debate, with lots of plumbers (You Tube)

> Where to find the T-shirt (New York Daily News)

Turns out he's registered Republican in Lucas County, Ohio, but he's not saying who he will vote for in November.

***

Speaking of T-shirts, Palin has worked her way into the national psyche. A few items here, just because she's our governor and we can hardly believe what's happened since she joined the ticket back in August.

> Leave it to a college kid to reveal the "Drill, baby drill" T-shirt (College OTR.com)

It's not rated PG, so visit at your own risk.

> Palin porno film is disrespectful of women (The Daily Campus)

Apparently Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler, has made an X-rated movie using an adult-film actress who resembles the governor of Alaska. Despite the tackiness of all that, the writer had some interesting things to say about the role sex has played in this campaign,

However, "sexiness" is the ultimate weapon of those who would demean Palin as an individual. The sexy paradigm serves as a particularly insidious tool because it sneaks in through the front door of supposed positivism. Who doesn't want to be sexy, right? But as the sexual compliments flow over Palin, they wash away the respect she deserves. In the modern mindset, a woman cannot be both sexy and powerful.

And of course, leave it to the "alternative" media to finish what the mainstream media has started.

***

Troopergate sheds light on Alaska's "larger crime problem." The Wall Street Journal revisits the Branchflower report and comes away with some alarm at Alaska's high rates of sexual assault.

The high statistics are attributed to drug and alcohol abuse, lack of social services and isolation. But there's also the issue of inadequate law enforcement.

And that's where some think Governor Palin comes in. As Alaska's governor, she's arguably in a better position than other governors to tackle lawbreaking, as throughout much of the state, the state troopers represent the only law-enforcement presence.

Gov. Palin has also faced some criticism for not dipping into an estimated $8.2 billion state surplus to boost policing, the result primarily of increased oil revenue. "We've got the largest savings account of any state in the nation," state Sen. Bill Wielechowski, a Democrat, told us. "Why we can't put some of this money toward our crime problem is beyond me."

***

Other headlines of interest to Alaskans:

> Marauding bear dines on freezer full of salmon and moose (The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)

"They got in and ripped the top clean off the freezer," Brandon Mattzela said. "They got into a lot of salmon, moose and caribou."

Looking out the window and seeing a grizzly bear 20 feet away, that's better than coffee," he said.

ADVERTISEMENT

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@