Screw your head down tight. You don't want it to spin off as you try to understand what John McCain thinks about the economy.

Yesterday McCain assured us that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" despite our "difficult times." Today he explained that by "fundamentals," he meant American workers are strong. Whether they have strong backs or strong stomachs, he didn't specify.

So the workers don't need fixing, but what about the economy? Yesterday McCain was all about reform. He was going to take care of the "greed, excess and corruption in Wall Street." But how? Today he explained: all we need is "a high-level commission to study the current economic crisis," kinda like the 9/11 commission. So maybe midway through his presidential term, he'll get some recommendations about what to do solve what he now acknowledges is a "crisis." Marvelous. Does this inspire your confidence in John McCain's ability to lead?

Who will he put in charge of the commission? Phil Gramm? Donald Luskin? Take a look at his economic team and try to find someone who cares about the strong workers McCain is trying to embrace.

The Daily Kos/R2000 poll (8/13-15) has Obama up 48-44, up 1 from yesterday. I won't be around until this afternoon to provide you the other tracker results. UPDATE - Ras ticks towards Obama, McCain's lead sliced to 1, 48-47. Hotline shows a big move towards Obama, 46-42, from a 1 point lead a day earlier. Gallup ticks towards Obama, McCain lead cut to 1, 47-36.

The internals of this poll seem quite plausible - McCain by 20 among whites, Obama up 94-4 among A-As and leading by 2-1 among Latinos. McCain leads among men by 4 and Obama leads among women by 12. Turnout models are determinative. Demography is, as always, political destiny.

A final note, on the legitimacy of the DKos/R2000 poll - R2000 is a legitimate and respectable pollster. It seems to have a slight Dem house effect. But those of you voicing the idea that Kos would fiddle with polls are being just plain stupid. I would stake my own reputation on Markos' integrity. I disagree with him a lot. But he would never ever fudge the numbers.

This is a polling Open Thread. Just about polls please.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

TalkLeft discusses the Fair Pay Restoration Act here and here and here. Barack Obama supports it. John McCain doesn't. Maybe fair pay doesn't make a difference to voters, but it should.

Add one more misleading advertisement to the McCain campaign's lengthy list of lies and distortions. The McCain team is wasting its resources attacking Obama on immigration with a Spanish language ad on television stations in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.

A male announcer says: “Obama and his allies in Congress say they are on the side of immigrants, but they’re not. Reports in the press say that their efforts were like ‘poison pills’ that caused immigration reform to fail. The results: ‘No’ to the guest workers program; ‘no’ to a path to citizenship, ‘no’ to secure borders. The reform didn’t pass. Is that being on our side? Obama and his Congressional allies — ready to block immigration reform, but not ready to govern.”

This comes after McCain, during the primaries, disavowed the reform bill he once championed, saying he would now postpone policy reform until American borders are "secure". Does the McCain team think that targeting obvious lies to people who care about immigration reform will help him win this election? [more...]

Even David Gergen on CNN tonight said John McCain's campaign ads are false. He says the media is beginning to pushback against Palin and McCain and it may spread to the public.

CNN also had a long review of McCain's ads with reporter Randi Kaye and Factcheck.org. The upshot:

• Sex education ad: false Obama was trying to get kids to learn about recognizing improper touching.

• The Bridge to Nowhere: Palin never told Congress "no thanks", Congress had already killed it.

• Earmarks: McCain lied on The View today and said Palin didn't ask for earmarks while Governor. This year alone she asked for 197 million. She vetoed some earmarks but also asked for others.

• Palin claims Alaska produces 20% of the energy produced in US. It's 3.5%. It matters because they are using this in a claim that Palin is some kind of energy expert.

More...

Sen. John McCain's campaign today announced Gov. Sarah Palin will not meet with the investigators in TrooperGate. Previously she said she welcomed the investigation and would cooperate.

The fired public safety official, Walter Monegan, is speaking out.

"She's not telling the truth when she told ABC neither she nor her husband pressured me to fire Trooper Wooten," said Walt Monegan, the Alaskan official whose dismissal by Sarah Palin is the focus of a state investigation known as "Troopergate". "And she's not telling the truth to the media about her reasons for firing me."

He'll be on Rachel Maddow's show tonight. (Update below the fold)

CNN's Randi Kaye had a great taped segment on Campabell Brown's show tonight with FactCheck.Org on Palin's distortion of her record and accomplishments. I'm going to try and find a video of it, it was one of the most comprehensive exposing of the untruths I've seen yet. Hopefully they may replay it.

Sam Stein reports:

During a conference call with national female supporters on Monday, Barack Obama and his aides outlined a comprehensive strategy to target female supporters who could be on the fence between his and John McCain's candidacies. The plan included intense focus on McCain's opposition to equal pay legislation, which aides to Obama believe resonates beyond female voters; sending out prominent female surrogates to serve as political "ambassadors"; limiting focus on Gov. Sarah Palin in favor of McCain himself; and breaking through the media's propensity to focus on conflicts and gaffes.

There were several issues on which the campaign suggested these pseudo-surrogates focus. Equal pay, opposition to choice, and the economy were some of them -- Sarah Palin was not. "I know we are getting a little distracted by discussion about Sarah Palin, but I think it is important for all of us to focus on Sen. McCain," said Dana Singiser, a strategist for Obama. . . . "Whether we are talking about jobs or health care or gas prices, this is what women voters and really all voters are concerned about."

(Emphasis supplied.) Amen.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Salon has an article about Alaska Baptist Minister Howard Bess who says he is frightened by Gov. Sarah Palin's injection of her evangelical views into her governing. He says as Mayor she tried to ban his book about gays from the public library, ban abortion at a local hospital in the valley and get creationists on the school board.

On abortion:

In 1996, evangelical churches mounted a vigorous campaign to take over the local hospital's community board and ban abortion from the valley. When they succeeded, Bess and Dr. Susan Lemagie, a Palmer OB-GYN, fought back, filing suit on behalf of a local woman who had been forced to travel to Seattle for an abortion. The case was finally decided by the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled that the hospital must provide valley women with the abortion option.

At one point during the hospital battle, passions ran so hot that local antiabortion activists organized a boisterous picket line outside Dr. Lemagie's office, in an unassuming professional building across from Palmer's Little League field. According to Bess and another community activist, among the protesters trying to disrupt the physician's practice that day was Sarah Palin.

On her attempt to get creationists on the school board:

The Denver Post has more on Gov. Sarah Palin's campaign event in Colorado today: She repeated her lie about opposing the Bridge to Nowhere and was heckled by a woman in the back who sporadically yelled "You're Not Qualified."

The audience response to the heckler: It turned to her and shouted "U.S.A., U.S.A."

Colorado Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a long-time Obama supporter, has this terrific response to Palin:

"If Governor Palin wants to represent 'change' in Washington," U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Golden, said in a statement, "she could try something like telling the truth about her record of support for the bridge to nowhere or for other pork-barrel earmarks, her outdated and extreme positions on women's issues, her heaping of millions of dollars in debt upon the small town of Wasilla, Alaska, or her abuse of power investigation.

More....

Here is a portion of the text of Sen. Barack Obama's prepared remarks at his rally today in Grand Junction, CO (received by e-mail, no link.)

This morning we woke up to some very serious and troubling news from Wall Street.

The situation with Lehman Brothers and other financial institutions is the latest in a wave of crises that are generating enormous uncertainty about the future of our financial markets. This turmoil is a major threat to our economy and its ability to create good-paying jobs and help working Americans pay their bills, save for their future, and make their mortgage payments.

More...

Digby remembers.

John McCain has a long history with bank failures and financial scandals. He created his whole reform persona around the idea that he'd come too close to the flame and gotten burned. But he hasn't changed his philosophy or his policies one bit. He believes in the same scam his close advisor Phil "you're all a bunch of whiners" Gramm believes. He pretended for years that the problem was solely in the campaign finance system, burnishing his image with signature legislation that has proven to be completely useless. Meanwhile, he backs deregulation like it comes down from Mt Sinai.

The core message: