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STUNT FATIGUE….Over at The Corner, even Kathryn Jean Lopez thinks Barack Obama sounds more sensible today than John McCain. Jason Zengerle comments:

That’s how a McCain supporter is reacting to all of this. You do wonder if stunt fatigue is simply setting in. First there was the Palin pick. Then there was the jihad against the Times. At a certain point McCain’s “bold” moves start to seem a little stale and predictable, don’t they?

The McCain campaign is running on fumes at this point. They’ve been all over the map on the financial crisis. Both McCain and Palin are afraid to meet with reporters and answer actual questions. Even their prepared statements barely make sense anymore. They’re completely at sea.

And now this. Obama calls McCain to privately work out a genuinely bipartisan statement about the bailout bill, and McCain immediately panics and runs off to the TV cameras to offer up a faux public one instead (and then leaves without taking questions, of course). A joint statement? Hah! Too puny. I dare Senator Obama to suspend our campaigns, sequester ourselves from the American public, and hold photo ops on Capitol Hill instead! In fact, I double dare him!

Sheesh. It’s time for the Drama King to take his bows and exit stage right. Enough.

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

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