Three Headlines

Besides watching football and the baseball playoffs (Cubs out? Already?), there was plenty of news on this fine fall weekend. Enough for this, the 200th post.

The Chicken Little Bailout Passes

That $700 billion plan to "rescue" Wall Street passed the House of Representatives Friday, 263-171, then was signed by President Bush. It was really over $800 billion, thanks to the inclusion of congressional pet projects (also known as 'earmarks' and 'pork') both legitimate and not-so-legitimate. It won't solve America's economic woes, at least not right away. But it's the first step in admitting there's a big problem out there.

Star Tribune Poll Gives Obama and Franken Double Digit Leads

Well, the newspaper had to do something to offset reports that they are on the verge of bankruptcy. But this is definitely something that makes you go huh? The Minnesota Poll has Barack Obama leading John McCain in the presidential race 55 percent to 37 percent, while Al Franken leads Norm Coleman in the U.S. Senate race 43 percent to 34 percent, with third-party candidate Dean Barkley getting 18 percent. Every other poll in the state has Obama and McCain running neck and neck in the presidential race, while Coleman has been leading Franken by 10 points.

The economic crisis has obviously helped Obama's cause, in spite of being nonexistent on the ad front when compared to McCain (although that's changing, we understand). But what to make of Franken? Seems people really are being turned off by the ads both Senate candidates have been running--particularly Coleman's, which are getting increasingly desperate. Depicting Franken as someone who wrote jokes on rape and goes on profanity-laced tirades is old news, and exploiting a cute kid with a fatal disease just to win votes is offensive. And why Franken's wife chose this time to reveal in an ad that she's a recovering alcoholic is puzzling.

Incidentally, we all knew that the Hubbard family, which owns KSTP-TV, are in the tank for the Republicans. But interrupting an ABC News report on the bailout vote for a McCain ad was just tacky.

O.J. Simpson Convicted of Armed Robbery and Kidnapping Charges

The fact that the verdict came in the middle of the night in a Las Vegas courtroom was telling. We suppose stealing sports memorabilia isn't as sexy a story as the murder of Simpson's wife and her friend, complete with racial implications. Maybe we've seen too many African-American athletes paraded in front of courtrooms on various charges, ranging from the heinous to lapses in good judgement, to see this as anything but just one more. Or maybe we're so over O.J. Simpson.