What a day: McCain camp wobbles, Obama remains grounded

MCCAIN CANCELLED on Letterman but not Katie Couric or a rich fundraiser.

Obama responded to McCain's grandstanding and proposal to postpone the debate (during a press conference, how novel!) by saying that the debate is "more important than ever" given the financial situation and Americans desire to know where the candidates want to take the country:

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More here, as well as some historical perspective on what has happened on September 24 of some election years from the past when the country was in difficult times.

McCain is "rushing" back to Washington... hope he remembers what it looks like! He's missed more votes than any other senator this year.

IN THE FACE OF CLAIMS from the McCain campaign that Obama has ties to Fannie and Freddie, the New York Times reports:

One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.

The disclosure undercuts a remark by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years....

Freddie Mac’s payments of roughly $500,000 to Davis Manafort, the people familiar with the arrangement said, began in late 2005, immediately after Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae disbanded an advocacy coalition that they had set up and hired Mr. Davis to run.

From 2000 to the end of 2005, Mr. Davis received nearly $2 million as president of the coalition, the Homeownership Alliance, which the companies created to help them oppose new regulations and protect their status as federally chartered companies with implicit government backing. That status let them borrow cheaply, helping to fuel rapid growth but also their increased purchases of the risky mortgage securities that proved to be their downfall.

The payments that Mr. Davis received for leading the Homeownership Alliance were reported in Monday’s issue of The New York Times. On Sunday, in an interview with CNBC and The Times, Mr. McCain responded to a question about that tie between Mr. Davis and the two mortgage companies by saying that he “has had nothing to do with it since, and I’ll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it.”

Such assertions, along with McCain campaign television advertisements tying Mr. Obama to former Fannie Mae chiefs, have riled current and former officials of the two companies and provoked them to volunteer rebuttals.

BREAKING NEWS: Bush misleads speaks to America about the financial crisis. Who cares!

SARAH PALIN NEED NOT FEAR Samantha Stevens... watch this 2005 video (Palin appears at the seven minute mark):

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AND IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, here's the report on Sarah Palin's "Road to Nowhere" (built at $8 million a mile with your tax dollars!):