The Friday Political Thread: Write It Backwards on Your Face

David Weigel | October 24, 2008

Unconvincing Quote of the Week
"She was upset with the media for blowing this into a political firestorm." - Pittsburgh police Assistant Chief Maurita Bryant on Ashley Todd, the McCain volunteer who admitted lying about a pro-Obama hate crime committed against her.

The Week in Brief
- Joe Biden declared pre-emptive war on Barack Obama.
- Obamacons tumbled out of the woodwork.
- Alan Greenspan was vewwy vewwy sorry.
- John McCain got on the Joe the Plumber bus.
- Ron Paul's ghost haunted the GOP.
- Bob Barr pronounced McCain's defeat.

Below the Fold
- Nate Silver explains why westerner John McCain is losing the western states. (Reagan swept them twice.)
- W. James Antle III throws a fit in Sam's Club.
- Will Wilkinson breaks a fly bottle over Jacob Weisberg's head. It leaves a mark shaped like an "L"!
- Greg Sargent has the ugliest scoop of the week. (If, as seems unlikely, McCain loses Pennsylvania in a squeaker because he underperforms in Pittsburgh, will Ashley Todd become the Steve Bartman of politics?)
- Gerard Baker predicts a wave of Palintology to come after the vote.

This week's Politics 'n' Prog is dedicated to Sarah Palin.