Street Fighting

Is this the week when the Palin phenomenon starts to lose its punch? Between a meltdown on Wall Street, a massive clean-up in TX, and a GOP VP who remains insulated and isolated from the press, it seems more than likely. So who benefits?

-- CW says that any time the focus is back on economic troubles, it's a good day for Obama. Yet it's notable that McCain was first to the airwaves on the issue. The message: "only proven reformers" like McCain/Palin "can fix" these problems.

-- Obama/Biden, of course, want to make sure this debate gets framed as one that highlights the similarities between the McCain and Bush economic policies.

-- Biden gets a shot at this today in MI where he'll emerge from near public obscurity to unveil his new lines of attack. Remember when he was going to be the outsider from Scranton? Not anymore. Now he's all about embracing his Washington insider-ness. Using his long relationship with McCain as ammo, Biden's new message goes something like this: "Heck, I've been in the Senate long enough to know that McCain's no outsider."

-- Meanwhile, both candidates may want to tread lightly on using this crisis to launch political attacks. "Change" voters want more than a new direction. They also want a change in tone.