A new John McCain ad featuring former Fannie Mae Chairman Frank Raines has bloggers arguing Friday over whether McCain is or isn't interjecting race into the campaign. Conservatives express frustration over the government's Wall Street bailouts, and Barack Obama seems to recouped his pre-Sarah Palin lead over McCain, others say.

The indirect approach most campaigns take to make race an issue makes McCain's new ad suspect, as it makes repeated mention of Raines, who is black, without mentioning Obama's closer tie to former Fannie Mae and Countrywide head Jim Johnson, who is white, writes Swampland's Karen Tumulty. The Weekly Standard's John McCormack disagrees with Tumulty, pointing out that the ad rests more on a Washington Post story about Raines than anything else.

Announcing massive government bailouts, President Bush said this is a "pivotal moment" for an economy that is facing "unprecedented challenges," The Swamp reports. Despite the current crisis and Bush's justifications, Michelle Malkin calls the move "the death of fiscal conservatism" and wonders why this bailout will help more than the previous supposedly crucial bailouts that didn't stop the bleeding.

And with economic issues playing in his favor, Obama once again leads McCain in the major tracking polls, MyDD's Jonathan Singer writes.

FROM THE BLOGS:
Obama Meanders Through Wall Street - RedState
Hell to Pay - SusanG, Daily Kos
Mark Foley Case Closed - Top of the Ticket
WaPo Editors: Obama Being Deceptive - Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
Karen Tumulty Sees Racist People - Erick Erickson, RedState
Conservative Think Tanks on Bailouts - Marc Ambinder
Obama Releases In-Your-Face Hounds - Michelle Malkin
Federal Govt. Bails Out Wall Street - Big Tent Democrat, TalkLeft

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Finger-Pointing in Financial Crisis Is Targeted at Bush - Washington Post
Campaigns Target Each Other's Advisers - Associated Press
Congress, Administration to Prop Up Wall Street - The Hill

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) told John McCain's campaign Friday to take control over its supporters following reports that a Republican county chairman in Michigan planned to use lists of recently foreclosed residents to block them from voting

"It is beyond disgraceful that the Republican Party now seems to be targeting those who are suffering the most," Conyers said. "It appears that individuals who can't recall how many houses they own don't understand how awful it is to lose your home to foreclosure, and don't know that you don’t need to own property to vote in the United States of America."

"It should surprise no one that the people who gave us the worst economy since the Great Depression would now want to prevent those victimized by this economy from voting in the coming elections. Senator McCain needs to step forward now and halt the Republican Party's efforts to profit politically from the economic misery of others."

In a letter sent to the McCain, Conyers asked the Arizona senator to "repudiate any efforts of the Republican Party and any of its state affiliates to engage in voter suppression and intimidation tactics."

John McCain stepped back from his call to have Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Chris Cox fired Thursday, saying today that he believes Cox "should resign."

"If I were president today, I would fire him," McCain said yesterday.

Here is the video of McCain's remarks today, in which he also mistakenly says the chairman of the FEC, not SEC, should resign.

During the second part of an interview on Fox, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) said she respects Sen. Joe Biden's (D-Del.) "tremendous" experience, pointing out that six-term Senator has been roaming the halls of Congress for a "long, long, long time."

"Senator Biden has tremendous amount of experience," Palin said. "I think he was first elected when I was, like, in second grade. He's been in there a long, long, long time."

Palin added that "he's got the experience. He probably has the sound bites. He has the rhetoric. He knows what's expected of him. He is a great debater, also. So yes, it's going to be quite a task in front of me."

John McCain stepped up his efforts to paint Barack Obama as unpatriotic Thursday night during a campaign stop in Wisconsin.

"That's how we see this election, country first or Obama first," McCain said as the rally broke out into chants of "country first, country first."

"When it comes to cutting taxes for seniors, for working families, for small businesses my opponent didn't put the hardworking people of this country first," McCain said. "When it came time to support our troops fighting to protect our freedoms and way of life my opponent said he’d never deprive them of the funds they needed to fight and then did just that."

"A vote for me will guarantee that the forces that have brought down our economy will be out of business. I will end the corrupt practices on Wall Street and backroom deals in Washington DC. I will hold accountable those responsible for the oversight and protection of consumers, taxpayers and homeowners," the Arizona senator added.

"A vote for Sen. Obama will leave this country at risk during one of the most severe challenges to America’s economy since the Great Depression, and that’s straight talk, my friends."

John McCain's campaign standing by the GOP standard-bearer’s aggressive remarks toward Spain's prime minister has liberal bloggers on the attack. Conservatives go after Michelle Obama for suggesting Americans shouldn’t vote for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) just because she is "cute" and McCain suggests firing the chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

McCain’s comments about refusing to meet with Jose Luis Zapatero represent an even more aggressive and antagonistic diplomatic approach than the Bush Administration has taken, The Huffington Post's Sam Stein writes. Talk Left's Big Tent Democrat calls the comments "outrageous" and says it indicates a McCain administration will be “incompetent and irresponsible.”

During a campaign stop in North Carolina, Michelle Obama said that voters shouldn’t make their choice on whether "I like that guy" or "she's cute," The Swamp reports. Hot Air's Allahpundit says the line is intended to "deliberately belittle" Palin, and despite the Obama camp’s attempts to say otherwise, it's clear what was meant.

McCain blasted SEC Chairman Chris Cox for being "asleep at the switch" and said that he would fire Cox, Political Radar reports. Mother Jones' Kevin Drum is surprised by the comment, concluding that McCain was just looking for something manly to say on the economy.

FROM THE BLOGS:
Reid Blocks Online Predator Bill to Help Obama - RedState
I Guess Georgia Is Still on the Map - kos, Daily Kos
Bush: 'I Can't Hear What You Said' - The Swamp
Tax Messaging - Jon Henke, The Next Right
Fight over Troopergate Coming to a Head - TPM
Cox to McCain: I'm Not Ready to Go - Top of the Ticket
Cox - Andrew Stuttaford, The Corner
McCain Confused - Blue Texan, Firedoglake

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Dow Swings Back - New York Times
White House: Bush Has Confidence - The Hill
Obama Regains Momentum - AP

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R): "That's exactly what we're gonna do in a Palin and McCain administration."

Republican Congressman Wayne Gilchrest (Md.) has announced his support for Barack Obama.

"My perspective is that the ticket is Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden that they have the breadth of experience, I think they are prudent, they are knowledgeable. We just can’t use four more years of the same kind of policy that’s somewhat hazardous which leads to recklessness," Gilchrest said in an interview with the Capitol News Connection.

Gilchrest recently endorsed a Democrat in his district after losing the Republican primary.

From AP:

Aide Steve Schmidt, who worked for the Bush-Cheney team in 2004, told reporters Thursday aboard McCain's plane that Obama is "cheerleading this crisis." He said McCain is seeking a bipartisan solution although Schmidt and aides Mark Salter and Nicole Wallace also said Democratic congressional leaders should be condemned for considering adjourning without addressing the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the sale of Merrill Lynch and the emergency government loan to insurer AIG.

John McCain's campaign is standing by a strange response the Arizona senator gave to a question about Spanish  Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Asked on a Miami radio station if he would meet with the leader of Spain after a series of questions about Latin America, McCain said only, "I would be willing to meet with those leaders who are friends and want to work with us in a cooperative fashion."

Repeatedly asked the same question, McCain gave the same answer, seemingly without understanding or hearing the question. McCain made no mention of the country or Zapatero, but seemed to be talking about Venezuela or another Latin American country, which previous questions had been focused on.

But despite having a plausible excuse for the slip, McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Sheunemann is standing by the unexpected tough talk, telling the Washington Post, "the questioner asked several times about Senator McCain's willingness to meet Zapatero (and id'd him in the question so there is no doubt Senator McCain knew exactly to whom the question referred). Senator McCain refused to commit to a White House meeting with President Zapatero in this interview."