Morning Read

MORNING READ

The massive federal bailout of U.S. banks saddled with mortgage debt irks liberal bloggers, who blame the mess on the Bush administration. Both presidential candidates face accusations from bloggers of playing the race card. And a Jewish group’s disinvitation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) from a protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad generates outrage on the right.

The federal rescue plan could cost the country up to $500 billion, which comes on top of billions already spent on bailing out mortgage, investment and insurance firms, writes Firedoglake’s Attaturk, who calls the Bush administration’s response “socialism with a capitalist face.” The plan merely gives more money to the same wealthy people who benefited from the “Bush-McCain tax cuts,” writes AMERICAblog’s Chris in Paris.

McCain played the race card by running an ad that started with sinister images of two black men, Barack Obama and former Fannie Mae executive Franklin Raines, and then followed up with an image of a “vulnerable-looking elderly white woman,” writes Karen Tumulty on Swampland. Tumulty seems to be more eager to make accusations than discuss the single hottest topic of the campaign, the economy, which is the focus of the ad, writes Patterico. It’s Obama who is interjecting race in an ad about immigration that distorts Rush Limbaugh