So every day during election season, campaigns release "talking points" to their media surrogates on the tv, friendly reporters, and, often enough, unfriendly reporters. Now, on the eve of a big important presidential debate, Barack Obama's campaign has—breaking!—"issued a set of debate 'talking points' to media on Wednesday morning, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal." Mr. Drudge adds: "The memo oddly mirrors much of the main press analysis and theme of the current campaign." This is because the point of talking points is that a) they reinforce what media people are already saying and b) they are usually repeated verbatim on TV within minutes of being disseminated. This is kind of an inexplicable DRUDGE EXCLUSIVE because even the people who still get their talking points from Republicans already know what the Obama talking points are? Anyway. The talking points are attached, because why not. It's kind of a neat peek into how all the bullshit artists on your cable TV get through the day.

Addendum: acid-damaged violent PBR enthusiast Dennis Hopper joins Christopher Hitchens in supporting Barack Obama! [Wonkette]

The bailout bill? It didn't pass the House. The vote went 228-205 against, with 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans opposing the Paulson/Dodd/Frank/Pelosi/Blunt plan. Insane. The Dow is self-destructing. The roll call vote is here, the list of members who voted against the bill can be found below. So what now? It'll go back to another vote in the House. Maybe. Something weird happened here, by the way, because in the modern era, votes don't go to the floor of the house until party leaders know how the rank and file will vote. Bills don't make it out of committee unless they're going to pass. This was either too volatile and rushed to work, or Pelosi lost control of her own party, or Boehner lied to her about how many House Republicans were going to grin and bear it. So. Now, because of the Jewish Holidays, nothing will get done until Wednesday. "Asked about the next step, Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said it would be up to those who opposed the bill." That is troubling! Basically, nothing can get done until the election is done. Which is still a bit of a ways away! So let's hope this collapse of the entire financial sector can hold off, for a few weeks, while either another almost-identical bailout bill is drafted and pushed through or Dems create their own fuck-you bill that maybe nationalizes everything like Krugman and Brad DeLong want. (We like that option!) (It's a fantasy, but a guy can dream.) The Dems, obviously, don't want to make this a one-party bill, because then they'll own the "HUGE BAILOUT." But, you know, they could draft an entirely different plan (the Dodd/Frank plan as proposed originally seemed sufficiently different from the Paulson "plan" to warrant a different name) and try to reframe the debate as Paulson's BAILOUT versus their tough love or whatever, but their majority is too small and their instincts too chickenshit to do that. So basically they'll muddle along as the banks burn, or something. Maybe we'll all be fine! Who needs credit anyway. ANYWAYS President Obama is going to inherit one hell of a shitshow. Abercrombie Aderholt Akin Alexander Altmire Baca Bachmann Barrett (SC) Barrow Bartlett (MD) Barton (TX) Becerra Berkley Biggert Bilbray Bilirakis Bishop (UT) Blackburn Blumenauer Boustany Boyda (KS) Braley (IA) Broun (GA) Brown-Waite, Ginny Buchanan Burgess Burton (IN) Butterfield Buyer Capito Carney Carson Carter Castor Cazayoux Chabot Chandler Childers Clay Cleaver Coble Conaway Conyers Costello Courtney Cuellar Culberson Cummings Davis (KY) Davis, David Davis, Lincoln Deal (GA) DeFazio Delahunt Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Doggett Doolittle Drake Duncan Edwards (MD) English (PA) Fallin Feeney Filner Flake Forbes Fortenberry Foxx Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Gallegly Garrett (NJ) Gerlach Giffords Gillibrand Gingrey Gohmert Goode Goodlatte Graves Green, Al Green, Gene Grijalva Hall (TX) Hastings (WA) Hayes Heller Hensarling Herseth Sandlin Hill Hinchey Hirono Hodes Hoekstra Holden Hulshof Hunter Inslee Issa Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Jefferson Johnson (GA) Johnson (IL) Johnson, Sam Jones (NC) Jordan Kagen Kaptur Keller Kilpatrick King (IA) Kingston Knollenberg Kucinich Kuhl (NY) Lamborn Lampson Latham LaTourette Latta Lee Lewis (GA) Linder Lipinski LoBiondo Lucas Lynch Mack Manzullo Marchant Matheson McCarthy (CA) McCaul (TX) McCotter McHenry McIntyre McMorris Rodgers Mica Michaud Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Mitchell Moran (KS) Murphy, Tim Musgrave Myrick Napolitano Neugebauer Nunes Ortiz Pascrell Pastor Paul Payne Pearce Pence Peterson (MN) Petri Pitts Platts Poe Price (GA) Ramstad Rehberg Reichert Renzi Rodriguez Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Ros-Lehtinen Roskam Rothman Roybal-Allard Royce Rush Salazar Sali Sánchez, Linda T. Sanchez, Loretta Scalise Schiff Schmidt Scott (GA) Scott (VA) Sensenbrenner Serrano Shadegg Shea-Porter Sherman Shimkus Shuler Shuster Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Solis Stark Stearns Stupak Sullivan Sutton Taylor Terry Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thornberry Tiahrt Tiberi Tierney Turner Udall (CO) Udall (NM) Visclosky Walberg Walz (MN) Wamp Watson Welch (VT) Westmoreland Whitfield (KY) Wittman (VA) Woolsey Wu Yarmuth Young (AK) Young (FL)

Thank god John McCain solved the financial crisis! Earlier today his campaign was downplaying the importance of a debate, once again arguing that the fact that Barack Obama refused to do 10 Town Halls with him meant that it was Obama's fault that McCain was ditching tonight's debate, and they even floated the idea that an all-Obama interview/town hall would be illegal. But in the end, they blinked. The debate is on. The "suspended" McCain campaign is un-suspended. McCain's bizarre political "Hail Mary" accomplished nothing, except for pissing off a late night talk show host and maybe helping derail a bipartisan political compromise. The McCain campaign statement, after the jump:

Good thing John McCain raced back to Washington, suspending his campaign (except for media appearances by his paid surrogates and also all the ads he's still running) to fix the nation's financial crisis, because he's done it! By "he's done it" we mean Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd and House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank reached a deal, before Bush had his little Yalta sitdown with McCain and Obama. So now maybe Obama and McCain will convince the President to sign the damn thing. (Except of course ha ha conservatives in Congress have their own plan and they won't listen to their "leader" John McCain if he tries to convince them to back this one, which who knows what he'll do, besides SOLVE THIS CRISIS.) After he solved the bank failure thing, Barney Frank immediately produced the best and most cutting political image of the week:

Magically the Senate approves the bailout package first, according to CNN.The latest is that McCain wants to postpone the debate until October 2. If Obama doesn't agree, he can debate some panel of undecided voters or whatever, McCain won't be there. An inspiring display of diplomacy, this one. Still mad about Obama snubbing his ethics reform ideas, I guess! Oh well, I have been watching these hearings for the past two days and the rest of Congress has been doing a pretty good job questioning spooky-looking Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson without angry angry John McCain. My favorite was this guy, because of his accent obviously but also because he seemed somehow emblematic of the shifting tide of public opinon. Walter B. Jones was elected to Congress in eastern North Carolina as a Democrat in 1983 but switched to the Republican party in 1994. He gladly voted to authorize the war in 2003 but now says that was a mistake. He's a convert to Catholicism and a supporter of raising the minimum wage and most recently an endorser of Crazy Ron Paul. (Paul's debate with Bernanke over the causes of the Great Depression: also a highlight.) Anyway, Jones sounded like he was on the verge of tears the whole time! And he had harsh words for the bailout concept, but managed to seem so goddamn genteel while saying them! I felt like I was watching a movie sort of. Except I know the end will be depressing!

John McCain has asked that this Friday's first presidential debate be postponed. He says it needs to be put off in order for him to "focus on the financial crisis," and he needs that time to fix this mess in his position as a Senator without any authority over any of it. Wtf. According to MSNBC, he's returning to Washington right now to personally solve this bailout thing. So—"country first," right? No time for debating, because Senator McCain—who is not on the Joint Economic Committee btw!—is asking Obama to join him in Washington. Jesus Christ. We're thinking this will very quickly come off as a "political stunt," and also make McCain look like a moron next time he trots out the "I lie about Obama because he wouldn't debate me 100 times from now until the election" line. But whatever, maybe it'll play well? For a day or two, anyway. But! What does Obama do? He calls it a cheap political ploy, hopefully, says he wants to debate right away. It is a sign, probably, that McCain's debate prep wasn't going well. It's a naked attempt to look on top of the news cycle and to insert himself into the economic debate, but canceling a debate won't instill confidence in anyone, will it? It seems desperate and reactive, especially in the face of bad polling for McCain. He's painting it as a post-partisan 9/11 thing, of course, and maybe that'll fly. Once again, we reiterate: there is nothing McCain can do about this. This is the stupidest and emptiest of political gestures. On the plus side, your Friday won't be wasted watching the debate! Update: Stuff we heard on the tv: The University of Mississippi (they're hosting the debate) say the debate is still going on as planned. Obama's camp is probably going to announce that they're going ahead with the debate soon.

When all else fails, bring in more management consultants. We just got a copy of a memo Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang emailed employees yesterday:

Not since the University of Alaska's 2006 study proving that bears do, in fact, shit in the woods has a more exciting and revelatory discovery been made: on the cover of the new issue of People magazine, American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken comes out of the closet. Yes I know. Take a seat and a deep breath before continuing. The long-suspected homosexual (who got caught trolling for gay internet sex a few years back) recently had a kid through a surrogate and starred on Broadway in Spamalot. He made his decision to come out because he realized he "cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things." Welcome to the world, sir. But wait, first Lindasy Lohan comes out on the radio and now this?? Who's next, Anderson Cooper? [Towleroad] (Seriously, though, good for him. All the best.)

Joining Lindsay Lohan in declaring today a holiday for finally confirming open, same-sex secrets, Clay Aiken has come out of the closet. In an edition of People magazine to be published tomorrow, Aiken poses with his newborn son Parker and confirms the rumors that have dogged the singer since he belted out his first glory note on American Idol.The content of the article has not yet been released, but some hints can be gleaned about his long-anticipated confession from the Aiken quote teased on the cover: "I cannot raise a child to lie or hide things." Kudos, Clay! Now where's your donation? [HuffPo]

Tragedy struck in South Carolina last night, as drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM, aka Adam Goldstein, were critically injured in a Learjet crash that took the lives of four others. From the LAT report:

Remember those awful Microsoft ads with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Well, now you can forget them. Microsoft flacks are desperately dialing reporters to spin them about "phase two" of the ad campaign — a phase, due to be announced tomorrow, which will drop the aging comic altogether. Microsoft's version of the story: Redmond had always planned to drop Seinfeld. The awkward reality: The ads only reminded us how out of touch with consumers Microsoft is — and that Bill Gates's company has millions of dollars to waste on hiring a has-been funnyman to keep him company. Update: In a phone call, Waggener Edstrom flack Frank Shaw confirms that Microsoft is not going on with Seinfeld, and echoes his underlings' spin that the move was planned. There is the "potential to do other things" with Seinfeld, which Shaw says is still "possible." He adds: "People would have been happier if everyone loved the ads, but this was not unexpected." Update: CPB confirms that Seinfeld spots already in the can will not be aired.

Did the internet just cause Sarah Palin to destroy evidence? The potential Veep is in a bit of trouble for conducting state business using her personal, unarchived email address (gov.sarah@yahoo.com) instead of her official account (which is, of course, subject to laws requiring the retention of government records). Emails from that Yahoo account are already being sought in connection with the Troopergate investigation. Now comes word that Anonymous, the fun-loving Internet trouble-makers based loosely around the message board 4Chan, gained access to another Palin email account: gov.palin@yahoo.com. It looks legit! The offending posts, screenshots, heretofore unseen family photos, and emails have all been deleted from Imageshack and 4Chan. But we have them. You want to read Sarah Palin's email? Ok, sad thing first: a good Samaritan reset the password and tried to alert Sarah. But he also posted the new password, causing multiple people to try to log in at once, freezing the account for 24 hours. And now, the account has been deleted! Which is, as we said, maybe destruction of evidence? So for now this is, we think, all we'll get to see from this email account (if anyone finds evidence of saved emails, let us know.) The full timeline of events, with corroborating evidence of the legitimacy of these screengrabs, is here. Here's why it all looks convincing:

Police have confirmed to Gawker that David Foster Wallace, novelist and essayist, was found dead of an apparent suicide in his home in Claremont, California, where he was a professor at Pomona College. It's been reported that his wife found him after he hanged himself. Foster Wallace, longtime darling of grad students and civilian PoMo lit fans, was often very funny in print (see his famous essay skewering the cruise ship experience, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"), but as his 2005 speech at Kenyon College implied, he was not unfamiliar with the heft of existence:

Sarah Palin, a "hockey mom" who was once a mayor of a tiny town and has been the governor of a huge, empty state called "Alaska", will be the Vice President under 100-year-old President John McCain. She's cute tho! Also she is like the only not-corrupt Alaska politician ever, as far as we know.

Former Gawker editor twice over (twice-former??) Choire Sicha recently got canned from his job writing columns for a pittance at the New York Observer because he wrote something about how no one at that sad newspaper has any air conditioning, because of wee Jared Kushner (and now we know that we shall never work there!). But good news for him! He is joining former Gawker editor Alex Balk at Radar, where he will certainly never get in trouble for writing anything about anyone who may or may not own that fine publication. He will be called an "Editor at Large," just like Hamish Bowles! The position is sort of the one our own Moe was going to take, but then she came to Gawker instead. There are like three jobs in New York and they now they are ALL taken. [Radar]

The second ABC announced Brian Ross was on the case, you knew this was coming-John Edwards has admitted to having an affair with his former campaign staffer Rielle Hunter. The interview's on Nightline tonight. Edwards also claims he's not the father of Hunter's baby. And he didn't love her. So it's not cheating! Edwards claims his wife Elizabeth's cancer was in remission when he began the affair, so it's TOTALLY not cheating, at all. How did the story suddenly break on a Friday afternoon like this? Funny story. The Observer's Media Mob broke the news earlier today that Ross, ABC's celebrity investigative reporter, was preparing a report on the Enquirer's affair allegations. This usually means there's something to the story-they bring Ross out to bring legitmacy to sleazy internet tabloid stories, like the Mark Foley IM conversations that made Ross famous. This meant the story not only had legs but had the possibility to be huge. Edwards probably decided to get out ahead of it (too late, John) and acquiesce to an interview with Bob Woodruff instead of a sensationalistic Ross segment done without his cooperation. One might also imagine that prominent Democrats were pushing him to get this out of the way well before the conventions. Could be way worse than the Friday night that also happens to be the night of the Olympics Opening Ceremonies. Sigh. Guy's still slick. So John owes the nation, and Elizabeth, a big apology. DailyKos owes the internet an apology. The Los Angeles Times owes its bloggers an apology. Someone probably owes Mickey Kaus an apology. Wikipedia editors can just do whatever they want, no one cares about them. Now it just remains to be seen about this damn kid. [ABC]

Clark Rockefeller-the mystery man with no driver's license, social security number, or tax history, who kidnapped his daughter in Boston last week-has been caught, the Post is reporting. "Fugitive Clark Rockefeller was taken into police custody in Baltimore today. His kidnapped daughter is safe and sound and in police hands, law enforcement sources said. Details of his capture were not immediately clear."

John Edwards' mistress has been receiving $15,000 a month in hush money via a rich friend of Edwards, the National Enquirer is claiming. The Enquirer, of course, was the only news outlet that bothered to seriously follow up on allegations that the Democratic politician was having affair with former campaign contractor Rielle Hunter, and thus it was the only publication to catch Edwards in a hotel last week visiting Hunter and his alleged love child. There's been no confirmation of any of this yet from reputable newspapers, like the one that told us about the secret scientist who knew where Saddam Hussein hid his chemical and biological weapons, or from the one that said Puff Daddy was in on the plot to gun down Tupac Shakur. So, gosh, who knows if it can be trusted! But if you still want some salacious details on this hush money stuff — or word from Radar on how the mistress is trying to negotiate her share of this feeding frenzy — it's yours after the jump.

DID THIS WOMAN KILL BRAVO'S JULIA ALLISON AND STEAL HER DOG Y/N?? [Non Society]