The Economy Continues To Tank, McCain Campaign Gets Nasty--Scratch That--Nastier, The Obama/Ayers Connection, Electoral Talk, And...Wait For It...OJ!

Hi everybody. Happy New Week! Sort of. Hey, remember how we forked over $700 billion and some change last week, so that we could stop the downward economic spiral that was threatening to destroy the country? Yeah, well, apparently nobody clued in the Dow that the crisis had been averted. Because that baby dropped 800 points today. Doh! A lot of ground was regained before closing bell, but I think it's safe to say that nerves are a-rattled. Anderson Cooper tells us a new poll is showing that almost 6 in 10 people think another depression is likely. Not recession, DEpression. Man, we are one bummed out populace right now, aren't we? America needs a hug . . . and a secure stock portfolio.

So what the hell is going on? Ali Velshi takes us to the graphic wall and you know what? I don't wanna go. Because I see that line going down, down, down and unless there's a pot of gold at the bottom, I don't think I'm interested in this. Okay, okay, I go. As Ali explains, companies are taking a hit because regular people aren't spending money and regular people aren't spending money because, well, we're scared. Anderson then plays us a clip of that psycho Mad Money guy Jim Cramer (What is with the financial TV people being scary?), who is apparently telling people to pull any money out of the stock market that they're going to need in the next five years. That's actually probably decent advice, but seriously, never trust Jim Cramer. Just ask people who owned stock in Bear Stearns.

Next up, we're joined by "Fortune" managing editor, Andy Serwer and he tells us that we haven't hit bottom yet--in fact, things are spreading to Europe. He and Anderson talk about job loss and consumer confidence, leading Andy to make this statement: "It's never a good time to add $50,000 worth of credit card debt on to your high-cost credit cards." What is he buying? Good lord. Do people really have that much on their credit cards? Andy also thinks everyone should stop their bickering and just trust Treasury Secretary Paulson, likening the economy to a sick patient, and the bickering to fighting about doctors and hospitals. But you know what? What doctor you have and what hospital you're in can make a huge difference. Trust me, I know. So sorry if I don't just automatically trust Paulson.

Anderson then plays us a clip of Congress opening a can of whoop-ass (I stole that from Jack Gray) on the former CEO of Lehman Brothers. The obvious political grandstanding is noted, and Andy states that he's not sure what we get out of the televised hearings. Um, democracy? It's called transparency, dudes. We take what we can get.

On now to a Dana Bash piece on the McCain campaign. He's down in the polls, so you know what that means: time to get nasty! You can smell the desperation. McCain accuses Obama of lying about his record, and I dare you to think about that for a second and not laugh about the irony. And the lip-sticked pit bull gets in on the act too, bringing up William Ayers (saying Obama "palled around" with a terrorist) and Jeremiah Wright. I'm getting the impression that the McCain camp is only a couple of steps away from going out there and just being all, "Obama! Boogity, boogity, boo!" Also, it's a bit ironic that someone who can be seen on video with a witchdoctor, would be bringing up Reverend Wright, or that someone who's married to a man who was a member of a successionist group, would be bringing up love of country.

So, now, thanks to McNasty and Caribou Barbie here, we have to go through these stupid irrelevant issues again. This brings us to the inevitable Drew Griffin "Keeping Them Honest" piece on Obama's connection with William Ayers. Quite frankly, I found this whole piece eye roll-worthy. Drew delivers it like we're supposed to be clutching our pearls over Obama and Ayers both working to fund education projects. And the insinuation that these projects were somehow radical because they were called things like the "Peace School" is beyond ludicrous. The Peace School?! Oh noes! Please. To top it all off, this piece relied on a conservative source. CNN can do so much better. And actually, they did. It would have been nice if Drew had been as to the point. Following Drew's piece, Anderson basically asks, "so what?" And well, there's really no good answer.

For discussion of all this, we're joined by David Gergen, Gloria Borger, and John King. The Gerg is with me, stating that nobody cares about this. Gloria thinks it's all the McCain campaign has left. Anderson wonders if it's the kitchen sink strategy again, like what Clinton tried to do. Because that worked out so well for her. Ugh, why are we even talking about this? Two wars. Economy Imploding. Health care collapsing. Hello! Of course, if we want to talk nastiness, maybe we should discuss Palin's supporters and how gosh golly gee nice they are. Like the one that shouted "kill him!" in reference to Obama, or the ones that taunted and hurled obscenities at reporters. God bless America. *wink*

Next up, we have a Candy Crowley piece that sort of previews the town hall-style debate tomorrow. Obama is heading in with good numbers, but he could still screw things up. McCain is supposedly better at these town hall dealies, though he's used to a fairly friendly audience. Should be interesting to see where this goes.

We then move on to John King and Candy giving us an electoral college rundown. McCain is running out of time and I could not be more pleased. Anderson brings up the Bradley effect, which I admit worries me a bit. Basically, it's the idea that people are saying they will vote for Obama, but not be able to bring themselves to vote for a black guy. Candy tells us the Obama camp is not hugely worried about this because they're focusing on new registrations--an area in which they're kicking butt. Let's hope.

Our final piece of the night is from Anderson and the subject is the O.J. verdict. Oh, you guys were doing so well in keeping it on the blog! Now it's like you went on a bender and I have to take your sobriety chip away. And Anderson, not you! Oh, for shame! I suppose I might be overreacting just a bit since they did dump it at the end and everything, but fer serious? This time so could have been better spent on Ike's toll.

"The Shot" tonight is the VP debate Saturday Night Live-style. Because of the hilarity. Anyhoo, I got my computer to work for three webcasts tonight. We did a little talking with Ali Velshi and learned that Floor Crew Friday is going to become a permanent fixture. Yay! But they need a theme song. Hm, the 360 kids aren't exactly the following-through type when it comes to theme songs, so I guess we shall see. Also? Erica Hill and Kevin are chair murderers. They broke one right in the middle of the webcast. Normally, that would be amusing enough, but no. What got me laughing was Anderson, ever so seriously texting somebody on his BlackBerry, and not so much as even blinking at the chaos around him. I wonder what has to break for him to look up. Also? It's time for an intervention. Dude, seriously. That'll do it for me. Debate tomorrow. Woo!