Starting from the bottom

The right way to begin to deal with the Wall Street financial crisis is from the bottom: protecting the people who took out those adjustable mortgages and complex products which offered no interest loans, and other "free lunch" incentives.

The first step should be a nationwide freeze on foreclosures and interest rate "resets." People who could make mortgage payments at low interest rates could keep on making their payments. This freeze should be indefinite, while we sort out the complexities of the global situation. The at-risk mortgages would hold their value, rather than turn into foreclosure liabilities.

The second step is to resist the call to bail out the Wall Street firms who took unnecessary risks. If public funds are to help stabilize Wall Street, then the government should take over entire companies, restructure them, then resell them, rather than buying only their bad debts.

This is a beginning: the principle is people first, not the companies who brought about the crisis.

Questions for McCain

Mr. McCain, you supported the war in Iraq because you, like many others, thought that we were in imminent danger from Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. Well, he is gone, and there were no weapons of mass destruction. Are we still in imminent danger from Iraq? If not, what is our basis for staying there?

It is nice to want a stable democratic Iraq. Under international law, do we have a right to impose this on Iraqi citizens by force? How can tens of thousands of Iraqi dead and many more wounded be justified?How can thousands of American military dead and wounded be justified?

We know that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. We know that Iraq is not the headquarters of Al Qaeda. The fight against terrorism is elsewhere: why do you want to continue this illegal and wrong-headed war?

Two words to worry by

The words are "Adlai Stevenson." Intelligent, qualified, courageous, and a loser to a simple military man. What is needed is a comfort with jokes, an emotional capacity for outrage, and a willingness to use punch lines and sound bites, rather than nuance. Be a fighter, don't say you are a fighter. People want a personal connection, beyond eloquence.

Attack radical Republicanism, rather than Bush, since McCain is running against Bush, too.

Radical Republicanism squandered a budget surplus, and created huge new debts, passing on the costs of war and tax cuts to our children.

Radical Republicanism shredded the Constitution, tortured people, spied on Americans, claimed executive privilege to hide its misbehavior, cancelled treaties and waged illegal wars.

Radical Republicanism stomped on state rights, whenever states tried to do more than the federal level on business regulation and the environment.

Radical Republicanism wants to regulate the bedroom, but not the boardroom.

Radical Republicanism strives to make the world safe for business, while making it more dangerous for Americans.

Radical Republicanism deregulates, then bails out big businesses as too big to let fail. OK, let's go back to another time, and break up the oligopolies. Then, they won't be too big to fail. The public has paid for the risks, while the private has pocketed the profits. This has to stop.

Radical Republicanism favors the super rich over everyone else, forgetting the American Dream of egalitarianism.

McCain has contradicted his maverick positions to satisfy his base. McCain is a radical Republican. Palin is even more radical, and out of step with main street America.

This election IS about change. Change from Radical Republicanism back to main street values. Back to common purpose. Back to shared sacrifice. Back to the democratic ideal. Back to a government that serves the people. This is what Mr. Obama should be shouting about!