Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were guests on "Meet the Press" today to talk about Haiti relief, and I was struck once again by the contrast between the two. As always, Clinton has a grasp of all the logistical and political factors in play, and Bush speaks in emotional but general terms. I can't imagine the basis for this friendship:

DAVID GREGORY: Let me start by asking you both, President Bush, what's your biggest concern right now?

FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: My biggest concern is the-- the Haitian people have security, water, and food.

DAVID GREGORY: And those are big ifs right now.

FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well they are. But-- the President briefed us-- about-- military efforts to get-- food and water to the people. And surging a lot of material. And it's gonna take a little bit of time to get it there. But-- I came away from the briefing confident it's gonna happen.

DAVID GREGORY: President Clinton, the basics are so important right now.

FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: This is about water, food, medical supplies and care, and-- and shelter, secure shelter. We-- I have some protection concerns. But-- we were just told in the briefing that 40 percent of the Haitian police forces signed back in, volunteered for duty. A lot of them don't have uniforms or weapons or anything anymore. But-- the American military's working closely with the U.N. troops that are there. And-- they'll get this organized. They're doing a good job. We just need more help. We literally don't have enough food to feed them now. We don't have-- and-- and there are two issues. One is buying it. And the second is getting it in and distributing it. But that's what everybody's working on now.

Midwest Voices: Bob Dole outs naysayer Mitch McConnell

TalkLeft: Sully: It's Hillary's Fault

Blue Gal: Halliburton Rape

evilslutopia: Getting to the point of #nestlefamily

Wall St. Cheat Sheet: The Treasury Department endorses lying to the public

William K. Wolfrum Chronicles: I'm heterosexual - and wow, do I have a lot of rights

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Greta Van Susteren, FOX News' serial stalker of Sarah Palin, was in shock over the announcement that Palin quit her job. When asked about what this means, she said...

Greta:...It's hard to tell if she's giving up or gearing up and that I don't know...

Greta whined about all the ethics complaints that were filed against Sarah Palin and said that she could get disheartened. Really? She QUIT her job and quit on the people of Alaska. She's proved that she's unfit for duty. And it's not only me saying it.

Some Republican strategists expressed skepticism about Palin's decision. "I'm not smart enough to see the strategy in this," said John Weaver, a senior party strategist. "Good point guards don't quit and walk off the court."

If she can't handle criticism from bloggers, then how could she handle al-Qaeda? And conservatives like Greta should stop complaining about attacks on her and her family because they started the trend by holding her family out as public political props, and have never stopped. I'm not condoning the personal attacks in any way -- we avoided them at C&L and kept our criticism focused on her abilities (or lack thereof) and her public behavior as a candidate and a public official. It's up to you to decide how she's been treated.

But conservatives are total hypocrites on this issue and the media allows them to get away with it. They've made their living out of smearing anyone on the left. The Clintons have been subjected to the lowest attacks possible. I haven't seen anyone write widely published books that calls her a lesbian, or have I missed that one? Or that she murdered someone like, oh...Vince Foster.

On the September 19 and 20 broadcasts of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh resurrected his scurrilous suggestion that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) had then-deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster murdered while she was first lady.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. And then we can talk about the scurrilous and wingnutty "birther" attacks on President Obama, but you get my point.

Even Villagers are wondering what she's doing.

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Michael Ozanian, a Forbes national editor who I've posted about before. (FOX's Ozanian compares Hillary to Goebbels ) has a ludicrous view of what the middle class is in America, but why wouldn't he---he's a Saturday FOX Stock regular on Forbes on FOX and they never can tell the truth. The segment was from a couple of weeks ago that focused on VP Biden saying that Unions help the middle class and I just had to get this up. These rich Wall Streeters hate unions so they come up with bogus info to lie through the show. One idiot on the panel says benefits are robust in the private sector. Another says union member shouldn't be so antagonistic to their employers. For who? But Ozanian is the worst of the bunch and he gets rewarded with another show. Right Wingers take care of each other.

Ozanian: In general Unions have never worked. They have been detriment to the economy as Jack pointed out.

Asman: What about a hundred years ago, they weren't a detriment to the economy a hundred years ago.

Ozanian: You wanna go back to the way we were a hundred years ago?

There was a time when Unions did some good.

Ozanian: If you're in the middle class int this country, you have two cars, you have a house, you have some investment portfolio, you have very high standards for your food that you eat. That, you don't get in any to the other countries with high unions so you can take your safety net and stick it.

Asman: Give Neil a chance.

Neil Weinberg: As a Forbes editor you can say that that is average, two cars and a big house. 50,000 a year. I'm sorry, the average American worker does not feel wealthy, does not feel comfortable

Asman: It's still better than China where middle class income is at 3000dollars a year.

So now the standard we have to judge ourselves, the richest country in the world is China, who have no human rights? We're lucky we don't make 3K a year. OMG. David Asman sure makes an ass out of himself. I'm so glad we all eat like pigs and don't need any security to fall back on. I think all these Stock show pricks should have their salaries posted directly under their names whenever they go on these shows if they are going to lie with abandon like this.

Ozanian also is part of a new show called "Sports Money." Please leave him some comments.

By the way, Quentin Hardy is quite good on these telecasts even though I cut him out of this one. Here's his Facebook if you want to leave him a nice message.

Politics in the Zeros: Spread the meme. Republicans are the party that wrecked America. John McCain's long history with bank failures and financial scandals makes him uniquely 'qualified' to speak to the current crisis.

AlterNet: Yet again, the United States appears to be siding with violent right-wing elements to undermine a Latin American democracy.

Mugsy's Rap Sheet: If you think Hillary is doing a great job of supporting the democratic ticket, don't read this post

BAGnewsNotes: The Picture of Deception

Connecting.the.Dots: The Palin attackers' crystal ball

Our friend, Alicia Morgan of Last Left Turn Before Hooterville has a new book, The Price Of Right, about what conservatism is costing America. It's available for pre-order on Amazon.

Download | play Download | play (h/t Bill W.)

The conservatives have been waiting for a chance to scream sexism at Obama over Palin and Drudge finds a way to do it. He takes Obama out of context. In the full clip, Obama clearly is talking about John McCain as Wolfson points out, but Drudge and as usual---FOX/Hannity---lie and say he was speaking about Palin. This is Rove Politics 101.

Marc Ambinder gets to the truth: Obama Did Not Call Sarah Palin A Pig

And he also remembers that McCain actually attacked Hillary with the same phrase.

And so is John McCain. Speaking about Hillary Clinton....

McCain criticized Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health-care proposals that require too much government regulation. While he said he had not studied Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's plan, he said it was "eerily reminiscent" of the failed plan she offered as first lady in the 1990s.

"I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," he said of her proposal.

As Duncan says "Just more Zombie lies."

As I was trying to get from one end of Denver's airport to this past Friday after United Airlines screwed up my flight completely, I literally bumped into Michael Steele with coffee in my hand walking to the gate. The news of the Palin VP pick was just announced on TV and I asked him if he was voting for Obama now. He said, "No way." I yelled that McCain just lost the experience argument that he's been trying to use on Obama.

He picked up his walking pace as I continued.

"She's got plenty of experience," he said.

"And it was a move to try and win over some fictitious Hillary voters and appease the religious right, but one problem was that nobody knows who she is."

"Everyone knows her," he said.

"Really? In what way?" I asked. "Do you even know who she is?"

He then ran away...

The Left Coaster: The days of BUSHCO dictating to the Iraqis are over.

Halfway There: Why polling is volatile even if voter's aren't

Beggars Can Be Choosers: No president in history has ever handed off a bigger mess to his successor

The Strange Death of Liberal America: 'Hillary Trojans' are McCain people masking themselves as disgruntled supporters of Hillary Clinton. They are the new Swift Boaters.

The Brad Blog: A Missouri voter refused an illegal demand to show a photo ID at the polls and got thrown in jail. November should be interesting.

No More Mr. Nice Blog: Get the smelling salts...Obama said America is not always great!!!

Informed Comment: Obama in Iraq: Der Speigel proves al-Maliki story is correct; Series of bombings hit Baghdad

PERRspectives: Where in the world is John McCain? No wonder the NYT asked for a rewrite of his op-ed piece, thus sending the wingosphere into a tantrum

Vagabond Scholar: Right-Wing Cartoon Watch

Feministe: Hillary Clinton has taken a public stand against the Bush administration's outrageous attempts to put common forms of contraception in the same category as abortion

Brad DeLong: Republicans eat their "budget experts"

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Mullin's World, Science and Democracy, Cajun Boy in the City, Andrew Halcro

Amygdala: Clean Slate Day. There will be a few scorched earth dead-enders, but grownup progressives will see the wisdom in unity. Hillary didn't lose the race, Barack won it.

MoJo Blog: Ten House races all headed in one direction

VetVoice: A big story about the Bush plan to keep Iraq under US control after he's long gone and on the lam. The timing could also boost that ingrate, McSame.

Skeptical Brotha: Hillarite reaches out to the Congressional Black Caucus about that open slot.

The Pump Handle: Crashing cranes, deaths, and the White House's edict. And don't miss CBS 60 Minutes this Sunday with more on the BUSHCO OSHA failure to protect workers.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Negrophile, The Daily Scare, The Political Carnival, The Blogosphere Starts Now