Blog Buzz: November, Obama's Economics, and McCain's Maybe Media Criticism

Our daily look at stories and topics lighting up the Internets:

General commentary about the election

HuffPo's Tom Edsall notes GOP insiders are worried that John McCain has fumbled his head start. J Ro at MyDD comes to the same conclusion, via a different route. Dean Barnett at the Weekly Standard's blog notes that Barack Obama has opened up an 8-point lead over McCain and says all things considered, that ain't too bad for the GOP.

Obamanomics

With renowned budget hawk Jason Furman joining Obama's economic policy team, Steve Clemons on the Washington Note wonders in which direction Obama is really going. The Page notes that in the kickoff speech of his two-week economic tour in Raleigh, N.C., today, Obama was attempting to tie McCain to Bush's policies in every way possible. The Huffington Post's Jared Bernstein thinks that by campaigning on "thinly disguised Bushonomics," McCain gave Obama a wide opening.

He was for the antimedia line before he was against it

Remember John McCain's appeal to the Clinton vote line in Tuesday's "lime jell-o" speech? Where he said the media often overlooked Hillary Clinton's compassionate concern for millions of Americans? He doesn't, several liberal bloggers point out. Kyle E. Moore at Comments From Left Field boils it down: Either McCain was lying about what he said in his nationally televised speech days earlier, or he forgot about what he said in his nationally televised speech days earlier.

—Robert Schlesinger and Johannah Cornblatt