We've been waiting for this a long time — it's time for the first presidential debate of the 2008 election cycle. Tonight's debate will be held at the University of Mississippi in Oxford; we'll be bringing you the hot bits of the debate live here at the Blue.

Arizona Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain wanted to be a part of the debate on the financial crisis in Washington, and yesterday he made his mark, as Congressional talks on a bipartisan agreement fell apart yesterday after McCain's arrival.

The presumptive leader of the Republican Party, Senator John McCain, stated today that he would rather be senatorial than presidential. McCain is suspending his campaign and opting out of Friday's presidential debate to head back to Washington and participate in Senate debate over the much-decried financial bailout bill that would give the Treasury Department unchecked power over regulatory decisions in that arena.

A couple of ads noting McCain's poor decisions with regard to the ideas and people he supports have been making the rounds on YouTube lately. One rebuts the distance he's recently tried to put between himself and President Bush, and the other looks at his "judgment" in choosing Palin as his VP. I think they make an interesting one-two punch. The videos follow.

It will hardly come as a surprise to anyone that knows me that I think Rachel Maddow, host of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC as well as of a radio show on Air America sharing the name, is remarkably clever and has a knack for being able to distill the substance of any given issue and present it in a witty, understandable format. Case in point — here's Rachel explaining the root of the problem with the financial sector in about a minute (and then dissing Ronald Reagan in the subsequent 30 seconds):

Republican state representative Kim Brimer's lawsuit trying to take Democratic challenger Wendy Davis' name off the ballot has been effectively dead since August 22, when the deadline to remove a name passed, but the court fight continues. Paul Burka notes that the case has been moved from the Fort Worth appeals court to Dallas's court with some skepticism as to the political undercurrents that caused it, and I can't blame him: whatever the reason may ostensibly have been, the move sure does get some judges out of a rock-and-a-hard-place situation with having to rule on a case that makes the Republican party look bad shortly before they're up for reelection under that banner.

It was a tough day for the stock market today. On news that investment juggernaut Lehman Brothers was filing for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch was being sold to Bank of America, the Dow Industrial market index dropped over 500 points, its sixth largest drop in history.

It seems like this week's we-don't-want-to-talk-issues distraction by the McCain campaign is trying to twist Senator Obama's using the phrase "lipstick on a pig" to describe McCain's attempts at trying to ride his new "change" message despite having voted with President Bush and congressional Republicans 90% of the time.

The 2008 Republican National Convention is over, and reports are in for its pivotal moment — McCain's speech yesterday accepting the nomination as the Republican presidential candidate. How did it go? Well, reviews seem to range from mixed to poor. (And poor, and poor, and... well, you get the idea.)

You know, I'd say I was starting to detect a trend in the accusations Alaska governor Sarah Palin is leveling against the "liberal media," but I can't take credit for this one — Jon Stewart practically handed it to me.

Oh, what is that trend, you ask? That of complaining of the same tactics — whether they're actually being used or not — that they themselves used against Democrats just a few short months ago. I believe psychologists call that "projection." Most other Americans probably call that "hypocrisy."

Video of Jon Stewart's compilation of how they did this very thing with the gender issue, after the jump.