MORNING READ

The debate over whether John McCain should keep attacking Barack Obama for his ties to radicals is raging in the conservative blogosphere. McCain should turn up the heat on Obama, especially now that there’s news that Obama could have been a member of a socialist party, according to some conservative bloggers. But other conservative bloggers say the attacks won’t stick because the economy is the dominant issue. In news that bolsters that argument, the Treasury Department may soon take ownership of troubled banks. It’s a move that worries conservatives but pleases some liberals.

McCain should run an ad that hits Obama for choosing to be friends with Bill Ayers, a cop killer and a terrorist who tried to kill U.S. soldiers, writes RedState’s Erick Erickson. The ties between Obama and Ayers may be closer than people think, since Obama had went to college near the school where Ayers had taught and since Obama’s wife worked at a law firm where Ayers’s wife interned, writes The Corner’s Andy McCarthy. Documents showing that The New Party, a group tied to the Democratic Socialists of America, called Obama a member in 1996 raise even more questions about Obama’s past, writes Power Line’s John Hinderaker.

But the whole focus on Obama’s ties to people he no longer associates with won’t work for Republicans, just like it didn’t work against Bill Clinton in 1992, when the country was still hurting from a recession, writes David Frum. An attack on Obama during Tuesday’s debate wouldn’t have been the “game-changer” McCain needed, and repeated attacks about Ayers would have seemed “weird,” writes The Corner’s Rich Lowry. Lowry’s colleagues at The Corner, including McCarthy, are delusional in thinking that Obama is a secret left-wing radical, writes Political Animal’s Hilzoy.

It’s hard to get too worked up about Obama’s supposed socialism now that President Bush’s Treasury Department is looking to take ownership of failing banks, writes Michelle Malkin. Liberal economists believe the direct injection of capital into the financial system is a better government response to the crisis than the initial bailout plan of buying up the banks’ bad mortgage assets, writes TalkingPointsMemo’s Josh Marshall.

FROM THE BLOGS:
Barack Obama, Socialist? – John Hinderaker, Power Line
All’s Fair – Andy McCarthy, The Corner
‘Choices’ – Erick Erickson, RedState
Capitulation – Rich Lowry, The Corner
Obama in the Corner – David Frum
Round The Bend – Hilzoy, Political Animal
Profiles in Cowardice – Dave Winer, Huffington Post
The Socialist Treasury Department – Michelle Malkin
Fed Is Becoming National Bank – Ian Welsh, Firedoglake
This Could Be A Very Big Deal – Josh Marshall, TalkingPointsMemo

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
U.S. May Take Ownership Stake in Banks – New York Times
Taking Hard Look At a Greenspan Legacy – New York Times
Obama in State Senate: Outsider to Politician – Washington Post
McCain Reshuffles Rescue Deal – Wall Street Journal