John McCain couldn’t help but laugh at Tina Fey’s portrayal of his running mate on last night’s Saturday Night Live.

“If you pull this cord he talks for forty-five minutes.”

Last night on Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday, Will Ferrell reprised his role as The Decider and endorsed John McCain (Darrell Hammond) and Sarah Palin (Tina Fey).

SNL was considerably better last night. The show started with Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin, Jason Sudeikis playing Joe Biden and a special cameo by Queen Latifah as Gwen Ifill.

CNN Fact Checks
CNN is doing a rare public service in journalism these days: fact checking.

• Is Obama against nuclear power?
Verdict: False

• Did McCain oppose helping women get equal pay?
Verdict: True, but incomplete. McCain said he opposed it, did not actually vote against it. And the legislation is more complicated than Obama’s comments may suggest.

• Did Obama ‘profit’ from Fannie and Freddie?
Verdict: Partially true, but misleading. Donations don’t come from companies. A list of employee contributions puts Obama second, but a different list including lobbyists and directors shows McCain getting more.

TIME: McCain Plays the Race Card
Is McCain’s new TV ad subtly playing the race card? It seems that way to some…

TPM: Confirmed: Despite Claim, Palin’s Pay As Mayor Of Wasilla Went Up
Now that it has been confirmed that her salary went up, has anything Sarah Palin has said publicly been the truth?

Glenn Greenwald: The Bush/McCain/Palin contempt for subpoenas and the rule of law
McCain and Palin are already acting like Bush and Cheney and they’re not even in office yet. Subpoenas are being ignored and, as for Palin and her staff, they’re claiming executive privilege.

LA Times: Off on the Great Schlep
Jewish grandkids get an earful in Florida as they try to woo relatives toward Obama.

Emptywheel: The Picture McCain Doesn’t Want You to See
A once buried picture and article of John McCain celebrating his birthday with Charles Keating, the villain of the last big taxpayer bailout of unrestrained Republican greed.
• Huffpo has more on the Republicans and The Keating Five.

CNN: Report: Voting problems in several swing states
A new report finds voting problems in ten swing states that include lack of voting machines and registration glitches.

The Wall Street Journal: McCain’s Scapegoat
The WSJ’s editorial board hits McCain as “Deeply Unfair… Un-Presidential.”

John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn’t understand what’s happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does. But on Thursday, he took his populist riffing up a notch and found his scapegoat for financial panic — Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

To give readers a flavor of Mr. McCain untethered, we’ll quote at length: “Mismanagement and greed became the operating standard while regulators were asleep at the switch. The primary regulator of Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) kept in place trading rules that let speculators and hedge funds turn our markets into a casino. They allowed naked short selling — which simply means that you can sell stock without ever owning it. They eliminated last year the uptick rule that has protected investors for 70 years. Speculators pounded the shares of even good companies into the ground.

“The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the President and has betrayed the public’s trust. If I were President today, I would fire him.”

Wow. “Betrayed the public’s trust.” Was Mr. Cox dishonest? No. He merely changed some minor rules, and didn’t change others, on short-selling. String him up! Mr. McCain clearly wants to distance himself from the Bush Administration. But this assault on Mr. Cox is both false and deeply unfair. It’s also un-Presidential.

In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help. Mr. McCain is sounding like a candidate searching for a political foil rather than a genuine solution.

The Hill: Palin won’t say whether veep is an executive post
Just like Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin won’t specify just which branch of government the vice president falls under. She won’t even say it falls under the executive branch. So, why does all of her “executive experience” matter?

CNN: Palin’s transparency proposal already exists in D.C.

Sarah Palin likes to tell voters around the country about how she “put the government checkbook online” in Alaska. On Thursday, Palin suggested she would take that same proposal to Washington.

“We’re going to do a few new things also,” she said at a rally in Cedar Rapids. “For instance, as Alaska’s governor, I put the government’s checkbook online so that people can see where their money’s going. We’ll bring that kind of transparency, that responsibility, and accountability back. We’re going to bring that back to D.C.”

There’s just one problem with proposing to put the federal checkbook online - somebody’s already done it. His name is Barack Obama.

The Huffington Post: Republican Rep. Endorses Obama
Representative Wayne Gilchrest (R, Maryland) has endorsed Barack Obama for President.

LA Times: Sarah Palin lauds Tina Fey, perhaps because she didn’t hear a word of ‘SNL’ skit
Apparently Sarah Palin doesn’t listen to anyone. She thought Tina Fey’s impersonation was spot on, at least visually.

FactCheck: McCain ad misrepresents Obama’s tax plan. Again.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, John McCain keeps lying about Obama’s tax plan. In reality, Obama will only raise taxes on the rich, while cutting everyone else’s.