The largest government bailout ever – currently being presided over by George “the small government candidate” W. Bush – has not gone unnoticed by the “Mouth of the South” Hugo Chavez. He recently commented on “Comrade Bush”:

Chavez, who calls capitalism an evil and ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor, ridiculed Bush for his plan for the federal government to take equity in American banks despite the U.S. right-wing’s criticism of Venezuelan nationalizations.

“Bush is to the left of me now,” Chavez told an audience of international intellectuals debating the benefits of socialism. “Comrade Bush announced he will buy shares in private banks.”

Chavez, who has insulted Bush in the past as a drunkard or the devil, called him clueless on Wednesday. He accused him of simply parroting the words of his aides without understanding the new policies that rely on heavy state intervention.

“I am convinced he has got no idea what’s going on,” said Chavez, who has nationalized swaths of the OPEC nation’s economy in recent years and is in negotiations to take over a Spanish bank in Venezuela.

So far no comments from Castro.

If you’re upset that the debates are over you can always watch the “Third Party Debate” this Sunday:

Free and Equal.Org, a group formed to encourage third-party candidacies, is promoting a debate at the Columbia Political Union at Columbia University in New York for all six candidates seeking the presidency. The group is pretty much resigned to the fact that neither Senator John McCain nor Senator Barack Obama will be there.

And amazingly:

The only question mark is Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate. Mr. Barr has made it clear that he will only debate Mr. Nader and no one else. Christina M. Tobin, an event organizer and a Nader campaign staffer, said that she “challenges” Mr. Barr to show up.

What else would Barr possibly have to do? He’s been a major disappointment to the Libertarian Party by failing to make even the slightest ripple in this election. There are several other Libertarian presidential candidates who would have been much more inspiring.

There’s only two and a half more weeks until the election. Personally, I don’t think this will be close at all. As a result, the GOP party faithful will retreat into a cocoon of fundamentalism and reemerge ten times scarier at some point in the future. Any true reformers within the party will have to contain these wackos before even thinking about getting anything accomplished.

A once inclusive GOP (remember Reagan Democrats?) now has a litmus test for their candidates. They must be anti-choice, anti-gay, creationist, climate change deniers. Thankfully, that narrows the candidate pool down to a psychotic few – but what they lack in numbers they make up for with their fundamentalist zealotry. I’d speculate only 10%-15% of Republicans fall into this category. What about you?

The reality of the map above from Electoral-Vote.com shows the reality of where we are today. The Democrats are poised to win the White House as well as majorities in the U.S. House or Representatives and Senate. It’ll be interesting to see what they do with it. Remember, congress is already controlled by democrats and they have a lower approval rating than President Bush. This may turn out to be a classic case of “be careful what you wish for.”

In spite of this reality – or perhaps because of it – McCain’s campaign has gone completely negative. Just listen to this Robo-Call the McCain/Palin camp is spending money on.

Can you get much lower? Dishonest? Un-American? We’ll find out in the next 20 days. Personally, I think it’s going to get even nastier. What about you?