Before the April election for Mississippi’s First Congressional race, I was a bit off in my prediction that the DCCC wouldn’t invest much in this race, but now it might be Democratic butter.

In Mississippi’s First congressional race - runoff between Travis Childers (D), who led all vote-getters in the most recent go-round, and Greg Davis (R) is getting ugly. Republicans - especially in the South - link down-ballot Democratic candidates with Senator Barack Obama and Pastor Jeremiah Wright in a very blunt attempt to remind voters that race matters.

The Seattle Times doesn’t like it.

America’s most famous pastor (this election cycle at least) spent the weekend in Washington, DC attacking his critics and even his pseudo-defender Barack Obama. Read about it here and here. Wright claims he is misunderstood because he served six years in the Army and few of his critics actually watch his entire sermons. Wright is well within his rights to say what he wants, but Obama is using common sense to distance himself from his former pastor. The sad part is that the longer this continues, the more people forget Obama’s Philadelphia speech on race and religion. What should go down as one of the best speeches - ever - on the subject will be lost because the Wright controversy cost Obama political momentum and he failed to carry Pennsylvania.

Relatedly, Barack Obama says race matters, but it won’t be decisive in whether or not he becomes president. I’m not so sure. I’d like to see how he’d respond to my map.

I’ll give President Bush credit, he appears to have a sense of humor.

I do not agree all that often with Rep. Spencer Bacchus (R-AL), but in this instance he is correct. Rep. Bacchus fears bailing out borrowers and lenders that willingly took on risky investments. The message sent by Rep. Barney Frank’s grand compromise is that the federal government will ride to the rescue of those making ill-advised decisions. That should not be the federal government’s role.

However, I empathize with lawmakers wanting to insulate regular Americans who are brought down by greedy speculators and homeowners that cannot control their impulsive spending habits. I certainly like the language in the bill calling for a modernization of the FHA. Long overdue. The ineptitude of lenders and borrowers threatens the foundation of the American economy, so lawmakers are right to respond. How they respond is the crucial issue and I take great exception at policymakers’ bailout of incompetence and greed.

It would be much better had the Pennsylvania debate and any future debate between Senators Clinton and Obama focus on how the candidates propose to improve the balance sheet of the federal government. Likewise, in the fall, hopefully the campaigns will take the high road and give Americans two clear and distinct choices on how best to address America’s fiscal woes. I know it’s probably pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking on my part, but one can dream, can’t he? This article takes an early look at the three remaining candidates’ plans to address pet projects as well as try to return some semblance of fiscal sanity to the federal budget.