Somewhere, an algorithm read the coverage of yesterday's Senate Banking Committee hearing on high-frequency trading, and figured it will take years for the government to hammer out reforms to fix market structure issues.

Stephen Morse, the Barclays executive who ignored employees' warnings that the bank was manipulating its Libor submissions, has been sitting out the ensuing scandal from his post as head of compliance at TD Bank.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it may suspend JPMorgan's energy trading business for failing to comply with requests for information about the firm's trading profits, Bloomberg reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing whether private equity firms are taking more profits than they should, or taking profits too soon. The agency received increased authority over private money managers under Dodd-Frank.

The federal government's mortgage task force, co-headed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, is getting ready to do ... something?

More than 100 lawmakers have lobbied federal authorities on the implementation of Dodd-Frank, according to The New York Times.

Madoff trustee Irving Picard put checks in the mail yesterday—$2.5 billion in payments to thousands of investors duped by the Ponzi schemer.

Does anyone want to bail out Greece (again)?

Youth unemployment is also on the rise in prosperous northern Europe.

A Brazilian official said that the Federal Reserve's new bond-buying program would set off currency wars—Business Insider explains.

Nomura is eliminating four of 12 investment banking jobs in Dubai, according to Bloomberg, on the heels of the decision to dump a London-based prop trading team.

Britain is considering whether it really wants to be known as the "divorce capital of the world." That means, the Ministry of Justice is reviewing court standards that favor the less-wealthy spouse in split-ups.

Are you reading this from Jeffrey Gundlach's Porsche Carrera 4S? Would you like to make a deal?

Miss you. (Photo via USA Today.)

Tim Pawlenty was number one the list, deemed an "aggressively forgettable" "six-foot-tall paperweight" whose campaign money "might as well have been burned in front of a group of orphans."

That's a far cry from how an unnamed GQ political correspondent said he felt about Mr. Pawlenty in an e-mail to one of his aides passed along to Politico.

"I am most intrigued by Tim Pawlenty and would relish the opportunity to bring him to life in the pages of GQ," the reporter wrote.

We wouldn't like to have our publicist flattery files aired either, but we'll sleep better knowing there's karmic retribution for using the phrase, "bring him to life in the pages."

And the controversy did not stop there! Juli Weiner, a blogger from Conde Nast rival Vanity Fair pointed out that the feature looks rather similar to her own least influential people of 2010 list, and even overlaps with it on Tina Brown, aka Meghan McCain's editor.

Today she published a counter list, and guess which men's magazine is on top?

Perry.

The riots in London seem finally to have subsided, but strange things are afoot stateside this week, so much so that we’re starting to wonder if Mercury, which went retrograde Aug. 3, is currently doing to the entire planet what it once did so publicly to Jeremy Piven. (Also, when does the statute of limitations on that joke run out?)

It all started last weekend, even before the city was deluged with cloudbursts of biblical proportions, when Texas governor Rick Perry threw his 10-gallon hat into the G.O.P. ring just as votes were being counted in the Iowa Straw Poll—an event that sounds like it involves blue ribbons for accurate jelly bean counting but that is actually a significant temperature-taking exercise for 2012 Republican voters. On Saturday night, the poll handed a slim but decisive victory to Michelle Bachmann, the woman Tina Brown recently dubbed “The Queen of Rage” on the cover of Newsweek (alongside a wide-eyed photo that would give Steve Buscemi nightmares), and on Sunday, milquetoasty Minnesota governor and “Obamneycare” coiner Tim Pawlenty dropped out of the race. Meanwhile, everyone pretty much ignored Ron Paul.

In other public slights, Steve Jobs earned an enemy in Marty Markowitz when the ailing tech mogul failed to respond to the borough president’s whimsical iPad video pleading for an Apple store in Brooklyn. Mr. Markowitz announced that Mr. Jobs and his company won’t “reach the big-time” until they land in the city’s most Safran-Foer-rich district, but seeing as Apple survived last week’s stock market free-fall with barely a dent, we think Marty needs to fuggedaboudit (at this point he’d have better luck buying a black market baby, and even then there’s no guarantee they’d get a spot at the new Grace Church high school). George Soros is being sued by his ex-girlfriend Adriana Ferreyr after reportedly making her eat dinner at the kids’ table. And Arianna Huffington may finally be hitting a paywall after solicitations for free HuffPo graphic design submissions from readers prompted widespread outrage.

More evidence of universal chaos: Lady Gaga will design the seasonal window displays at Barneys (flank steak will make a perfect coat for Santa!), someone paid $70,000 for a tour of Facebook’s headquarters—an honor we suspect any U.P.S. delivery man bearing Mark Zuckerberg’s new Adidas sandals from Zappos gets for free—and a “flash mob” looted a Maryland 7-11 without even throwing in any hastily conceived choreography for good measure. In addition, New Yorkers despondent over the crashing economy flocked to city landmarks to take their own lives (two suicide attempts—one at Rockefeller Center and one on a Statue of Liberty-bound ferry—were, happily, thwarted by first responders), an unidentified body was discovered floating in Niagara Falls, and on Thursday in Tulsa, Okla., a man climbed a 300-foot tower and, while showing no signs of jumping, he has refused to come down for five days (he did, however, order a cappuccino).

With all signs pointing to an astrological system gone horribly awry, maybe it’s a good thing that New York police spent last weekend practicing riot drills on Randall’s Island. Like the state lotto constantly reminds us, hey—you never know.

The emails have been notable for their tone. In one, Club for Growth president Chris Chocola calls Trump a "socialist" and says of his nascent campaign, "This publicity stunt will sputter and disappear just as quickly as the 'The Apprentice' is losing viewers;" the other dredges up an incident from 14 years ago when Trump used eminent domain to try to expand his casino empire in New Jersey.

More surprisingly, the emails come as most Republicans have held their fire aginst Trump, hoping that he hangs himself with his own verbal rope or eventually gives up on what still looks to many like a novelty act.

But there could be a reason behind the Club's apparent willingness to hit Trump first and hard: the Club for Growth's longtime top consultant, Jon Lerner, was recently hired by Tim Pawlenty to be his top pollster.

Lerner has been a leader in some of the political strategizing behind the low-tax advocating Tea Party movement, and according to this interview, gave up political work in order to continue to advocate for lower taxes. His hiring by Pawlenty was hailed in Republican circles, but Pawlenty has struggled to gain traction in the early polls, and the rise of Trump is soaking up media attention that "serious" candidates, like the former Minnesota governor, desperately need.

Lerner is based in Washington--and like Pawlenty, hails from Minnesota--but he has some interesting New York connections.

He worked on Doug Hoffman's Tea Party campaign in New York's 23rd District special election, managed Al D'Amato's unsuccessful re-election bid against Chuck Schumer in 1998, and cites the legendary NewYork consultant Arthur Finkelstein as one of his mentors. The two met when Finkelstein--who helped George Pataki win an unlikely bid for governor--worked a Senate race in Minnesota in 1996.

"I think the world of him," Lerner said of Finkelstein. "He's a brilliant guy, probably the most brilliant guy in the business. He's helped me a great deal and I'm tremendously grateful to him and enjoy the friendship I have with him."

Neither of the above races went particularly well for Lerner. Hoffman got edged out in a wild special that saw the Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava drop out and endorse the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, who eventually won with 49 percent of the vote, to Hoffman's 45. (Scozzafava got 6 percent.)

D'Amato's was equally strange. The incumbent senator stumbled when he called Schumer a "putzhead," and the campaign seemed incapable of quelling the ensuing debate over the pejorative dimensions of such a vulgarity, as it dragged endlessly through the news cycle. What had been a close race became not so close, and D'Amato lost by 10 points. (In something of an irony, Lerner is himself an Orthodox Jew, and reportedly doesn't work from sundown on Friday to sundown Saturdays, even in the throes of close campaigns.)

Lerner's Tea Party connections could help Pawlenty make in-roads with that crowd. As an adviser to the Club for Growth, he helped--to varying degrees--with some of the more conservative candidates of the last cycle, including winners like Marco Rubio and Mike Lee, and some who lost, like Sharron Angle and Joe Miller.

With Mitt Romney leading the primary polls by a mile in New Hampshire, and Barack Obama in the White House, the former mayor and dud presidential candidate of 2008 wanted to talk about leadership.

"This president has been a failure in just about every single thing he's done," Mr. Giuliani told the 100 or so die-hard Republicans who had come for the Manchester G.O.P's annual Lincoln Reagan dinner. "He has ruined our economy. He is ruining our health care."

As he got rolling, the arms of his dark suit gesticulated wildly around his emerald green tie. He called attention to his bullet points with a prodding finger, leaned on the podium, stepped out from beside it, removed and replaced his glasses for comic effect and, at one point, raised a big outstretched palm and brought it crushing down upon our liberties.

On the president's handling of Libya, he said he had "never witnessed a worse case of presidential decision making. Or lack of decision making. Or conduct of foreign policy. Ever."

And he criticized the president for leaving it to Congress to hash out the health care bill, and for not leading enough on energy policy. "Because he's a follower," Mr. Giuliani said. He mocked a stutter to capture Mr. Obama's perceived hesitancy to implementing a no-fly zone, which, in Mr. Giuliani's telling, he did only after being convinced by France and the United Nations.

"No fly zones are r-r-r-r-eally, really hard," he said, to big laughs.

Four years after he abruptly pulled out of the nation's first primary, in favor of a big-state strategy that ended in disaster, Mr. Giuliani was back in New Hampshire, promoting himself as a potential presidential contender and aggressively trying to make amends.

For Mr. Giuliani--who last year passed on rumored runs for the governor's mansion and the Senate--any last hope for higher office would have to begin here, with the good people of the Granite State, where his profile as a moderate Republican with a reputation for leadership could still resonate, at least in theory.

Building some fresh buzz around the Giuliani brand would seem to be a no-lose proposition, what with his slew of self-titled businesses, but there are those who think Mr. Giuliani could do much better than that.

"If he runs, he stands a strong chance of either winning, or coming in second place," said Andrew Smith, who directs the Granite State Poll at the University of New Hampshire, where the latest survey has Mr. Giuliani running a distant second to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

On Friday night, Mr. Giuliani's pitch had a particular New Hampshire bent. He avoided mentioning the social issues on which he and the state's Republicans might diverge--in 2008, he had tried to split the difference with the G.O.P. base on abortion, gay marriage and gun control by casting them as issues best left to the states--and opted instead to praise the state's Tea Party and to portray resistance to the administration's health care bill as a "Live Free or Die" struggle against tyranny.

"I've always believed the emotion of the Tea Party is because it reaches into something deeper in an American's soul, which is, 'They're taking our freedom away,'" he told The Observer in a back room before the speech, in between posing for pictures with the evening's V.I.P.'s, who had paid $100 for the privilege.

"This president appears to want to have an America where Americans have less to say about their future, and the government has more to say about your future. And if you know New Hampshire, you know that's a very powerful theme in New Hampshire. Live free or die." He rocked back in his chair and let out a commanding laugh. "Wow, that's a powerful thought, right?"

Mr. Giuliani said he might even be capable of carrying the Tea Party mantle. "I think if the Tea Party looks at my record, they would find a lot of things to like," he said.

Asked if his disastrous showing last time--when he leveraged his front-runner status into one lone delegate--might hurt his chances, Mr. Giuliani shrugged.

"We'll see," he said. "We'll see. I don't know the answer to that yet. When I know the answer to that, I'll tell you--when I'm running or not running."

It's easy to forget, but in the fall of 2007, Mr. Giuliani was virtually tied with Mr. Romney in New Hampshire, and was constructing a campaign infrastructure that seemed capable of capturing the first primary state from its neighboring governor. But as Senator John McCain roared back to life and began to siphon away the state's moderate voters, Mr. Giuliani's campaign shifted its time and money to focus on the bigger prizes in Florida and California. He finished a distant fourth in New Hampshire, trailing even Mike Huckabee, with just 8 percent of the vote.

On Friday, it was clear the mayor had some making up to do.

"I'm not a political strategist, but I know those of us who wore our emotions on our sleeves really wanted him to stick around a little longer," said Donna Waterman, a 2008 campaign volunteer, who came to see Mr. Giuliani, gave him a big hug and said she would work for him again.

But Mr. Giuliani had been having problems even before he left.

"He kind of came in and went out," said Cliff Hurst, who chaired the local party in 2004 and 2005. "People didn't have a chance to have a conversation and shake hands. They're really used to being pampered and getting a lot of attention, and I'm not sure they got that."

"I saw him in person a couple of time and was just kind of stunned with some of the things he came in with, like two bodyguards in front of him walking through the Rotary Club, as if somebody was going to reach out and stab him with a butter knife," said Mr. Smith, the University of New Hampshire pollster.

"The emcee in both places was instructed to say, 'Now the mayor is very busy, can you please stay in your seats until he leaves,'" Mr. Smith recalled. "And the only reason those people are there in the first place is to go get their picture taken or get an autograph from the guy. So it's like every room he goes to, he ticks off everybody in the room."

Mr. Giuliani seemed to have learned his lesson.

"If everybody could start sitting down, the Nation's Mayor will stop by each table and say hello," said the emcee, as Mr. Giuliani worked his way across the room, shaking hands and touching shoulders.

"Wanna get a picture?" he asked one man, flashing his gargantuan grin.

In front of the cash bar near the door, a woman posed for a picture and implored him to stick around this time. He joked like he was walking out the door, before telling her, "I'm here for you, I'm not going anywhere."

Whatever hard feelings may linger about Mr. Giuliani's early departure in 2008, to the crowd that came out on Friday night, he will always be the man who led New York City through the depths of Sept. 11.

A few "Never Forget" pins were handed out at the door, and Mr. Giuliani paused from the podium to recognize one of them.

"Thank you for wearing it. I really appreciate that," he said. And he pointed to a middle table to acknowledge Tim Brown, a New York firefighter (and staunch Giuliani supporter) who responded to the attacks and is now suing to stop the proposed mosque near the World Trade Center site.

But, for the man whose message Joe Biden once mocked as "a noun, a verb and 9/11," that was it. If the crowd had come expecting his hit song, it got a few new riffs instead.

Mr. Giuliani presumed, as usual, that his status as a leader during those days could go unstated.

"You kind of get the feeling that people think we're starved for leadership, and he wrote the
book on leadership, literally," said Wayne Semprini, the well-tanned former chairman of the state party, referring to the mayor's book Leadership, which was a best seller when it was published in 2002.

Mr. Semprini ran Mr. Giuliani's 2008 campaign in New Hampshire, and he talked up the possibilities for another run, even as the mayor's aides--including Jake Menges, a former City Hall hand who was traveling with him--went to great pains to emphasize that this was not a campaign trip, and that the boss was simply reconnecting with old friends to whom he still owes a debt of gratitude.

Of course, those old friends happen to be the same ones who could form the foundation for a future run.

On Thursday night, Mr. Semprini hosted a small, 10-person dinner at Ristorante Massimo, a swanky Italian restaurant in downtown Portsmouth, next to a seashell shop that offers psychic readings on the weekends.

The next morning, led by Mr. Semprini, the mayor and a modest entourage had breakfast in Greenland with Sean Mahoney, a former Republican committeeman, and then made their way down to Manchester to have lunch with the current mayor, Ted Gatsas, and a former mayor, Ray Wieczorek, who was one of his staunchest supporters four years ago.

He also met with Ovide Lamontagne, a Tea Party candidate who narrowly lost a Senate primary last year.

"It's hard not to be moved by the passion and the sincerity that he has," said Mr. Lamontagne, who has emerged as a conservative power broker to be courted by the primary candidates.

"I hope he gets in, I really do. I think he will be a wonderful spokesman for the particular approach he would take, which would be a little different than I think most other candidates would bring."

Whether Mr. Giuliani actually wants to do the gripping-and-grinning required of the Granite State is another matter.

On Friday afternoon, he and the entourage pulled in to Blowin' Smoke, an upstairs cigar lounge in a small shopping center in Bedford, where about 30 gentlemen were celebrating the end of the work week in high-backed leather chairs beneath big screen TVs.

Mr. Giuliani bought a medium-bodied Arturo Fuente, hand-rolled in the Dominican Republic, for $10.

"He didn't do a lot of shmoozing," said Tyler Shea, whose family owns the store. "In fact, a lot of the guys thought it was kind of cool, because he just went in the back and threw on Fox News and chilled out and smoked his stogie." (Later, when a Fox News microphone fell from the podium during his speech, Mr. Giuliani returned it to its perch. "Gotta make sure Fox stays up there. It's all we have!" he said.)

At one point, the mayor ducked into Blowin' Smoke's back office to do a phone interview. After an hour or so, he bought a selection of cigars and left. "It was great; we hope he comes back soon," Mr. Shea said.

Unlike some of his potential competitors for the nomination, with their lucrative Fox contracts, Mr. Giuliani wouldn't seem to have much to lose in making another run.

His consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, has scaled back considerably from its halcyon days in the mid-2000s. In 2007, the firm sold off its investment banking arm, Giuliani Capital Partners, and last year it vacated its flagship office at Times Square to share space with his law office, Giuliani & Bracewell, in midtown.

The firm's most ambitious partnership since Mr. Giuliani's election loss--a $500 million to $750 million real estate fund designed--tried to launch into the turbulent market of 2008, but failed to get off the ground.

And, while he is hardly at the apex of his early-2000s popularity, he remains a relatively sought-after public speaker. Last Monday, in Portland, Ore., he delivered his "Perseverance" speech to yet another Get Motivated! business conference, a speech he'll give again in Memphis on March 28, in Grand Rapids on April 14 and in St. Louis on April 27. ("Only $1.95 per person or send your entire office for only $9.95!" says the Web site.)

"If you told me 20 years ago, when he left making a million bucks a year as a lawyer--when a million bucks was a lot of money--and he had young kids, then it was a big deal going back into government," said a source close to him. "At this point in his life, he's got money, he doesn't have young kids anymore--it's a totally different world."

But while Mr. Giuliani ponders, his potential opponents are taking up residence.

Mitt Romney has long had a house in New Hampshire, where he owns a sizable lead on the other hopefuls.

The former House speaker Newt Gingrich was in Nashua, N.H., one day ahead of Mr. Giuliani, for a St. Patrick's Day breakfast and said he'll announce a decision in "five or six weeks."

On Monday, Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor, became the first to form an exploratory committee, and he has been spotted of late in a black SUV with New Hampshire vanity plates that read T-PAW.

Last month, Mr. Pawlenty attended a house party thrown by Mr. Lamontagne, who is inviting all the prospective candidates to appear at his home, including Mr. Giuliani.

"I invited him to come and spoke with his people, and they're interested in doing that," Mr. Lamontagne said.

So far, no date has been set, and Mr. Giuliani is vague about when and what will ultimately determine his decision.

"An analysis and a feeling that you could make a big difference and that you have a good chance," he told The Observer. "But you have to come to that point, and I'm not at that point yet."

Just in case he gets to that point, Mr. Giuliani seems to be casting aspersions on the front-runner.

After his speech, he retreated to the same back room, where he cautioned reporters that Mr. Romney might have a difficult time explaining away his health care mandate in Massachusetts.

"For his own good, he's got to straighten this out. This will be a much bigger problem than people realize," he said. "I've had people tell me about it for the last two months, from here. Calling me and telling me. People who might be interested in supporting him. So I think he's got to deal with it. And if he isn't, he's not being realistic."

Mr. Giuliani said "the other candidates" would certainly be making an issue of it. "I'm not sure I'm running, so I'm just raising it."

But the criticism also comes more subtly, and without prompting.

Asked about the Tea Party's role in winnowing the field, Mr. Giuliani said it "will work really well" in New Hampshire, given the overlap between the Tea Party's core values and those of the state's electorate.

"Because a lot of New Hampshire is kind of a reaction to Massachusetts," he explained. "This is a state where people appreciate the fact there isn't an income tax. Many of them moved here from Massachusetts because they felt the government spent too much money, wasn't as efficient."

Mr. Giuliani stood for a few more photographs, then hustled off toward Boston for a charity event the next day.

"I leave very exhilarated," Mr. Giuliani said. "They were a lot of fun. They were terrific. But you know, if you're not running, they always treat you much nicer. You only find out when you actually start running."

rpillifant@observer.com

But the ex-governor--a moderate, particularly by national standards--took Chairman Mike Long aside and asked if he could say a few words: he wanted to declare his endorsement for Doug Hoffman, the Conservative's candidate to replace John McHugh in Congress.

"I folded right away," Long told me.

Pataki's message was simple: Hoffman can win, and he is the best hope of Republicans and Conservatives to be a vote against the Nancy Pelosi.

"He will fight for our proud servicemen and women at Fort Drum, our dairy farmers in Lowville and our manufacturers in Plattsburgh," Pataki said in a statement. "And Doug Hoffman can win."

This underscores the problem for Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, the moderate (or liberal, depending on your slant) Republican who has the party's nomination to replace McHugh: as conservatives in her party openly break for Hoffman, there is no counter-rally from the moderate wings, which like Pataki are succumbing to pragmatism or sitting on the sidelines.

"Look, the Republican Party is undergoing an identity crisis in New York state, and this groundswell for Hoffman has got the moderates kind of shell-shocked. They're reeling," said Bill Nojay, a Republican talk show host in central New York.

The race has stirred that identity crisis, on both the national level and the state level. In New York, where Nelson Rockefeller set a standard of socially liberal Republicanism, the comparatively moderate partisans picked Scozzafava. But the state party--now under the leadership of Ed Cox--is looking to purify itself ideologically. When Cox accepted his chairmanship in suburban Albany, he didn't mention Scozzafava by name. He has raised funds, but has also noted that her selection took place before his time.

"We're coming into this rather late in the game, our team. But we're certainly trying to be as helpful as we can," said Tom Basile, executive director of the Republican State Committee. Cox was in Syracuse Thursday spinning for Scozzafava after pre-recorded debate, and "appeared at" an event.

I asked John Faso, a more conservative Cox confidant and the party's last gubernatorial candidate, where the moderates were.

"I don't know. You can make the argument, but...I don't know where they are. I just don't know," he said. He supported "the Republican candidate" with $250 and said "I hope the Republican wins the race."

On the national level, Scozzafava doesn't fare much better. Her support of same-sex marriage, abortion rights and card check has turned off many. Eleven congressional representatives endorsed Hoffman Thursday, joining former House Leader Dick Armey. Two of the party's potential presidential nominees--Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty--are openly backing Hoffman.

Tom Reynolds, the former representative from Western New York, said that's because "people are looking to be noticed or patted on the back or the head." A distinction has to be made between conservative officials and the swelling conservative movement. "John Boehner is certainly a conservative Republican, and so is Eric Cantor. Both of them have supported Dede from day one. As has Pete Sessions, from Dallas, Texas--I sat next to him for six years in the Rules Committee, so I know how conservative he is," Reynolds told me.

But the movement--whipped up by Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin and media outlets like Red State and the Washington Times--is with Hoffman.

It is to be crossed at one's peril, Reynolds said, noting that conservatives have helped swing the Republican Party into power in recent years the same way moderates swung the party into power in the 1970s. Plus, there aren't many moderates to help. McHugh was one third of New York's Republican delegation, and Representative Pete King has endorsed Scozzafava. (Representative Chris Lee has not taken a position, and was unavailable to talk about the race, a spokeswoman said.)

Reynolds said he's supporting Scozzafava, "the party's nominee." All of the elected Republican legislators from the district--Bob Oaks, Will Barclay, Joe Griffo, Teresa Sayward, Janet Duprey--are working supporting Scozzafava's campaign, as is former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. But with the larger forces aligning against her, there is clearly trouble.

"We've got a race here in the North Country that's somewhat been hijacked by outside interests," she said, frustrated, in a conference call earlier this week attacking her opponents unwillingness to debate. In response to this article, her spokesman Matt Burns offered this statement: Anyone endorsing either Doug Hoffman or Bill Owens obviously isn't looking for a candidate who knows the issues confronting the hard-working people of the 23rd Congressional District. "Dede Scozzafava is the only choice for voters looking for a candidate who truly understands the issues and will fight for them in Congress.  The sad but true fact is Dede's opponents have been bought and paid for by special interest money from outside the district. Bill Owens and Doug Hoffman will have to repay those debts with their votes in Congress -- and that will cost us all."

Long, meanwhile, was gloating.

"He's the first, I guess you could call him 'establishment Republican' in New York to go for Hoffman," Long said of Pataki. "I suspect others will follow."

Last night, as reporters bounced dutifully between the little clusters around the yellow square signs identifying backers of McCain and the blue rectangular banners above the heads of Obama supporters, they’d heard practically everything the two camps had said before. But some remarks were notable nonetheless, if only for their sheer spinniness.

Some highlights follow.

Here's Obama campaign manager, David Plouffe, a talking campaign memo, on where the campaign goes from here:

"We want to hold down all of the Kerry states. The first thing we have to do is lock them down.”

He also said the campaign was considering redirecting resources to such long-shot traditionally Republican states as West Virginia and Kentucky. “We’re playing a lot of offense.”

Senator Chuck Schumer said John McCain's strategy was out of touch.

“The days of an Ayers issue mattering are over.”

He said he was “amazed” that McCain stayed with that line of attack even though “the polls show it is a loser.”

And he mocked McCain’s “Joe the plumber” debate theme.

“The Ronald Reagan era is over,” he said, adding that McCain was “missing the boat. As admirable as Joe the plumber might be.”

Schumer also said that from the beginning, he thought McCain would make a lousy candidate.

“He is not an empathetic person and he does not have a personality people gravitate towards.”

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota said he “respectfully disagreed with Senator Schumer."

“It’s going to be remembered as the Joe the plumber debate,” he said, asserting that Barack Obama “wants to cap the Amerian dream and to keep Joe the plumber from his American dream.”

“The debate was a good debate,” he added. “McCain won.”

Obama adviser and former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle had an alternate take:

“Barack Obama was at his best and looked presidential. John McCain looked angry.”

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, anxiously tapping a rolled-up document on his leg, called Obama slippery.

“The American people see through it. He wasn’t definitive on anything.”

When pressed by reporters as to why the candidates on the McCain ticket were bothering making appearances in traditionally Republican states like North Carolina, Davis finally relented and said, “There’s no question that we’re going to a battleground that they created in that state.”

Then he tried to refocus on the debate.

“We went right at Barack Obama,” he said, adding, “We pressed him, and every time he retreated, and that is a metaphor for this night.”

He refused to rule out continuing to make William Ayers a focal point in the race: “We’re going to talk about things that make the contrast.”

A few feet away, and surrounded by a much bigger circle of reporters, Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, responded to Davis’ assertion that it was a good idea for the McCain campaign to keep attacking Obama. “I have to agree with him,” he said.

Then he referred to a New York Times poll that showed about two-thirds of those surveyed found McCain’s attacks counterproductive. “His goal seemed to be tonight to persuade the other one third.”

For most of the summer, Biden contracts were trading at around 10 on the Intrade political market, while Evan Bayh contracts traded much higher – peaking at 40 about 10 days ago. But look at what’s happened in just the last day, as the media has begun portraying Biden as the most likely selection.

Other notable values on the Democratic V.P. market: Tim Kaine is now trading at 15.4, which is actually up slightly from yesterday, and Kathleen Sebelius is at 14.8 – almost a five-point jump for her from yesterday. Hillary Clinton is at 9.3, unchanged from yesterday. But maybe we shouldn’t read too much into this: Wesley Clark is at an absurdly overvalued 13.8.

On the Republican side, Mitt Romney is top at 31.1, followed closely by Tim Pawlnety at 29.9.