The latest: even though they’ve been shouting from the rooftops that we need to bail out the automakers, they apparently don’t want to actually pass a bailout bill that’s seen as theirs and not Bush’s.

The plan? Make it the Bush administration’s responsibility to give Detroit cash — namely by claiming after the event that the $700 billion rescue package for financial institutions was in fact a rescue package for auto makers. This was attempted with several hilarious “colloquys” — pre-scripted dialogues between members that were quietly inserted into the Congressional Record after the vote, all aimed at rewriting the “intent” of the law. Say, this one, from Oct. 1:

Michigan Sen. Carl Levin: “As Treasury implements this new program, it is clear to me from reading the definition of financial institution that auto financing companies would be among the many financial institutions that would be eligible sellers to the government. Do you agree?”

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd: “Yes, for purposes of this act, I agree that financial institution may encompass auto financing companies.”

Evidently, the Democrats still mistake commenting on events after they pass for leadership.

Since 2006, Iran’s leaders have called for direct, unconditional talks with the United States to resolve international concerns over their nuclear program. But as an American administration open to such negotiations prepares to take power, Iran’s political and military leaders are sounding suddenly wary of President-elect Barack Obama.

“People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous,” Hossein Taeb, deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency.

“The power holders in the new American government are trying to regain their lost influence with a tactical change in their foreign diplomacy. They are shifting from a hard conflict to a soft attack,” Taeb said.

Hopefully, this will be illustrative for anyone who thought electing Barack Obama would suddenly make everyone love us.

Now, Iran’s President has written President-elect Barack Obama a letter spelling out what he expects from an Obama administration. According to the New York Times, Ahmadinejad’s letter stated the following:

“People in the world expect war-oriented policies, occupation, bullying, deception and intimidation of nations and imposing discriminatory policies on them and international affairs, which have evoked hatred toward American leaders, to be replaced by ones advocating justice, respect for human rights, friendship and noninterference in other countries’ affairs,” the letter said, according to ISNA.

“They also want the U.S. intervention to be limited to its borders, especially in the sensitive region of the Middle East,” it said. “It is expected to reverse the unfair attitude of the past 60 years to restore the rights of people in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.”

As many on the right expected, the “hope” other nations saw in Obama appears to be hope for a weakening of America’s role around the globe. It remains to be seen whether or not President Obama will comply.

President-elect Barack Obama’s newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm Freddie Mac at a time when scandal was brewing at the troubled agency and the board failed to spot “red flags,” according to government reports reviewed by ABCNews.com.

According to a complaint later filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Freddie Mac, known formally as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, misreported profits by billions of dollars in order to deceive investors between the years 2000 and 2002.

Emanuel was not named in the SEC complaint but the entire board was later accused by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) of having “failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention.”

The American people have just handed complete control of our government to the party — and in some cases, the very people — who have their fingerprints all over the current financial crisis. So much for change.

To see some in the McCain camp behaving this way — and the fact that McCain hasn’t risen to Palin’s defense and put the whole thing to an end — takes some of the sting out of McCain’s loss. At least these cowards won’t be rewarded with White House jobs.

Update: McClatchy has more.

President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia greeted his future American counterpart, Senator Barack Obama, with bristling language on Wednesday, promising to place short-range missiles on Russia’s western border if Washington proceeded with its planned missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

Adding to the seriousness of Medvedev’s comments is this report by Newsweek revealing that a foreign power — believed to be either Russia or China — hacked into both the Obama and McCain camps’ computer systems trying to glean information about the evolution of their policy positions in the hope that the information would prove useful in negotiations and provide clues to how they would respond to certain actions.

We know what Americans hope to gain from an Obama Presidency. We have yet to learn what other nations hope to gain.

Since Obama’s victory, the Dow has dropped over 900 points — the largest two-day drop since 1987. Coincidence, or change we can believe in?

Another thought: For people looking at our current economic situation, recognizing it’s bad and believing we need a change, remember change can go either way. Bad policies can always make this mess a whole lot worse. And Obama has been promoting some really bad policies — the same ones, in fact, that turned the market crash of 1929 into the Great Depression. Many experts seems to be holding onto hope that he didn’t really mean it. We’ll find out soon enough.

Ross Douthat pondered (twice) whether McCain would ruin one of the Republican party’s rising stars by selecting Palin to be his running mate. Some in the McCain camp are now trying to pin the loss on her and doing it in a rather vicious way.

The prime suspect appears to be Nicole Wallace who deservedly took heat for rolling Palin out to the press in such a disastrous way. When the press was trying to build a narrative around the idea that Palin wouldn’t talk to them, Wallace fed it and substantiated it and she did it with a dash of arrogance. She hurt Palin’s cause from the outset and then sent her into two high-stakes interviews where Palin arguably bombed.

But what’s really distasteful about all this is that, for most of the campaign, McCain supporters felt like he never took the gloves off and went after Barack Obama with vigor. Now that’s it all over and his campaign has lost, cowards hiding behind anonymity are attacking Sarah Palin with more ferocity than anything they threw at their opponent. It’s disgusting. If she’s as bad as they say, then the blame lies with them for putting her on the ticket in the first place and then trying to convince the rest of us to vote for her. Why not resign in protest? Country First, remember?

Another thought: If they were so sure Palin was a rube, why on Earth did they throw in her into the deep end by scheduling her first two interviews with Gibson and Couric? Why not ease her into it? These leaks have CYA all over them.

There are two bright sides to look at. First, Obama and the Democrats cannot hide behind Bush hatred anymore. With power comes responsibility and all the responsibility — and blame — now lies with them. It’s begun already. An AP headlined this morning declares “Stocks fall as investors ponder Obama presidency“:

A case of post-election nerves sent stocks lower Wednesday as investors worried about recession began questioning what impact a Barack Obama presidency will have on business and the overall economy. The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 300 points and the major indexes all fell more than 3 percent.

The second positive note: The Republicans lost their way under George W. Bush, increasing the size of government and spending like drunken Democrats. At least now Republicans have a chance to rebuild their brand around the principles of limited government that brought them to power in the first place.