Via the College Politico, FNC picks up the ball and runs for daylight. Memo to the Foxies: No one knows what to do about the economic crisis. Maverick himself sagely kept his cards on the bailout close to the vest for days after returning to D.C. last month. No less a figure than Alan Greenspan admits to having misjudged the situation so badly that it’s forced him to question the economic philosophy he’s held for 40 years. Only The One’s most devout cultists would expect him to try to read tea leaves like these without input from advisors. Which means, all other things being equal, that this piece is idiotic.

But things aren’t equal. Imagine how this would be received if it were a Republican talking about Palin:

“I haven’t cleared this with him and he may even be mad at me for saying this so close to the election, but I know what else he said to his economic advisers (during the crisis),” Clinton told the crowd at a Wednesday night rally with Obama in Florida. “He said, ‘Tell me what the right thing to do is. What’s the right thing for America? Don’t tell me what’s popular. You tell me what’s right — I’ll figure out how to sell it.'”

Clinton said when the crisis broke, Obama called his own advisers as well as those of the former two-term president, Hillary Clinton, Warren Buffet and others.

“He called those people. You know why? Because he knew it was complicated and before he said anything he wanted to understand,” Clinton said. “That’s what a president does in a crisis.”

The seeming praise may come off as a backhanded compliment, especially since Obama repeatedly accuses McCain of admitting he doesn’t know much about the economy. McCain’s campaign said Clinton’s remark shows Obama was uncertain when Wall Street seemed to be on the verge of crumbling.

“Barack Obama had no idea what the right thing to do is or at least that’s Bill Clinton’s impression,” McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb said.

Read the whole thing, if only for Goldfarb’s one-liner at the end. Or better yet, read Baseball Crank’s post from last week about Obama’s handling of the bailout saga, as it’s a much sharper critique. Exit question: One last poke in the eye from Billy Jeff on McCain’s behalf or much ado about nothing?