OLBERMANN: …As late as October of 2006, Mrs. Palin insisted to voters in Alaska that not only would she defend that infamous bridge, but she also said—and here’s the quote—”She would not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that’s so negative.” What are Senator McCain and Governor Palin doing in this new commercial, do you think?

OLBERMANN: And Governor Palin hired a lobbyist to get earmarks to the tune of $27 million for a 6,000-person town which is—in its own scope, is kind of a neat trick, but it does seem to counterbalance the basic platform of the Republican Party. You said that they’re not telling the truth here, but when the stuff is a gross distortion, whether it’s about their own positions or yours, or facts in your history or whatever, what can you do about it? And why do people hesitate to use the word “lie” about these things?

OLBERMANN: To something from your own convention, maybe the most compelling moment of your acceptance speech in Denver was that one strongly voiced word, “enough.” A lot of people who have felt angry about what’s been done to this country in the last seven or eight years have that same sense of urgency and simplicity to it. Have you thought of using on the campaign trail and in your speaking engagements, more exclamation points? Have you thought of getting angrier?

OLBERMANN: But clearly it must not be fully on their minds because the race is as close as it is. And nobody’s burst into laughter at the latest Republican ad, at least not many Republicans have.

Have the Republicans succeeded in muddying up this election in kind of overcomplicating it so the point is not as simple as you just made it? I mean, sixty years ago Harry Truman went out and campaigned very simply, looked out at people in trouble because of a Republican Congress at that point and the impact it had on their lives and he said, “How many more times do you have to be hit over the head until you figure out who’s hitting you?” I mean, has your campaign in some way not kept it that simple?

OLBERMANN: You pointed out last week how little time at their convention the Republicans spent talking about the economy. I think the time might have been zero, zero, zero. I’m not sure. We weren’t running a clock. But if the election does, in fact, hinge on the economy, on how Americans are doing, has there been thought given to breaking this down to its simplest element, in much the way one of the Republican icons, Mr. Reagan, did during the 1980 campaign, and ask the voters if today, are you better off now than you were eight years ago?

OLBERMANN: Rachel Maddow wanted me to ask this question, so I’m doing this on her behalf, because her new show is starting tonight. Given—given the tone that the campaign has taken, I mean, this Georgia congressman last week, Mr. Westmoreland, who called you and your wife, quote, “uppity.” In that context, do you regret putting the brakes on the 527 groups who would have produced or could have produced hard-hitting ads that would have been sharing your sympathies?