Facing the greatest economic crisis since just after 9/11, and some would argue the greatest since the Great Depression, a $700 billion bailout bill could have turned things around. But, in the end, the measure which required bipartisan support failed ... narrowly. Now, I will be the first to admit I am no economist (although I did pretty well in the one college economics course I did take), but I do know one thing that is disturbing ... grown folks crying about how someone's speech made them pout and vote against legislation that they might otherwise have supported. The Dow Jones plummeted 778 points (the most ever in a single day) as the greatest fears of some turned into an all-too-true reality. The bill failed 228-205 in the House. Listen to this garbage from Minority Leader John Boehner, "We could have gotten there today had it not been for the partisan speech that the speaker gave on the floor of the House. He further said that Pelosi's words, "poisoned our conference, caused a number of members that we thought we could get, to go south." If the Republicans and the Democrats who voted against it did not want to support it ... fine. But, for the Republicans to come out and say that some of them may not have supported or voted for the bill because they had their feelings hurt by some things that they took offense to from Pelosi. That is pathetic ... nothing short of pathetic. Sen. John McCain needed to take on more of a leadership role. He supposedly suspended his campaign to come to Washington D.C. to get some things done to help the economic crisis. But, in the end he failed and could not get it done even with the strong support of President Bush, who also was pushing for bipartisan support for the legislation. McCain suspended his campaign (with the expressed purpose of aiding the process toward a solution) to get the job done, but still failed to pull together the bipartisan coalition necessary to get the job done. Now, McCain must answer for this failure.
MSNBC on Bailout crisis:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26884523/
Huffington Post's Edsall:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/29/bailout-bill-fails-as-dow_n_130285.html
Atlantic.com:
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/mccains_share_of_the_blame.php
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