I appreciate your confidence and sage advice, as well as the points you made. However, it seems that for me the only thing that is going to pass in the next few weeks are these boulders making their way around my digestive system.

I think that the bailout is bad for several reasons (and that the Republicans should have thought that the bailout was bad for a handful more):

1) As Zoot pointed out in another thread, this was a perfect opportunity for McCain to differentiate himself. Imagine if he had come out and played the populist card of “no bailouts for bad business decisions. We didn’t bail you out when you bought pets.com, we won’t bail out Wall Street when they bought mortgage-backed securities!” It could have been a great way to distance himself from the White House, he could have run against Congress… ah, well.

2) Personally, I think that we are going to have a constriction (”wringing out the rot”) with or without a bailout. I would have prefered one without because, hey. Those are my tax dollars you’re throwing after bad… and we’re going to have it whether or not we throw money at it.

3) The Moral Hazard issue isn’t only the whole privitize the profits, socialize the losses thing, it’s the whole training the American People to see the Federal Government as the thing that will help you. He ain’t your momma, he’s your uncle.

But we’ve been through this a hundred times.

Things will be bad at some point in the future.
Things will be good at some point in the future.
Keep thinking “This too shall pass” and you’ll be okay.

I truly believe that this would have happened, bailout or no bailout. The effect of the $700 billion will be minimal, but the effects of the precedent and principle behind it will be with us for many years to come.

Can you imagine the surge in the polls John McCain would have had if he had said “The bailout will not help the markets, the taxpayers did not cause this problem, and I refuse to vote to throw their good money after bad, unlike Barack Obama and the Democrats.”?

Can you imagine the surge in the polls John McCain would have had if he had said “The bailout will not help the markets, the taxpayers did not cause this problem, and I refuse to vote to throw their good money after bad, unlike Barack Obama and the Democrats.”?

“The markets have come to the sobering realization that the Bush administration’s $700 billion rescue plan won’t work quickly to unfreeze the credit markets, and that many banks are still having difficulty gaining access to cash. That’s caused investors to exit stocks and move money into the relative safety of government debt.”

“Over the weekend, governments across Europe rushed to prop up failing banks. The German government and financial industry agreed on a $68 billion bailout for commercial-property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, while France’s BNP Paribas agreed to acquire a 75 percent stake in Fortis’s Belgium bank after a government rescue failed.”

The Death of Journalism…We the people Must fight against the Old media…call out their lies, loud and often..

the King is Dead…long live the King