Dean Baker, writing for American Prospect, points out that Wall Street is hardly the only part of the economy that matters. A huge drop in a single day is a scary event, but it’s not necessarily the sign of the apocalypse.
People in a position to watch C-Span are telling me that the bailout bill may have been defeated in the House. Stay tuned.
CNN Money is reporting that the bill is “stalled.” The Dow has dropped like a stone, 500 points. They’re leaving the vote open indefinitely (not a parlimentary procedure I typically support, but in this case?. . . ) to try to twist people’s arms into supporting this bill.
Christ. The Republicans are going to send the entire country off a cliff because they can’t admit to being wrong? Nothing like principled leadership.
2:10 ~ Yahoo! Reuters is now saying that the bill is defeated.
2:20 ~ MSNBC does the post mortem. Funny that Republicans pick this moment to suddenly decide they don’t support everything the president does. It looks as though plenty of Democrats voted against the bill as well. That’s about what I expected, anyway. But the one time I might have hoped for Republican Party unity to do some good for the country, they let me down.
So, now what? Well, with the Dow in the toilet by 500 points, I suspect a lot of those same constituents the House members are trying to please will demand that the government do something. If not now, then certainly when they start losing their jobs.
2:28 ~ Felix Salmon at Conde Nast weighs in on the situation. His headline? “Oh, Shit.” This is not the blog of a vulgar teenage heavy metal enthusiast. This is a respected economist.
2:54 ~ MSNBC has updated video on their website. And don’t miss this video from last week, where a Republican commentator Ed Rollins states baldly that Republicans are playing Party over Country:
Again, it needs to be said that a fair number of Democrats also rolled on this one. But not nearly as many and the Republican leadership has really failed the American people at this point. Moreover, by failing to pass a bill rather unsettling to their sensibilities, they’ve maybe just forced the next president’s hand in recreating the Roosavelt era Great Society reforms to undo the damage of Republican rule.
Jesus, can we just send these guys somewhere and get it over with? They don’t just want to be part of the problem, they want to be all of it.
3:06 ~ A bit of perspective on the drop in the Dow today:
The markets turned highly volatile as it became clear the measure wouldn’t find the necessary support. The Dow regained ground then fell back again, trading down 524.88, or 4.71 percent, to 10,618.25. At its low, it was down 705.06, not far from its previous record for an intraday drop, 721.56, set during the first trading day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Still, in percentage terms, the decline remained well below the more than 20 percent drops seen on Black Monday of October 1987 and the Depression.
For what it’s worth.
I figure a snappy headline should be about all I’m required to provide for this article. No further comment necessary.
Imagine being a woman who is expected to be a surrogate for the McCain campaign, defending a female vice presidential pick who isn’t qualified to be your latte runner. Imagine having worked for the campaign for over a year by the time that this completely random, entirely gender-based decision has been made. They could have truly picked anyone if they picked Sarah Palin. They could have picked a number of Republican Senators or Representatives who also have vaginas. Hey, they could have even picked you. After all, you have an impressive resume. . . er, wait. . . who is this Nancy Pfotenhauer, anyway?
So, to recap: we don’t know what the questions will be, but if there’s too much foreign policy, there’s going to be trouble! Leave it to a guest of Steve Doocy to manage to fein outrage at a yet-to-fore imaginary debate.
Keep an eye on this story, because I garantee it will be come a talking point for Republicans across the House and maybe even Shawn Hannity: a House Representative named Michael Burgess decided to throw into another tirade about the bailout deal that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has declared martial law with this new deal. Note that he doesn’t just say she’s acting like it is martial law, but that she declared it in a “secret meeting.” I mention all this because it’s just this type of Republican hysteria that can drag what is already a precarious situation down the shitter in no time. Other publications are also picking up on this meme.
OK, for you Constitution enthusiasts, a quiz: who is it in the architecture of the United States government who has the power to unilaterally declare a state of martial law? ((If you answered “The Speaker of the House,” you’re a dipshit! Congress can suspend the Writ of Habeas Corpus by a vote, but the Speaker can’t just declare martial law. The correct answer is “The President of the United States.”))
So the bottom line is: a Republican House member with crazy ideas about bailing out the financial sector with equally unstable insurance industry money gets kicked out of – by his own words – more meetings than he can dream of decides that, since he’s not being paid attention to, it must be martial law that we’re living under. Not a thought about his own ideas having been already proven stupid.
How typically shrill of Republicans that when noone listens to their half-assed ideas that got us into the mess we’re in, they insist that our very freedoms are at risk.
I’m not terribly happy about the bailout plan, either. But damn, dude. Just admit when you’re wrong.
Looking back on the debate, there’s not a lot in the way of real blood-letting to be taken away from this debate. I think whether you think Barack or John won will be based largely on style or personal preference.
On the other hand, it was McCain’s debate to lose. He’s in a hole right now, and he needed to look better than expected. I’m not sure he did that, and I’m not sure there was a lot to inspire confidence in those whose confidence he lost. He didn’t look at Obama, he laughed weirdly, and despite Barack Obama’s many compliments and attempts to engage in discourse, McCain could not bring himself to return the favour. Frankly, it looked petulant and unpresidential.
Overall, my personal feeling is that this was roughly a draw, but practically a loss for McCain. Not a win for Obama, precisely, but a loss of opportunity for McCain.
John McCain’s Iraq election law? It’s a provincial elections only law. Great. http://ping.fm/n1xqy
Didn’t someone tell John to for chrissakes stop laughing? He looks like a drooling idiot.
It means “I’m trying to lookz smart. I haz a think.
Debate live blogging thread: http://ping.fm/s99FP
