Granted he'd likely win anyway. His policies are much more in line with the majority of Americans and the McCain campaign has basically imploded but had the plan succeeded McCain would have taken credit (oh wait, he did and then it failed.)

With the failure of the bill the stock market will continue to fall. Credit will be harder to come by and economists will continue to give dire warnings.

Meanwhile Obama can not just pin the collapse on the Repubblican policies of the last 8 years but on the failure of McCain and the Republicans to drum up support.

Every member of Arizona's congressional delegation voted no. What an opportunity for Obama. Barring some huge skeleton in his closet the election is effectively over and Obama is the winner.

This is probably true. Unfortunately neither candidate is likely to make a great President. What scares me most however, is the possibility of Palin taking over the reins. She represents a similar form of "manufactured" political personality (a la GW Bush without) experience or substance.

I would have to agree. When people start getting informed as this moves along and realize this affects not just the Porsche driving investment bankers but their jobs and their credit there will be Hell to pay,

You guys should share when you're smoking the good stuff.

brewcrew2008:

I would have to agree. When people start getting informed as this moves along and realize this affects not just the Porsche driving investment bankers but their jobs and their credit there will be Hell to pay,

I think if people start truly "getting informed" they'll realize the biggest culprit in this mess is government involvement in the first place, and may not be so keen to have Obama, who is after all keen on government involvement in many things. Barney Frank's up there grandstanding--oh, how soon we forget (if we ever remembered in the first place).

Be that as it may, someone should, and probably will pay a political price and I wouldn't blame Obama for capitalizing on it politically.

Was the bill needed? Would it have fixed the crisis? Will a better bill come out of this bill's failure?

I don't claim to know the answers but I do know that the bill's failure helps Obama. Here's why:

1. McCain gambled by "suspending his campaign" to work on the bill's passage while Obama basically said we need to let Congress do it's job. McCain claimed "victory" prematurely and now he looks doubly foolish.

2. The economy is Obama's and the Democrats strong issue and Obama's will maintain or widen his lead given the economic uncertainty.

3. For some reason people think McCain would be better on foreign policy but the economic crisis keeps the focus on domstic issues.

I think if people start truly "getting informed" they'll realize the biggest culprit in this mess is government involvement in the first place, and may not be so keen to have Obama, who is after all keen on government involvement in many things.

But that's exactly why this will play into Obama's strength. McCain was the one who rushed in to push for a huge government involvement and all but staked his entire campaign on the promise that he could get the job done.

Obama, on the other hand, played his usual "don't panic" low key style. So, the American public are faced with a choice between a guy who rushed in to push through and claim credit for a huge spending plan just to show that he was doing something about the problem. Or the guy who remained calm and avoided grandstanding and overplaying his hand.