The one thing I will say for the Wall Street status seekers is that self-preservation of their lifestyle, both economically and culturally, trumps all, which is why after their last attempt at proving themselves to be more noble human beings than the residents of flyover country, they recoiled in horror from David Dinkins and put Rudy Giuliani in office. In other liberal cities like San Francisco, where being seen as the superior moral human being trumps demanding a higher quality of living, it doesn’t matter how bad Democrats make things; they’ll still vote for a Dinkins, or a Pelosi, or an Obama, because maintain ideological purity is more important than even their own standard of living.

What’s happening now is just a repeat of the 1990-93 period in New York, played out on the national level. Enlightened self-interest tends to snap the focus back on the performance of the people you’re relying on, even if some of the Masters of the Universe will now never admit they were snookered by Obama in the first place (and it would be fun to see some pollster do a survey of the Wall Street crowd on who they voted for in the 2008 election. My guess is McCain would come in with at least 55-60 percent of the vote from people who like doctrinaire liberals, want to believe they’re smarter and more enlightened than everyone else about everything, but unlike the other group, aren’t willing to commit cultural suicide to prove their point).