Eggplant said:

“To summarize it: McCain has taken a significant political hit due to the economy. Sarah Palin has performed well and McCain’s campaign is poised for a comeback provided the House of Representatives votes through the bailout. One may disagree with the wisdom of the bailout (I do) but having the Messiah as President would ultimately be far worse for the economy. If the only way to keep the Messiah out of the White House is to vote for the bailout then the bailout should happen.”

eggplant accurately summarizes the Kristol piece … but I disagree with Kristol.

I think it is a mistake to let the timing of the election rush us, into a wrong headed sollution to a “problem” that has been decades in the making.

I place “problem” in quotes because a case can be made that certain people did this deliberately, and other certain people knew about it and were running interference for it, all for the sake of lining their own pockets at what would ultimately become the american public’s expense. In other words this wasnt entirely an accident, it was done on purpose, and by people that were not entirely ignorant of the consequences. Though the law of unintended consequences also made a brief appearance (ie. public outcry squashing the house bill on monday).

It’s unfortunate that the crisis should come to a head right before such a significant election (though perhaps not coincidental), but short term thinking is bound to worsen the situation over time.

I guess you could say that I want to have my cake and eat it too. See Obama lose in November (I was a Romney supporter early on) and still see us move forward with a well thought out response to the banking mess. I like to think its not an either/or situation, but what is done is done at this point.

Im steeling my self right now to vote against every incumbent on every ballot that I ever encounter for the rest of my life. The idea of term limits is a decent one but the mice that guard the cheese will never do that to themselves, so we will never see it (done right) in law. … But what if mysteriously every time either party runs an incumbent the other party (the non-incumbent) takes the seat. I like to think that eventually the parties would get the message and stop running incumbents. Im talking about a cultural change amont the electorate that would knock the cycle of self-interest out of round at a minimum … maybe even break it.