Dow Drops 777 Points, More Than On 9/11

Allah Pundit has the gory details here:

House Republicans weren’t willing to swallow a bitter pill today so they’ll swallow a more bitter pill later this week. And guess what? They’ll still get killed at the polls in November. Bill Kristol thinks McCain’s only chance now is to stop campaigning (again) and come back to D.C. to try to drive through a compromise. If he succeeds, it’ll prove his leadership and calm the markets. I don’t see how he’s supposed to pull that off, though, when the entire Democratic leadership will be primed to whine about how he’s only making things worse by being there, is ruining delicate negotiations, etc. If Kristol’s serious about solving the crisis and willing to sacrifice electoral gain to do so, there’s an easy compromise solution: Have McCain and Obama do some sort of joint appearance, maybe a presser, urging support for a bailout. That’ll swing public opinion sufficiently to remove the political incentives to voting no and give Pelosi the 10 votes she needs to pass it now. There’s no gain for McCain at the polls in doing so, admittedly, but he’s the guy who preaches “country first.” Here’s his chance.

Howard Fineman of the Obama-cheerleading Newsweek writes, “The Obama Administration began at midnight Sunday”–and at the moment, it’s tough to argue with him; though hopefully Obama won’t prolong the current financial malaise as long as FDR and Carter did theirs.