Is This Leadership?

When people look back and see what brought on the great market crash of 2008, they'll see that politics was the answer.  The reason I say this is because the Mother of All Bailouts might not pass Congress.  I know that most people are sick of hearing about this, but it's really important so I'm gonna speak on it.  Now the reason it won't pass is simple, it's no longer in the hands of economist and banking officials.  No my friends, that phase is done.  Instead it's now in the hands of a few hundred people who until a week or so ago, were all set to leave Washington on Friday to kick their re-election bids into high gear.  That's right folks, Congress will be the death of us all!  And when you add the fact that one of the presidential candidates has decided to play a dangerous game of political showmanship with our economic future, it only worsens the situation.

Today John McCain, and Barack Obama were called back to DC to participate in a meeting that was suppose to help push Congress toward a consensus on the bailout bill.  Instead it turned out to be and hour long photo-op and most of the legislative members who were there left the meeting more divided than when they came.  Now it's nothing new for members of Congress to disagree with one another, so I'm not really talking about that too much.  However, what I did want to bring up was the need for this high powered meeting in the first place.  The answer is there was no real reason for it.  You can tell this by the length of the meeting.  Did Bush really think that the people in that room would somehow fix all that ails this nations economy in one hour long meeting?  Of course not, but I'm sure that he and other Republican leaders thought that it would be a great opportunity for McCain to look like a take charge kinda guy.  Please!!  That Meeting was all about showmanship.  But now McCain is in a tough spot.  He has to decide weather or not to side with this bill when many conservative GOP members are not ready to sign on.  If he can't get members of his own party to go along with it, how is he gonna get Russia to go along with Missile Defense?  And since he made it seem like the legislative branch of our government can't function without him, all eyes are now on him.  Your move Senator.  

Now I hope the fact that there's no deal on the bailout won't spark a sale-off on the market tomorrow.  The last thing we need is a crash on a friday that would give way to a crash in world markets over the weekend.  We all know that the market's current behavior is based on speculation and rumors about this bill.  Any word that it won't pass won't be good at all.  But if the get something passed by Monday, we might be able to see a rebound.  who knows where this thing is going from here.  I guess we should Pray for the best but prepare for the worse.