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$700 Billion Bailout Fails; Dow Jones Sees Record Point Drop, Politicians Start Pointing Fingers

The day started with everyone watching Wall Street and Washington like some frenetic tennis match. And when the electrical system failed at the sounding bell - it did not sound - a superstitious person might have taken it as an omen of things to come.

But even before that, the president held a press conference where he asked Congress to quickly pass the upcoming $700 billion bailout. And although the vote was expected to be close, the legislation was expected to pass by a narrow margin.

But it was not to be.

The Stock Market Falls While Politicians Point Fingers

When the vote was taken, the measure failed. Almost two-thirds of the Republicans voted against the bill (133), while 140 Democrats voted for it. Only 65 Republicans voted in favor of the bill, while 95 Democrats voted against it.

The DOW-Jones Index on Wall Street, which had already fallen a few hundred points, plummeted.

In Washington, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-KY) immediately pointed the finger of blame at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), saying that a speech that she gave prior to the vote "poisoned" his fellow Republicans to the point that they backed away from the measure. (Speaker Pelosi had railed against the economic ineptitude of the Bush administration earlier in the day.) Barney Frank (D-MA) said in a press conference later that a couple of Republicans with their feelings hurt took it out on the country. He added that he would do everything in his power, including speaking "uncharacteristically nicely," to make them feel better about themselves if they would just change their vote.

President Bush, who was meeting with the president of Ukraine, said he was disappointed in the Congressional vote.

Then the closing bell rang on Wall Street and the DOW-Jones, once all the trading was tabulated, had fallen 777.68 points, the largest single-day drop in trading history. It far overshadowed the loss on September 17, 2001, the first day of trading after the September 11 tragedy, when the stock market fell 680 points. The 777.68 points equates to $1.2 trillion loss, according to CNN analysts. One analyst said that, to date, the stock market has lost $4.2 trillion this year.

This will no doubt have an even worse effect on global markets which were down everywhere in anticipation of a poor showing on Wall Street and in uncertainty of what the U.S. Congress would do with regard to the $700 billion bailout.

The good news, analysts kept saying, is that, percentage-wise, those points did not amount to much because the Dow Jones was trading at such high volumes. Other point drops had been far worse, even though their actual numbers were lower, simply because trading volume was so much lower -- making the percentage lost on the market higher. So, if there was any good news coming out of Wall Street, it was in percentages.

And then Senator John McCain gave a statement in Iowa, where he was campaigning. He talked of how he had suspended his campaign last week to work on the unpopular bailout vote. He then blasted the "Obama partisans" for playing politics instead of putting the country first.

An Obama campaign statement said that McCain was full of hyper-rhetoric and the country needed for Congress to work toward a bill that would help get the country out of the economic crisis it is facing.

A Government Of The People

After a record stock market point drop and a bungled vote on a piece of legislation meant to stop just that, restore credit to the financial industry, and make that same industry more stable, the United States achieved nothing. What the country has at the end of the day is politicians who are pointing fingers instead of working to rectify an admittedly serious situation.

What the situation does point to, however, is two things: the power of the American voter and the lack of power in the leadership in Congress.

The American voter, fed up with Washington duplicity and Wall Street greed, tied up the Congressional phone lines and fax machines and inundated e-mail addresses with a resounding "No!" on the issue of the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. The average citizen made it clear to their respective Congressperson that they had no interest in bailing out the very people that they felt have undermined the American economy.

And that is understandable.

Pelosi's speech did not have anything to do with the Republican vote. It is certain to have rankled a few Republican stalwarts who feel loyalty toward the president, but little else. The Republican vote had everything to do with power and the loss of Congressional seats. Pelosi's speech was merely a scapegoat.

The same can be said about Democrats. Many people do not understand that a lot of Democrats are conservatives, have very conservative voting constituencies, with some just as conservative as their Republican counterparts. Those voters (and Congressmen) were heard from today as well.

And all the Wall Street bailout needed was 12 votes - six from either side of the aisle. Or 12 from either side of the aisle. Or a mix-and-match that equals a dozen.

Senate Minority Leader Boehner could not bring his Republicans across. It was simple as that. Neither could Senator McCain, who admitted to suspending his campaign to work on the legislation and claimed to have personally convinced 61 of the 65 who voted for the measure to do so. But he failed to deliver the needed votes.

It all reeks of failure. Because it was a failure. A failure of leadership.

President Bush proved just how much of a lame duck he was when his speech to the American people and his morning press conference refused to sway enough for the bill's passage, a bill that his administration, with his appointee Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson leading the way, supported throughout.

And what does it say about the Republican Party when they don't even back the three highest ranking members of their Party - Bush, Cheney, Boehner?

Some wish to point their fingers at the Democrats, but look at the numbers. Almost two-thirds of the Democratic members of Congress (140) voted for a measure that they were so opposed to at the beginning that they placed added stipulations onto and then sided with the leader of the opposing party to pass.

But, still, House Speaker Pelosi could not get an additional 12 Democrats to back the measure. Nor could Obama.

All across the board -- a failure in leadership, Republicans and Democrats.

Power To The People

There has been a shift of power in the American government -- back to the people. The American people, right or wrong, decided this vote. Now it is up to those duly elected by the people to do the will of the people - produce legislation that the American people can believe in that will do something - anything - to curb or halt this economic downturn.

The precipitous market drop on Wall Street may scare enough people to change enough - the legislation, their stance, their vote - to get something - anything - done. And that is one thing that most economists agree upon: Something must be done.

Because the frenetic tennis match between Wall Street and Washington will be observed by the rest of the world again tomorrow.

By the end of today's trading on Wall Street, the electrical system had been fixed. Everyone heard the final bell.

It was tolling for the markets of the world...

Source:

CNN Television