Among the questions that are bound to be asked in the wake of today’s failure of the bailout bill are those that involve the political consequences that might flow from today’s events.
Who might this benefit in November ?
One reader at National Review Online thinks the House Republicans just handed the election to Obama:
The failure of the House to pass the bill – combined with the resulting bickering – will likely lead to a substantial market sell-off. We’re seeing part of that occur right now, but we may well see much worse over the coming days as the inevitable sell-off hits overseas markets, followed up by another collapse at home as forced selling really kicks in and many institutional investors are required to liquidate their leveraged positions. While it would be nice if all this was confined to a few select Wall Street bad apples, the reality is ordinary people will be hurt very badly as their investments deteriorate and the economic environment turns even more negative. Unemployment will likely spike sharply from here, and the lack of available credit will impair many small businesses that rely on credit lines to finance their operations.
How any of this could possibly be construed as a positive for either McCain or the Republican Party is beyond me (and I say this as a life-long Republican)? In fact, it would seem much more likely to me that the House Republicans just handed the election to Obama on a silver platter. Blaming the vote on Pelosi’s antagonistic remarks seems especially dumb, and I expect to see Barney Frank-type comments all over the MSM tonight and throughout the week.
No doubt this was a lousy bill – everyone agrees on that. But the consequences of not passing it, or something like it, are going to be far reaching. Clinging to the “small government” mantra as things collapse around us will probably not resonate well with most voters in November.
Frankly, I think it depends. Most likely, the media will pick up the Democratic leadership’s spin on today’s events and blame House Republicans for the failure of the bill (how dare they not compromise their principles ), but will it matter ?
Polling prior to today’s vote made it very clear that the public opposed the bailout and saw it as a Washington power grab, so it’s unclear that being responsible for the defeat of an unpopular bill is going to hurt Republicans in November unless the coming days see the unfolding of an economic collapse that would send the world economy into a tailspin. If that happens as some fear, then the GOP may indeed pay the price in November.
September 29th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
The Republicans were doomed either way this bailout went. For the simple reason that Republicans were not even going to get the votes of everyone who voted for Bush in 2004. For example, take my mother and myself. My mom is voting for Obama (and ironically, she finally switched from the Democrats to the GOP in December of 2007) and I’m probably not voting for president this year, especially now that Bob Barr won’t even be on the ballot in Louisiana. If I do vote, Chuck Baldwin will get my vote.
The Republican party simply does not have any new ideas or even the people to articulate those ideas if they had any ideas to combat the hardline socialism that Obama and the Democrats are offering this year.
September 29th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
[...] Polling prior to today’s vote made it very clear that the public opposed the bailout and saw it as a Washington power grab, so it’s unclear that being responsible for the defeat of an unpopular bill is going to hurt Republicans in …[Continue Reading] [...]
September 30th, 2008 at 10:06 am
> the reality is ordinary people will be hurt very badly as their investments deteriorate and the economic environment turns even more negative
Yah, that’s what everybody keeps saying. But if you’re not about to retire, and your credit is good, then what?