Today, Republican Party congressmen vainly attempted to salvage their political careers by voting down the bailout package. In doing so, they have probably derailed John McCain's presidential campaign. More importantly, they have probably consigned their party to the electoral garbage bin for a generation.
Make no mistake. The only winner out of this whole debacle is Barack Obama. Why?
When all the dust settles, one fact will remain. Whether the bailout gets through or not, and whoever gets the blame for that failure, nobody is going to blame the democratic party for the situation America finds itself in now. It is the ultimate spectacular failure of the GOP's 30-year-old economic philosophies. People are starting to see it. First they felt it in their hip pocket, then they saw it on Wall Street.
In Australia, we've been watching this whole debacle with great interest. Our share market is down 5% today. Honestly, I was skeptical of the bailout plan's ability to work, but the very fact that it was proposed lifted market expectations. When the deal failed, so did the stock market. For this, you can blame George Bush and Henry Paulson. It was their idea.
It's perhaps ironic that the proponents of the very same free-market ideology that got everyone into this mess were the ones that scuttled this whole deal.
John McCain, unfortunately, finds himself as the nominee of a dying party. He has tried to paper over it for months by running attack ads. There is now no escaping the fact that this election is going to be about issues. The more he runs attack ads, the more the backlash will be.
Obama's path to the presidency is now very clear. He needs to hammer John McCain on the Republican party's neglect of main street and their abuses on Wall Street. He needs to show up McCain's erratic campaign. He heeds to stand there, look calm and assured, and he will win. The currents are now running his way.
It also underscores a very important point. Obama built an incredible network of campaign infrastructure in the primaries that he can now use to get out every last vote. Hillary Clinton wouldn't have had this. We should be damn thankful that Obama is the nominee.
A full electoral realignment is there for Obama's taking, if he wants it.