Recipe for a free-for-all:
Ingredients: - 1 imminent economy-threatening financial meltdown - 1 massively unpopular 0.7-trillion-dollar Wall Street        bailout proposal advanced by a White House with a 26-percent approval rating - 2 mutually-non-respecting Presidential nominees locked in a tight and bitter late-stage race
1. Combine meltdown and bailout in Congressional pressure-cooker; simmer over low-to-moderate heat for 2-1/2 days.

2. Add presidential candidates; increase heat to media-frenzy temperature.  (Stand back).
3.  Serve over long-awaited foreign-policy (+ economics) debate.  
4.  Enjoy guests' ooohs and ahhs.