For all those who said it came down to judgment, that we knew the Administration was lying, that Bush wasn't to be trusted, well, forget all that.

Black lawmakers said personal calls from Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama helped switch them from "no" to "yes."
(OpenLeft)

[I thought of that this morning when I read]:
Having tried without success to unlock frozen credit markets, the
Treasury Department is considering taking ownership stakes in many
United States banks to try to restore confidence in the financial
system, according to government officials.

Treasury officials say the just-passed $700 billion bailout bill
gives them the authority to inject cash directly into banks that
request it. Such a move would quickly strengthen banks' balance sheets
and, officials hope, persuade them to resume lending. In return, the
law gives the Treasury the right to take ownership positions in banks,
including healthy ones. 

(OpenLeft)

Well fancy that, looks like they don't have to go back to Congress or the UN to just change their plan. Carte blanche to wave around all that money however seems fit. (Paulson's buddies at Goldman Sachs will no doubt be pleased, what with their impressive partying and late minute bonus handouts as  they were begging for government intervention). Kinda reminds me of all that Surge-y stuff a year-and-a-half ago, with Petraeus as the mythical hero, or how Mukasey had to be approved at Justice because he was just so smart and non-partisan, or how Alito was just so wise that he didn't answer any of those pesky questions because that's how an inscrutable oracle Justice-type does it, and of course the best one, Colin "Just Trust Me" Powell. Find the right point man to lead your charge, and the troops will just fall in line.

Like Obama. When the call went out to support the Authorized Use of Monetary Force, Barack was there, helping lead the charge, good for the full $700 billion. However Treasury's going to spend it, Obama'll make sure the money gets to them. Knowing full well the administration didn't have all its cards on the table, that the figure $700 billion was plucked out of thin air, that the "plan" was basically "give us lots of money and we'll figure out something", kind of like the plan going into Iraq. (Pssst - remember how that $700 billion was supposed to prop up the market and confidence? Which promptly fell on arrival of the news?)

In just under 4 weeks, we will likely elect Obama president, which seems certainly better than the more-and-more decrepit, clueless McCain (and 100 times better than his would-be successor Palin). But he will have been elected under one of the greater marketing shams of our time - the change that held no change, the foresight that held no special foresight, the "reaching across the aisle" that symbolized capitulation more than any real coming together and consensus and persuasion and epiphany. Obama and Palin are remarkably alike in one respect - they both have a penchant for biting the hand that feeds them, in paying more attention to their next boss, and not the one that brung them to the dance.

Obama is certainly not an empty suit. He is more something of a mystery, a man of many masters and none. In 3 months, he will find himself largely unconstrained - elected in what looks to be a rout, a solid majority in both houses, and in charge of the agenda. Will he be his own boss, or will it be his new friends in banking and finance, the Warren Buffets and Franklin Raines and other top dollar traders? Will Benjamin Bernanke come out and say we have enough money to do Universal Health Care the way Greenspan came out for Bush to say we could do surpluses *AND* a huge tax rebate? Well color me skeptical. Obama and Axelrod trained themselves at the knees of Mark Penn's niche marketing, and they will focus on the difference that makes a difference. And in times of economic crisis, that undoubtedly won't be you and me. We're last week's news. The new change is bigger than all of us. Hold on tight.