It was a trap

Rovian? Machiavellian? Bushist?

Politics at its worst . . . .

The goal: Make the Democrats look like the bad guys so that the Republicans could pull out a win in November and win even better in 2010.

The tactic: get the Dems to pass the bail out only to have it structured to fail.

The strategy: Set up the bill to look bi-partisan by sending it from the White House and encouraging the moderate Republicans in Congress to work with the Democrats.

The sting: leave two poison pills in the bill (no oversite and putting the Secretary of the Treasury in charge). Then leave the key Republican leadership out of the discussions so they could claim no responsibility for the bill.

The set up: with some deft trades by wealthy Republicans, encourage market swings on Wall Street so that the Dow becomes the bellwether of the backdrop which appears to show the positive and negative responses to various news about work on the bill.

Serendipity: Disrupting the first presidential nominee debate can become an excuse to change the subject of the latest news pattern. It could make it appear that the President wanted to listen to "both sides" with Sens. McCain and Obama at his photo-op table with a handful of Congressional leaders but give cover to Sen. McCain's distance from the Senate of the past two years. And if the Democrats pass the bill, it could be voted against by Sen. McCain who could claim to have tried to save the country from a legislative failure. And the disruption to the debates could mean the dropping of the vice-presidential debate or even one or more of the presidential debates.

Results: If the President's bill is passed, the Dems take the fall for its failure.

If the Dems change the bill, the Dems take the fall for being "partisan."

If it takes awhile for the bill to be shaped, the Dems are held up from campaigning which helps the Repubs who are facing defeat but would now have something to use against the Dems.

If the Dems stop work on the bill because of having insufficient time to do it right, they can then be castigated for not staying in Washington to finish the job. And McCain might gain points in a close race by running against a "do-nothing Congress." Congress does, after all, have a rating lower in the eyes of the public than President Bush!

If the market does collapse (free market Repubs would call it a "market correction" even if it was a Depression!), that would also be laid at the Dems feet.

IT'S A TRAP, BABY!

Is there a way out?

If Congressional Democrats work to prepare a bill that strengthens the credit markets based on models that have worked in the past in Sweden, Japan, and the US, and sell it to the people through Sen. Obama and Sen. Chris Dodd as well as other leadership, and don't panic (the President used some "panic" terms in his statement to the country the other night), they will do better no matter how it is framed by the Republicans.

It will help if Former President Bill Clinton is campaigning all over the country and giving the Congressional Dems a chance to finish the bill, along with ads saying where the Democratic Party Congressmen and women are (the Repubs will tend to feel, as a minority anyway, that they aren't needed in Washington so they can go campaign).

Senators Obama, Dodd, et al, CALL THE BLUFF!

Take your time and do it right.

Including doing all the debates, with or without the Repubs.