Comments on: Gerson Disgusted By Gerson’s Dream Candidates

By: jetan

jetan — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:15:12 +0000

To my mind, Gerson’s funniest passage occurs at the begining when he says, “A sitting president normally must accept the boring constraints of real-world choices. Campaigns can inhabit the utopia of their own ambitions”. I doubt that even Bush’s harshest critic would accuse him of feeling unduly constrained by realpolitik or of being insufficiently utopian.

By: Daniel Larison

Daniel Larison — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:56:55 +0000

Well, I hope you’re wrong. My guess is that the public will be annoyed that Bush is breaking into primetime programming to remind people of his irrelevance, and the market will be indifferent to what he says. As long as the market thinks something is happening to provide some kind of assistance, it won’t move much one way or the other until a bill comes up for a vote. Obviously, if they push out a bill that doesn’t pass and the whole process seems to stall, things could get ugly.

He is just going to insist on passage of the something very close to the Paulson proposal and he will be ignored, as people in Congress already have their own ideas about what they’re doing. I don’t think he’ll look panicked, just clueless and halting as usual. The most damage it might have on trading tomorrow is that it reminds everyone that Bush is still President, which we have all been working so hard to forget. My question: can his approval rating break below 15%? I think it can.

The market is watching what Congress does. Bush isn’t going to veto anything they send him, so he becomes a bit player in all of this. Now that McCain is doing his grandstanding, stop-the-campaign-to-save-America routine, he has assumed the de facto leadership role and the success or failure of negotiations on the Hill will now be tied to his decision to intervene in the process.

By: Adam01

Adam01 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:23:14 +0000

Have no fear Daniel: melodramatic twaddle is in ample supply at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Gerson or no Gerson.

Gut reaction: a drawn, pale, and panicked-looking President Bush addressing the nation induces a market panic tomorrow. Dow down by 500 by the closing bell.