comMITTed to Romney!

As I was composing this post, I had Britt Hume on and I just heard Charles Krauthammer ( whose opinion I respect very much ) say that the new version of the financial system rescue plan is loaded with pork. Earmarks, to be really specific. Citizen’s savings are being wiped out, the unemployment lines are lengthening, we have seen several banks runs ( IndyMac, WaMu, etc. ) and these despicable pork barrellers are STILL AT IT!

If our readers see the names of any of their Congressional delegation involved in this, please do yourselves and your country a huge favor and throw these bums out of office.

This is the final straw. It is abundantly clear that these people will not stop. Not now, not ever. We need to purge Capital Hill. Maybe we need to reject this bill again. Then we will try one last time and this time we will tell these people to craft a basic rescue package, not a Christmas tree with stacks of presents for the special interest groups. If they come back with another sausage like the first two, maybe we will allow the markets to work their way out of this on their own. Maybe we are tired of being looted by this shameful collection of misfits and liars.

~~John Cronin~~

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/obama-opens-lead-three-key/story.aspx?guid={6FFE81CF-41D7-45E1-B9A2-1F32355D4B0B}

By Russ Britt, MarketWatch

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — The economic crisis and a well-received debate performance have given presidential candidate Barack Obama a sizable lead in the three critical swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, according to a new poll Wednesday.

Obama now has the backing of at least 50% of the voters in all three states, Quinnipiac University said, with the senator from Illinois surging 15 points in Florida — ground zero in the tight 2000 election — in the relatively short span of 20 days. In the Sunshine State, Obama was down 7 points to Republican John McCain and now is up by 8.

The Democratic candidate also has widened his lead in Pennsylvania to 15 points and 8 in Ohio. Obama has gained ground somewhat due to his performance in Friday’s debate with McCain, but current economic woes have contributed most to his gains.

“Sen. Obama has had a very good couple of weeks,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac’s Polling Institute. “Frankly, what is bad for the American economy is good for Sen. Obama.”

The Quinnipiac findings are critical in that the three states are considered essential for either candidate if they are to pull out a victory on Nov. 4. They are the biggest of the swing states, each with more than 20 electoral votes — Florida has 27, Pennsylvania holds 21 and Ohio 20.

In national polls, Obama is getting a 6- to 8-point advantage, and Brown said the Democrat is beginning to pull away to the point where McCain may find it too challenging to catch up. The only candidate to win after being behind by several points leading up to the election was Ronald Reagan against Jimmy Carter in 1980, but there weren’t as many polls conducted back then. Further, McCain’s deficit is a little larger than Reagan’s was.

McCain officials maintain the election is still too close to call.

“Virtually every poll reflects this election as very competitive and too close to call,” McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement. “As Americans get closer to voting, they’ll see the obvious problem with voting for a candidate who wants to spend more money, take more taxes and turn the White House into an on-the-job training program.”

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J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has, with the government’s help, essentially saved the banking system from collapse. I know that sounds like an overly dramatic claim, but the mood on the floor of the NYSE this morning was approaching panic. If the two parties had not moved when they did, there might have been a widespread sell off in the market this morning. The financial stocks were off sharply in pre-market quotes and if the depositors of WaMu got a whiff of panic coming from the Street, any resulting run on WaMu could have set off something we haven’t seen in this country since 1932. A full fledged run on the banks and a resulting “bank holiday” where the banks are closed while the government attempts to restore liquidity to the system.

As it stands at 9 AM CT, the Dow is off a bit, but much more importantly, the FDIC did not have to take the hit on WaMu’s collapse. J.P. Morgan Chase’s rescue prevented that.

~~John Cronin~~

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122238415586576687.html

In what is by far the largest bank failure in U.S. history, federal regulators seized Washington Mutual Inc. and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

The collapse of the Seattle thrift, which was triggered by a wave of deposit withdrawals, marks a new low point in the country’s financial crisis. But the deal, as constructed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., could hold some glimmers of hope for the beleaguered banking system because it averts any hit to the bank-insurance fund.

Instead, J.P. Morgan agreed to pay $1.9 billion to the government for WaMu’s banking operations and will assume the loan portfolio of the thrift, which has $307 billion in assets. The full cost to J.P. Morgan will be much higher, because it plans to write down about $31 billion of the bad loans and raise $8 billion in new capital. All WaMu depositors will have access to their cash, but holders of more than $30 billion in debt and preferred stock will likely see little if any recovery.

The deal will vault J.P. Morgan into first place in nationwide deposits and greatly expand its franchise.

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