Republican presidential nominee John McCain returns to the trail today after a dramatic but rocky four-day detour that upended his campaign, upset supporters and gave new ammunition to critics who question his judgment.
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After arriving in Mississippi, he decided to return to the capital immediately after the debate. His late-night flight landed at 3:15 a.m. Saturday. Later that day, he made 17 phone calls from his campaign office to White House and congressional leaders, but did not take part in the late-night negotiations that finally hammered out the proposed accord.
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McCain also defended his decision to become so personally involved in the bailout debate. “I did the best that I could,” he said. “I came back because I wasn’t going to phone it in.”

Continued McCain, “But as it turned out, the best I could do was literally to phone it in.”

Tags: politics, john mccain, bailout, economics, phoning it in

In the Roosevelt Room after the session, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Ms. Pelosi not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.

“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, according to someone who observed the exchange. She went on: “It’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.”

Mr. Paulson sighed. “I know. I know.”

Office of the Press Secretary
September 25, 2008
PRIVATE CONSULTATION AMONG DEMOCRATS DURING RECESS FOLLOWING REPUBLICAN BAILOUT COUNTERPROPOSAL
THE ROOSEVELT ROOM
Partial Transcript.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAJORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI (D-CA.) [unintelligible]
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID (D-NV.) No, that was, that was fine, I thought
PELOSI I just feel like that could have been wittier.
REID [unintelligible]
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA (D-IL.) It was—I would say that was reasonably witty
REID It was very witty, I thought
PELOSI I didn’t want to say, you know, “Why, Hank, you know I’m a married woman.” I was pretty sure that wasn’t the thing to say.
OBAMA No, I don’t believe that would have gone over well.
PELOSI Yeah.
REID Yeah, it’d be like, “Hey, did you remember I was a woman?  Because I’m a woman.”
OBAMA There’d be a certain, um
REID “With great legs.”
PELOSI Yeah.  Yeah.
REID You did perfectly fine.
PELOSI [unintelligible]
REID I guess another option would have been, “I now dub you Sir Hank!” And touch him on the head with, with like an umbrella.
OBAMA [unintelligible]
REID “Sir Hank of the Bailout of, of Lehmania.”
PELOSI Too obvious.
REID You know what, I just don’t have it today.
OBAMA Alternatively, you could have said, “Hank, if you’re going to sell out your economic beliefs, and additionally ask me to sell out mine, along with the trust of those who appointed us to our respective positions—in my case a majority of Americans, in your case the President of the United States—all due to some last-minute Republican reneging—then you could at least go down on both knees.”
REID [unintelligible]
PELOSI That’s good.  That’s better than mine.  I knew there was a better one.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH I think it’s too bulky.
REID (agitated) Mr. President, you have to stop listening in on our huddles.

Tags: politics, barack obama, george w. bush, bailout, nancy pelosi, henry paulson, sir hank of the bailout of lehmania, harry reid, fake transcripts

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., asked Bernanke how he and Paulson came up with the $700 billion figure.

“It’s not science to figure out how much is going to be needed to stabilize the firms and the markets,” Bernanke said. “But there are various metrics one can use.”

NON-SCIENCE-HAVING BAILOUT METRICS: A PARTIAL LIST
by Ben Bernanke

Vodun Metric
Methodology: Daubed in the blood of their enemies, economists sacrifice goats to Nana Buluku, the all-powerful deity at the center of the complex West African cosmology known as Vodun; Vodun priest then interprets shapes drawn in a mud hillock
Resulting Bailout Figure: The dollar value of an unspecified quantity of plantains

Ben Bernanke’s Nine-Year-Old Son And Some Finger Paints Metric
Methodology: Economist’s nine-year-old son is given some finger paints and encouraged to paint any number at all
Resulting Bailout Figure: A house with a chimney, next to what appear to be two levitating dogs

Consultation of Leading Economists Metric
Methodology: Economists convene and, using economics, the formal study of how markets work, form a consensus on what bailout figure would be sufficient to stabilize markets
Resulting Bailout Fi
too much science!!! -ben

How Much Money Would Be Awesome To Have Metric
Methodology: Economists convene and determine how much money would be awesome to have
Resulting Bailout Figure: Seven hundred billion dollars

Tags: economics, bailout, ben bernanke, henry paulson, vodun, metrics, how much money would be awesome to have