This whole bailout bill thing was a CYA-let’s-get-Obama-elected ruse, and it worked!

Let me give some background info here: I’m no fan of the bailout in any way. I was afraid that Paulson, Bernanke, and Bush had sufficiently built up the panic that the Wall St. had only held on waiting for their buddies to bail them out.  If the bill failed, I was afraid the bottom would fall out.  It hasn’t, yet.  I hope it only turns into maybe a 10% correction.

That said, I think Pelosi orchestrated this whole thing to fail.  McCain was being set up to be the semi-hero of this bill.  While the MSM was largely ignoring his role, several blogs and magazines noted the credit given to him by Boehner for getting this thing moving in a direction that the House GOP could support.  If it passed, McCain could take some of the credit, as he already had been with the much-used line that Obama was “phoning it in.”

Pelosi couldn’t let that happen. 

The tone in closed-door meetings between the Ds and Rs became cordial near the end to get a bipartisan bill drafted, according to Boehner’s speech today.  Opposition to the bill among constituents was falling, but not enough to make the bill palatable to many voters in November (remember, ALL of these people are up for election, and not all are safe). 

The Republicans were in the public eye to deliver the votes, with the 100 vote requirement being bandied about the news.  Boehner, I think, worked VERY hard to change the minds of some Republicans.  Some votes were very tenuous, and Pelosi knew this.  And she saw an opportunity, a very BIG opportunity. 

Pelosi rushed this bill to a vote.  The Senate was giving their members until Wednesday, and some House members complained they did not have enough time to study all the nuances and effects of the provisions in the bill.  So here’s how I think the whole thing went down.

Boehner reported to her that he had enough votes, but barely.  Pelosi told her politically-troubled members not to vote for the bill if they thought it would affect reelection chances.  After counting her votes, she knew the bill would still pass.  So, she made the speech.  And while some Republicans were voting “yes” because they believed the bill was needed, some did it just because of Boehner’s almost emotional plea to support it.  And Pelosi’s speech was enough to cut those heart strings that Boehner tugged over to the “yes” side.

The vote came in, and the Republicans, oh so predictibly, got to the closest microphone to beat the Dems to the partisan-blaming punch.  But instead of keeping the focus on blaming Pelosi and Obama for not delivering the Dems (they mentioned it in passing), they cried about Pelosi’s partisan speech.  That HAD to happen in order to make Pelosi’s plan work.  Once the Republicans did their boo-hooing, Pelosi and Frank ran to the first microphone to claim that Republicans put their fragile feelings before the American people.

The icing on the cake was when McCain went to the microphone and once again tied himself to this bill, a bill that failed.  He blamed partisanship again all the while saying that it wasn’t time to “fix the blame.”  Ugh!  He fell right into Pelosi’s trap.

The market fell 777 points.  Pelosi adjourned the House until Thursday for observance of Jewish holidays, allowing the DOW to fall even more, causing more panic.  Pelosi is hoping it will affect more Americans, and they will change their minds and support he bill, giving more Democrats cover to vote for the bill. 

And guess who is going to show up on Thursday to rally the troops and save the day?  Obama.  He will show up at the House, without as much fanfare as McCain, and he and Pelosi will work on the pork-laden bill we had before McCain rode into town.  It will get put to a vote on Thursday.  The Republicans will rail against it, but the Democrats will be able to pass it almost alone because the situation with the DOW will be dire, and Obama will be there to bring them under his spell.

The new bill will pass, but it will be full of the stuff that was in there before.  Obama will be able to take credit for rallying the Dems, and McCain will be chided for not being able to bring the Republicans together for the first vote and letting more credit dry up, old people loose their savings, and our economy tank in a few days.

What won’t be reported is that Obama didn’t rally any of his Dems to make this bill pass the first time, and he didn’t even take a stance on the bill itself.  He did phone it in, and Pelosi played the game.  He’s going to win because of this fiasco, and we’ll have Pelosi to thank for it.

Update: I might be on to something.  Hot Air mentions that most of the politically-safe Congressional Black Caucus (Obama is a proud member) voted no on the bill.  Karl Rove tells John Gibson on his radio show how Pelosi had lots of minions that owed their positions to her yet voted no.  Hmmm.  Those votes should have been easy to capture by the two of them with a little finessing.

Update II: While the NYT praises Obama for supposedly staying “above the fray” and maintaining a “steady demeanor” during this crisis, they also barely mentioned this little nugget — Obama didn’t reach out to any House Dems poised to vote no.  Sounds like Obama tried to get this bill passed as hard as Bill (Clinton) has tried to get Obama elected.