Henry Paulson

It’s enough to make your head spin. Seems like every time we turn around, someone’s proposing another multi-hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out this, shore up that or rebuild something or other. Remember in the distant past of September, when the $700 billion rescue plan shocked everyone from Wall Street to Main Street? That was just the beginning.

All of the political leaders blessed the deal, but the House of Representatives spit it out anyway. The Wall Street bailout is so odious to public opinion, the “people’s house” rejected it, 228-205. The fever chart in Wall Street — better known as the stock market — swooned instantly, with the Dow falling 700 points. The political bedlam in Washington is as real as it gets.

As the presidential campaign heats up, the candidates are sure to intensify their differences on national security, the Iraq war and tax relief for the middle class, and they’ll no doubt tear into each other’s positions during the coming debates. But, based on the contest so far, don’t look for either Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain to take on the biggest, most troublesome economic problem facing many American families and financial institutions — the credit crunch.