A new era, a game-changing event

We are suddenly in a new era.
In the old era, we tolerated politicians who served themselves while screwing us. Now, infuriated by the mortgage bailout fiasco in Washington, we are ready to kick ass.
Fifty-nine percent of Americans sampled by Rasmussen Reports would like to see all 535 members of Congress thrown out.

Even if we bat 1,000 in each election, this will take six years. IF we really tried, we could pick off at least 435 in November. That's a start.

There will never be a better time for John McCain to play the best card he has been dealt - the one that's up his sleeve.

McCain, 73, is an incumbent senator who voted for the bailout. Obviously, he would be on the target list of the angry voters if he were running for reelection. But he is running for president, and his opponent is Barack Obama, also an incumbent senator who voted for the bailout
The shrapnel that will be unleashed by the public's fury can be expected to hit both candidates.

The shift in the public's attitude means the election game has changed. But McCain now has an advantage, and it could be decisive. If he were to pledge to step aside after serving one term, the door would be open for his ticket-mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to become the first female major-party candidate for president in American history.

She is popular. Alone amng the four major party candidates for the White House, she is untainted by the mortgage controversy.

The possibility that she might break the glass ceiling in just four years would not be lost on conservative, blue collar Democrats, the core of 18 million who voted for Hillary Clinton during the primaries. About 6 million of those voters are opposed to Barack Obama, according to polls, and may be available to McCain-Palin. What's more, Clinton and the Republican ticket-mates have been pointedly exchanging pleasantries for several weeks, suggesting that a future convergence might be in the works.

Clinton, after all, stood to become the first female major-party candidate for president until Obama pushed her aside.

The promise of a one-term McCain presidency also might be inviting to millions of other women - whether Democrats, Republicans or independents - who have longed for, and worked for, the day when one of their own would inhabit the Oval Office.

Here's a hint of the potential payoff for McCain: The Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women has endorsed Palin, breaking with feminist orthodoxy.
"America, this is what a feminist looks like," Chapter President Shelly Mandel said of Palin.

Even if McCain declines to limit his potential White House tenure, Congress's vote on the bailout appears to have been a game-changing event, as suggested by the public's throw-the-bums-out attitude.

It was Democrats who distorted the housing market by requiring lenders to offer low-interest mortgages to borrowers who would have been ineligible, or subject to higher rates, under previous standards.

It was Democrats who inflated the housing market by laying the basis for chain mortgage transactions in which original lenders sold their paper to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which bundled and sold the mortgages to investment banks, which bundled the bundles and sold them again.
These transaction chains attracted foreign investors and inflated the housing market, creating the bubble that burst this year

It was primarily Democrats who promoted and benefited from Fannie and Freddie, which played key roles in those chains of mortgage transactions.

The question is, will Republicans be able to make that case to voters? They have a big hurdle to overcome. After all, it was the Bush White House that originally proposed the bailout. The House and Senate only massaged it.

Ultimately, the voters will have to decide what they hate most:
The self-serving social engineeering that produced the mess?
Or the questionable actions the White House and Congress took to deal with the mess?