Paulson, Bernanke and the Road Through Bailout Hell

Why are we still wondering about the status of the Mother of All Bailouts—a full week after the financial world was supposed to end—if it didn't happen? Well, maybe Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke need to listen to more country music. As the lyrics to a hit from a couple of years ago say, "If you're going through hell, keep on going.... You might get out before the devil even knows you're there."

Clearly, those guys, as well as President Bush, should have moved even faster and harder on all this. Now the "freak show" of lobbyists, pundits, bloggers, media, and interest groups have caught up to them. Maybe the key error was not having the president address the country last Friday with a fire-and-brimstone, wrath-of-God speech about what would happen to the economy if a bill was not passed almost immediately. And he should have used the D-word not just the R-word when painting his scary picture. He didn't and here we are.