You Think I Give a Damn About a Grammy?

I may talk a good game, but I actually know very little about the economy and why it seems to be shutting down right now. So, instead of writing about what I think is happening, I think it may be more useful to ask questions. Good idea, right? Check out the first installment here and the second one over here.

The bailout lost, mainly, because a large majority of House Republicans voted against it. Did the Repubs vote against this on purely rhetorical grounds? Are they afraid that this will turn the country into France? Or were there more deep-seated issues at work?

A good amount of House Democrats voted against it, too, including liberals like Jose Serrano of New York and Donald Payne of New Jersey. Were their reasons that they voted against it the same as those of the Republicans?

Does anyone in power really think that this is as simple as, "We can't bail out Wall Street"? Are there members of Congress who don't realize how much is at stake?

Technically, are we in a recession yet? At what point, technically, does a recession turn into a depression?

At what point does it become a capital D Depression? Is there any such thing as a lower case d depression? Is every depression or Depression a Great one?

At what point do we have to wait on line for bread?

Is judging the economy by watching the Dow Jones fluctuate akin to judging political candidates by their character and how they run their campaign?

Put another way, a disproportionate amount of attention has been paid to what kind of people Obama and McCain are and too much discussion has been focused on the strategy of their campaign. More so than their actual platforms and political ideology. This is counter-productive and simplistic. Is saying that the economy sucks because the stock dropped 777 points today also counter-productive or simplistic in a similar style over substance way of looking at things?

Bad example. Of course, the economy sucks today. But it does it suck if it drops 50 points? 100 points? 200? What the hell do I mean by "sucks"? Should the "?" in the previous sentence also have been enclosed in quotation marks?

How much should the candidates be doing right now? Rather, how much should Obama be doing? Obviously, McCain doesn't have much to do if suspends his campaign to fix the economy and the economy gets dramatically worse. He's kind of been proven to be irrelevant. Is that a simplistic and overly cynical way of looking at it?

So, is it more important for Obama to help out in Washington or to get elected? Obviously, we have to believe that he's influential in D.C. if we're going to vote for him, right?

Speaking of irrelevance, is Bush, right now, the most irrelevant president ever? Is there anyone in Washington who cares about anything that he has to say? Is there anyone in the world that cares about what he has to say? Is he the most irrelevant major country world leader ever, too? Do I actually feel bad for the sorry bastard? Will he be the first president to ever get speaking engagements purely out of pity?