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The vote was highlighted by the appearance of two senators who have become strangers to the halls of Congress. Both Barack Obama and John McCain left the campaign trail to return to their day jobs to cast a vote in support of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's bill. "The candidates find themselves in a vastly different political place than they were just five days ago," when they last met, noted ABC's John Berman, referring to Friday's debate in Mississippi.
Berman's colleague Jake Tapper listed the Senate amendments to the bailout package since its defeat in the House on Monday, "additions that Senate leaders hope will attract more support--not just here in the Senate where the bill is expected to pass--but in the House." The add-ons consisted of a package of tax breaks to make it "now more attractive to conservatives," meaning Republican ones, since they "make the bill less palatable to some fiscally conservative Democrats because the tax cuts are not paid for."
CBS' Bob Orr speculated that economic events since Monday--"shaky markets and persistent warnings that Wall Street's woes could soon cost Main Street jobs"--might be a bigger persuader for opponents of the package than the amendments. "Lawmakers have been getting an earful from their voters back home who say they have lost money this week in their 401(k)s and their pension funds and their 529s," NBC's Tom Costello commented, "and they are worried."
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