The implications

1. The republicans are having a collective nervous breakdown. On NPR they had a quote from one Republican congressman talking about "being true to the ideology of the free market." This on the day that many Americans lost much of their life savings, I can imagine the middle fingers extending all over America. The modern GOP will become spoken of in the same breath as Herbert Hoover. I think the odds are 50-50 that they survive without a third-party challenge on the far right.

2. My general operating theory about American is that there is about 25% of the country that is batshit insane (Bush's approval ratings are still at that level). This 25% will continue to drift further into a fascist, christianist fantasy. Even as Obama could potentially bring together the rest of the country, this 25% will be enraged by his intelligence, his name, his color, his liberal-ness, his similarities with the anti-christ, etc. If they find the right leader, a Limbaugh-esque politician, they could become truly a danger to the world. I do not say this for the sake of hyperbole, I truly believe in the possibility if things get bad enough.

3. How many banks will we have left standing at the end of this thing? One, two, three? Get out your gameboards kids, its time to play Monopoly!

4. The democrats have so far played this about as well as they can. I hope they keep it up.

5. Obama will soon, if he is not already, be the most trusted politician in America--if not the only trusted politician in America. I agree with the Chronicler: Obama will be president and we are extremely lucky to have a man of his caliber right now. At a time, when it feels like America is splintering into a thousand factions that have lost trust in each other, we have before us a man who has said, and I believe him, that "bringing people together is in his DNA." Literally.