I watched the clip from Townhall, what McCain says here is true - people were yelling about ACORN during every pause. He finally gratifies them with a little outrage near the end.

Note his preface to those comments, though: "We've got to act together because all of us are Americans first." I get the sense Maverick's not entirely thrilled with the tone these events have taken.

The technical definition of a crash is a precipitous decline of 20 percent. That's how far the Dow Jones industrial average has plunged in the last seven trading days. Markets around the world have followed suit, guilty of the same over-leveraging and exposed to many of the same bad bets. This is what a global bear market feels like.

Ironically, the $700 billion TARP plan seems to be perpetuating the freeze in the credit markets rather than thawing it. That's one reason Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is now talking about doing what the British have done, which is make direct investments in big banks in return for equity stakes for the taxpayer.

This is not just a market event. This is impacting on the "real economy" -- the one we live and work in -- and will grow deeper the longer the crisis goes on! The Wall Street Journal estimates today that investors have lost $8.4 trillion in wealth in the past year. We are already seeing the consequences of that. As consumers hunker down, consumer companies will suffer. Look no further than General Motors.