Jonathan Martin from Politico:
While President Bush and Sen. McCain — not to mention House leaders — couldn’t reel in the House Republicans needed to pass the bailout, a key constituency over which Barack Obama has considerable sway also opposed the bill.
More members of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose heavily black districts include many of Obama’s most ardent supporters, opposed the bill than supported it.
Few of these members are in, or will ever have, tough re-elections.
Obama, it seems, could have helped deliver some of these votes if he had been more invested in the bill.
Please Jonathan, tell me why it is that Barack Obama has “considerably sway” in the Congressional Black Caucus? I’d really like you to elaborate in a way that doesn’t cost you your job.
For what it’s worth, Martin somehow fails to champion John McCain’s enormous success in securing a whopping zero votes from the Arizona delegation, with whom, you know, it might be reasonable to expect he has some sway. Of course, Martin doesn’t note this, because if he did, he’d probably have to point out that blacks are disproportinately likely foreclosure candidates and Arizona ranks 8th in foreclosures in the country and just maybe, these Representatives were seeking more foreclosure protection for their constituents and not disobeying the universal axiom of shared black conciousness.
In addition, it seems McCain had quite a bit of trouble rallying the troops in the Congressional White Caucus Republican Party, with whom John McCain claimed to have so much say he took credit for the bill’s passage this morning, before it kind of awkwardly failed.
So yesterday Mitt Romney referred to Obama as “well spoken.” Not the worst thing I’ve ever heard, but just the kind of thing you’d expect to hear from Judge Smails. Well, Georgia GOP Rep. 
