The federal government has switched gears in its struggle to salve the crippling credit hangover sucking the life out of the economy. While we've been told America is paying a long overdue price for its happy-days-will-never-end credit binge, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wants to send government money at credit card firms to, ah, free up credit for consumers.

Here's a question for taxpayers: How many times should they have to ride to the rescue of U.S. automakers?

You hear conservatives saying the voters didn't reject conservative principles in this election, they rejected a Bush administration and its congressional allies who had rejected conservative principles.

John McCain never had a chance. From the start, the Republican brand anchored him to an unpopular president and unpopular war. His age, 72, tied him to the past and raised questions about his future as a president. Ironically, the success of the surge he pushed for Iraq deflated the war and national security as issues that played to his strength. The conviction of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens reminded voters of the sorry record of GOP congressional scandals. Finally, the mortgage meltdown delivered the coup de grace to McCain's hopes.

For the first time in a long time gas prices have dipped below three bucks a gallon. Falling fuel prices certainly are good news, so long as they don't mislead us into thinking for even a minute that any urgency has gone out of the pressing need for this country to seize control of its energy future.

The problem with a thin resume like Barack Obama's is that it causes voters to look into all the nooks and crannies of a candidate's life for clues about the qualities he would bring to office. That's why in the waning days of this long contest, undecided voters might want to focus on a radio interview Obama gave in 2001 and a dinner he attended in 2003. One raises a red flag about his political philosophy while the other brings the issue of Israel into the campaign.

Anyone seeking a clue about what Washington might be like should the Democrats win the White House, command a filibuster-proof Senate and increase their already significant majority in the House need look no further than the recent experience of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The Wall Street Journal-NBC and Washington Post-ABC polls have Barack Obama trouncing John McCain by 11 points, but a new AP survey has them in a dead heat at 44 percent to 43 percent. In the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, the Big Ten Battleground Poll has Obama up 11 points. Yet, the Obama campaign's own polling has him ahead by just 2 points, and Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell is making no secret that he's nervous about Obama's prospects in his state.

The government's response to the mortgage meltdown has been to throw dollars at it, and at some of the largest financial institutions in America. Perhaps that's a natural reaction to a financial crisis. Still, the picture of Washington -- and a Republican administration to boot -- rushing to rescue people and businesses from bad investments made in a free market sticks in the craw of fiscal conservatives.