Seriously, even, say, $15-20k for each household earning under $250k a year would float most people's mortgage payments for a year, or at least help them to pay mortgage plus food and gas bills.  For anyone without a mortgage, it's money to pay down debt, etc.  

The thing is, the economy runs on a "Tinkerbell theory."  It exists so long as we believe in it.  There's value only if we all agree something has that value.  Just suggesting the idea of a bailout has prompted a partial market recovery.  It's a mind problem, not really an asset problem.  Some infusion of money somewhere is going to help with this mind problem.

Rather than buying worthless mortgages, why not help people pay them?  It actually accomplishes something better than the bailout would - the mortgages are real assets again, because people can pay them.  Stops the free fall, home prices could begin to rebound.  It's a better idea than saddling us all with a bunch of defaulting mortgages.

It seems to me that if McCain votes for this bailout he's got bigger problems than merely a bit of grandstanding.  The back-story to this whole issue is that the US public, rightly or wrongly, are apparently dead set against it, especially his 'base.'  The '08 Republicans are the recalcitrants in this agreement and with good reason, McCain faces the same challenges.  It is ironic that the Congressional Democrats are the ones who seem to understand the necessity of this package irrespective of electoral considerations and the awesome risk to our aspirations is that the Republicans will somehow succeed in tying this albatross around our necks, which is central to McCain's current strategy.

Tough choices all 'round, not least of which for Obama's staff who have to negotiate a difficult path between good governance and economic prudence on the one hand and not having the million-pound shithammer of public outrage fall squarely on their candidate.  McCain, free from considerations of propriety is playing fast and loose with the hot potato of public opinion and represents a genuine, high-risk threat to us right at the moment.  Let's hope that Congressional Democrats and Obama have a cunning plan to achieve the essential national objective of economic recovery without committing assisted electoral suicide.