Barack Obama’s win was undoubtedly a proud moment for all Americans, regardless of where you may fall on the political spectrum. The Democratic wins for control of both the executive and legislative branches are a rebuke of the previous years of Republican control. However, Lee Blum urges us to remember that Obama was elected not only as the “change” candidate, but as the pragmatic candidate. And in spite of the Democratic wins, this country is not really as liberal as many on the extreme left may believe.

After a week of tumult on Wall Street and Washington, the House moved toward a final vote Friday on a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, an unprecedented government intervention designed to steady an economy on the brink.

After one spectacular failure, the $700 billion financial industry bailout found a second life Wednesday, winning lopsided passage in the Senate and gaining ground in the House, where Republicans opposition softened.

Top congressional and White House officials, stunned when the House rejected a massive rescue plan for the nation's economy, scrambled to structure a new bailout proposal that would attract reluctant lawmakers and still soothe the unnerved financial markets.

The House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue package, ignoring urgent pleas from President Bush and bipartisan congressional leaders to quickly bail out the staggering financial industry.

Congressional leaders and the Bush administration have reached a tentative deal on a bailout of imperiled financial markets that could cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have been crisscrossing Capitol Hill in recent days, shuttling between public hearings on the proposal and private meetings with lawmakers, to sell the proposal. Obama and McCain are calling for a bipartisan effort to deal with the crisis, little more than five weeks before national elections in which the economy has emerged as the dominant theme.