Well, my prediction of a market jump on Tuesday was not only wrong, it was "dead cat bounce" wrong, as the markets plunged yesterday. The drop, it seems to me, was based on the very real numbers that continue to show us headed into a recession, probably a deep one.

So, after last night's debate, does John McCain have any chance to win? Dick Morris and Eileen McGan think so, and they base their opinion on "Joe the Plumber".

The continued invocation of Joe the Plumber brought a populist edge to the tax issue that it has lacked since Ronald Reagan.

Strategically, every debate is a chance to ratify the issues that will dominate the weeks that follow. McCain and Obama both made taxes and spending the key issues of the future. With Obama opposing a spending freeze and billing it as a hatchet as opposed to a scalpel, McCain was able to push the Democrat into an uncomfortable position.

McCain has now established the tax issue in a way he has not been able to do so far in the contest. Now he can widen the gap between the campaigns on this key issue. If the Republicans concentrate their campaign on the key issue of taxes and abandon the other lines of attack, they can use the lines developed in this debate to do better and better as Election Day nears.

I agree. The GOP's only hope is to raise the specter of "tax and spend" Democrats controlling all the branches of government and using their power to socialize our economy. This will fire up the base and might bring some of the small government independents over to their side. Will it be enough? I hope so, but I am not optimistic. What, then, to expect if McCain loses?

Mona Charen examines the consequences of an Obama/Pelosi/Reid regime.

One Democrat celebrates the thought of a political realignment and a new "New Deal".

On the other side, an advisor to Ron Paul's campaign calls on us to not blame capitalism for our recent woes, rather to see the culprit as a meddlesome government.

The New York Times has assembled four op-ed pieces from Europe, examining how the financial crisis has impacted people in Iceland, Ireland, England and Germany. They all make good reading.