Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

The genesis of the initial TARP funding wasn't as you described it, Taller.

The initial $750 TARP was requested by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen in a meeting with President Bush , who later described the meeting as "shocking". Paulsen described a frozen banking system and the probability of another Great Depression. President Bush approved Paulsen's request and asked Congress to authorize the expenditure, which was described in a simple three-page memo from Paulsen. The plan was then debated for about 5-6 days by Congress before the bill authorizing it was passed. That all occurred in the week before the final Presidential debate. Both candidates were campaigning and didn't return to Washington until a day or two before the final vote. They then left Washington to conduct the debate. Neither then Senators McCain or Obama were particularly prominent in supporting or rejecting the bill, saying little more than that something needed to be done.

Your comment that President Obama requested the TARP authorization before he took office is not only incorrect, but impossible. At the time the legislation was passed, the election hadn't even been held.