When Bush Speaks, Markets Shrug

George W. Bush tried to calm the markets once again yesterday, and once again, the markets responded by plunging. It was the 20th time in recent days that Bush has issued such proclamations, and every time “the market ignored him, and continued its downward plunge,” Dana Milbank writes in the Washington Post. Bush is saying the right things—albeit in his “characteristically clumsy” way—but “nobody seems to care.”

Maybe it’s because Iraq proved to be a weapon of mass destruction for Bush’s credibility, or because his approval rating is “now trading at pennies on the dollar.” Either way, markets have been less-than-thrilled that Bush is on the case. But rest assured, this crisis has the decider’s full attention, Milbank observes. After yesterday’s remarks, he promptly flew to Florida for a fundraiser. “He had some urgent work to do on the Republican Party's liquidity crisis.” (More financial crisis stories.)