Some morning optimism in how the print media previewed the day Congress was to vote.

The Chicago Tribune certainly was not predicting a problem

And the Wall Street Journal seemed to be taking the vote for granted.

It was saving the Wachovia Bank as the day’s major story

Steven Pearlstein at The Washington Post was not contemplating anything but the passage of the legislation:

But over at the New York Times they were a little more cautious

And how right the headline was.

At 2.24pm Washington time (4.24am in eastern Australia) the NY Times internet home page gave the verdict

And not much later even the hopeful note about another vote being planned was gone

And finally the consequences — the Black Monday of 2008