Yesterday’s gigantic news of the bailout bill’s failure was more about the House of Representatives than federal agencies– many lawmakers are more ideological than their party leaders and still others are in vulnerable seats and closely listening to constituents pan the bailout. Nonetheless, Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are wondering what they did wrong to sell the bailout and what to do next.

The Washington Post’s David Cho and Neil Irwin write that the Treasury and Fed are keeping their fingers crossed that the House will re-vote for the plan. In defense of Bernanke and Paulson, they were already spending billions on taxpayer money bailing out individual companies and sought a more democratic process of approval for a mega-bailout. Now it might be a return to their earlier strategy.

Paulson has perhaps not slept for the past 10 days. That said, he or Bernanke or somebody at the White House needed to have done a better job explaining why a bailout is necessary for low-and-medium-income people. The story this morning is the politics and culture of the House, but its also about Paulson’s hurry-hurry strategy backfiring badly.-MB

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