If the stock market crashes before the election, Romney

[rusty fender]

will surely win the Presidency; so, what can the Obama admin, and perhaps Bernanke, do to prevent the stock market from crashing?

And before some of you say that a crash won't happen before the election so why worry, many astute market observers say it could, including THOM HARTMANN.

[PoliticAverse]

1. Depends on whether you believe there really is a 'plunge protection team' or not... n/t

[scheming daemons]

2. Fundamentals are in place that it is VERY unlikely

Thom Hartmann, as he often is, is wrong.

[Capt. Obvious]

3. I read that in Thom Hartmann's book

[dmallind]

4. Crash how far? Even Romney can do math.

Let's say it drops to 10000 - an extremely unlikely case.

Romney: The Dow lost more than 3000 in the last year under Obama! He's incompetent!

Obama: When I took over it was 7949. That's a 25% increase in under 4 years. How well did the last Republican president do?

Romney: Ermm......

Romney's handlers would cut his mic if he were stupid enough to raise the Dow as a metric for this election under any even vaguely probable scenario.

[Safetykitten]

5. This will be the scenario.

The economy will do a cliff dive somehere in September or October. What will be floated out there will be a barrage of bailout ads by Romey that will say that we bailed out the banks one time, and Obama wants to do it again. Also his economic policies will be attacked for bringing us full circle to another 2007.

Not saying it's true, not saying it's correct, but people will believe it. Lots of people.

[DCKit]

6. Tell Wall St., the banksters and hedge fund kings that it means prison this time...

and they'll back off.

They got a free pass ONCE, they won't get it again.

[cbdo2007]

7. There won't be a stock market crash before the election. Don't buy into the fear.

The only reason anyone is saying there will be are those who want Romney to win and are putting fear into people. Any intelligent market watcher knows this.

[summerschild]

8. The Republicans plan another Debt Ceiling battle to rattle the market AGAIN

to hurt the economy and defeat Obama. I believe they also intend to use it as a chip to prevent the expiration of Bush tax cuts.

Sabotage is too kind a word. Treason is more appropriate, IMHO.

I just grabbed a quick Google reference, but everybody remembers this from our last go-round:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/25/debt-ceiling-stock-market_n_908351.html

U.S. stock market futures shuddered Monday, and Asian and European stocks dropped, as federal policymakers still had not come to an agreement to raise the nation's debt ceiling and avoid default. Investors shunned risky assets and moved money toward safety. The tremors, though relatively muted for now, suggest that anxiety about the ongoing stalemate in Washington has crept into markets worldwide, dampening economic prospects as the reliability of the world's most rock-solid credit has been called into doubt.

[rusty fender]

9. I totally agree with everyone who says that

the Repukes would like the stock market to crash, and that they'll do everything to make that happen, but what can a Prez do to prevent it from happening? I know and everyone here on DU knows that Obama would not be to blame for a crash, but the media, Repukes and whoever is left will blame him and it will cost him the election.

Behind the scenes bailouts before a bank is about to fall? Is this something that can be done without Congress' approval?