Weigel

DES MOINES, Iowa -- If you missed it, my story from the weekend about the Rick Perry-initiated day of prayer for economic relief is right here. There were more than 30,000 people in a stadium in Houston, asking God to forgive Americans for our trespasses, and praying for a leader to save us. It was really something.

We can only expect the prayers to up their volume today, as the markets re-open, and the effects of S&P's downgrade are felt. They're going to be bad, but how bad? No one knows. I ran into Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tex., at The Response, and the congressman who doubted that the truth was being told about potential downgrade said S&P's move might not be so bad, because the other two rating agencies hadn't moved. True in some cases, but there are firms that need certain amounts of AAA, not AA+, bonds on hand, and they'll have to start moving things around. How many? Who knows? But gold is up 2 percent today so far.