But imagine this scenario: What if the GOP freshmen who believed the August 2nd deadline was simply arbitrary had scuttled a debt deal?

It seems very obvious to me that Republicans would have been (wrongly) blamed for the Dow drop and the S&P downgrade — and the many legitimate tea party ideas that might help move the country forward would have been (wrongly) discredited.

(I know some people will blame Republicans no matter what, but it would have been so much easier for average Americans to wrongly assume they were to blame had this scenario played out.)