Guest economists on televised news programs, the nation’s top financial officials, and political leaders last week told America the country faces a “once a century” financial crisis.

Americans are scared, furious, enraged. They’re looking for someone to blame – and not just the financial giants on Wall Street.

The public essentially delivered a vote of no confidence on Washington’s political class when constituents flooded Congress with angry calls about the bailout plan, which then failed in the House, causing the stock market to plunge 770 points. (A revised version of the plan subsequently passed the Senate, but at the time of this writing, the House had yet to vote on it.)

The crisis altered the political landscape. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama edged ahead in polls and Republican John McCain appeared confused about what to do. On Thursday, the McCain campaign pulled out of Michigan, a “blue state” he thought he could win and this summer described as critical to his electoral college strategy. Michigan was hit first and hard by the economic downturn and the economic distress is turning a lot of blue collar voters, thought to be cool toward Obama, back to the Democratic nominee.

In Kentucky, two successive polls – WHAS-TV/SurveyUSA and The Courier-Journal's Bluegrass Poll – came up with surprising and nearly identical results: Mitch McConnell’s lead over Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford in the U.S. Senate race had disappeared.

It’s the economy, stupid.

McConnell, as Republican Senate Leader, is tied to an unpopular, lame duck president. His party and president are blamed by many for the economy which requires massive government intervention, possibly to avert a depression but which is unlikely to prevent a deep recession, according to economists. It’s a bad time to be an incumbent, an especially bad time to be a Republican incumbent.

On top of that, McConnell was trapped in Washington trying to pass the rescue plan – and tied to it while many voters are outraged it will bail out financial firms and executives who made millions while their neighbors face foreclosure or job layoffs.

So what did Lunsford do? He ran a recycled biographical ad, addressed a Lexington group about women’s issues (a demographic group he should win anyway) and went on the defensive after a McConnell ad hit him on another of his health care firms and its alleged mistreatment of veterans. Not a word about the financial crisis, the bailout plan or trying to assign McConnell responsibility for both.

With McConnell trapped in Washington, pictured grim faced on nightly news programs as the bailout seemed to fall apart and the stock market plummeted, Lunsford had Kentucky to himself. He could have traveled the state, holding press conferences from Paducah to Pikeville to attack the unpopular plan and pound on McConnell. Local media who often feel ignored by candidates would have flocked to those stops, eager to localize the biggest national story of the year. He could have run a commercial holding McConnell’s feet to the ire of voters over the bailout.

Instead, McConnell beat him to the punch with the ad on health care and veterans – which opened with the line: “Bruce Lunsford got rich the Wall Street way.”

If the bailout plan passes and calms the markets, McConnell can claim leadership and credit for helping prevent financial collapse. And if he survives an almost perfect storm, it may be because at a time voters begin to make up their minds, Lunsford dithered away an almost perfect opportunity.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. He may be contacted by email at rellis@cnhi.com.