Wall Street is reeling after its worst day since the meltdown of 2008. The Dow alone dropped 634 points on Monday.

It comes amid political turmoil over the U.S. credit downgrade and the stock market downturn.

On the campaign trail republican reactions to the downgrade were just about as predictable as the downgrade was itself.

"During the last two and a half years this president is primarily responsible for the failure of this economy to re-ignite and for his own failure to take the action which is so obviously needed to restore our balance sheet. Standard and Poor's did not surprise anybody with this downgrade," said Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

Though the evidence is overwhelming that both parties, both houses of congress and the current and prior administrations all share the blame for the downgrade; in the altered reality of a campaign it's mainly about what works.

"I think as we're gathered here this morning what we should be talking about is downgrading Barack Obama," said presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty.

Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann agrees: "We went through the Great Depression, We went through World War Two, we went through Korea, we went through Vietnam, we went through conflicts in the Middle East and we went through 9/11, not once did any president loose our Triple A credit rating. Not once."

Jon Huntsman who was once the president's Ambassador to China played his rendition of Hit the Road Jack for the benefit of the president and then talked about job growth. "I don't know about you but the president has had two and a half years to address the most pressing problem we as Americans face: infusing confidence in our overall direction, dealing with job growth and getting our economy going again. And he has failed us."

Meanwhile, a new CNN/ORC International poll shows the president's approval rating is remaining steady in the mid-40s. Which would suggest that all of the upheaval over the last couple of weeks has not affected overall views of the president. Though only 39 percent of respondents say they approve the way the president has handled the unemployment situation.