There was no harsh rhetoric.  There were no drop dead demands.  No threats, implied or otherwise.  Instead, President Bush used a White House speech last night to make the case for action on a Wall Street bailout and signaled concessions on several fronts.

In his first prime time speech in over a year, the President made clear that the US Government has to act in a dramatic fashion to make sure the economy doesn't go down the drain in what he said would be a "long and painful recession."

Mr. Bush talked about a "spirit of cooperation" in working out a deal with the Congress - and I will say - that spirit is definitely there in the leadership.

There will be a deal in coming days, you can take that to the bank.

The President made clear that some of those provisions will include plans that just a few days ago were not considered to be worthy of inclusion by the White House.

"Any rescue plan should be designed to make sure that taxpayers are protected," said Mr. Bush, in what seemed like a tip of the hat to lawmakers in both parties, who want the US to get a stake in any company that takes the government bailout.

"It should make certain that failed executives do not receive a windfall from your tax dollars," the President said, grabbing on to a provision that both parties were more than ready to support.

Basically, it would limit obscene pay and benefits packages for top executives at companies that get federal assistance.  At first, the White House objected to that, but less than six weeks from the election, it's not an argument you want to make.

"It should establish a bipartisan board to oversee the plan's implementation," Mr. Bush said, doing a complete 180 from the legislative language given to lawmakers last weekend.

Remember, that plan said the decisions of the Secretary of the Treasury could not even be reviewed by a court of law.  That idea didn't last long with either party.

Mr. Bush did not directly address one idea that is getting more and more popular, that being a plan to do this in stages, to make the cost more easy for voters to swallow.

In other words, instead of going whole hog and voting for a $700 billion bailout, why not go for $200 billion now (my figure pulled out of the air) and then in a few months see if more money needs to be committed to the fight?

The outlines of a final deal are definitely taking shape, and the President moved the ball down the field last night.  Now it will take a few days to get the language in order.

That means we can all sit back and enjoy the spectacle of the Bush-McCain-Obama-et al meeting at the White House on Thursday.