Indeed it could have been much worse. During that time I remember thinking to myself, this is probably the best buying time in my lifetime, on the other hand, there are some very unpopular political decisions that had to be taken in Washington, and if we took the wrong ones, this could indeed have turned out very badly. Luckily we squeaked through. I didn't sell anything but I didn't buy either, partly because of my age, nearing retirement, and partly because I had been 100% equities, but mostly because I worried that there was so much popular pressure to immediately balance the budget (from all the panicked equity selling crowd I guess), that the politicians would succumb and send us rolling into a long depression.
In hindsight it did turn out to be one of the best buying opportunities ever. But we were lucky and dodged that bullet. Will we continue to be as lucky next time? Remember the majority is panicked and selling, and they are voting and panicking the politicians at the very time we need cool heads. That is the really unpredictable part.