Last week, Warren Buffett�s MidAmerican Energy Holdings offered $26.50 a share for Constellation Energy. The acquisition, widely considered a steal and even �highway robbery,� helped save the Baltimore utility and power trader from the 60% plunge in its stock price over concerns about its access to financing.

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Since then, a rival bidder, Electricite de France, has offered $35 share and brought in the backing of private-equity powerhouses Kolhberg Kravis Roberts and TPG. The firms even offered to invest $1 billion in Constellation�s preferred stock, as MidAmerican plans to do. EdF already is a 9.9% shareholder in Constellation.

The Baltimore utility�s response? Thanks but no thanks: it�ll stick with Warren. �We accepted the superior offer,� CEO Mayo Shattuck told investors and analysts on a conference call today.

Call it the power of Buffett. Nothing soothes like Buffett�s involvement. In a volatile world, he is as close to a sure thing as the finance world sees. Just as he brought a glow of certainty to such deals as Mars� $22 billion acquisition of William Wrigley Jr., news of Buffett�s intent to acquire Constellation helped stabilize the utility�s stock price, from a close of $24.20 on Sept. 18 to $25.76 the next day. Shattuck explained Buffett�s glow on a conference call today: �In this case, this offer from MidAmerican provided us immediate liquidity and provided us certain degrees of certainty around a number of issues or high degrees of probability around other important issues, such as regulatory approval.�

There are other reasons to be shy about switching horses mid-deal. The utility has been operating under a deal-making curse for at least seven years. And as a foreign buyer EdF would face added scrutiny because of Constellation�s nuclear power plants, which could be considered a flashpoint for fears about national security in an election year. Even the involvement of two domestic private-equity firms may not help EdF, as was seen in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.�s rejection of Bain Capital�s bid to buy 3Com, mostly because China�s Huawei Technologies also was involved.

In the end, it may be Buffett�s biggest selling point: with America�s financial system appearing to be failing, his track record is a prominent example of how it can go right.