Here's the scenario as I see it: McCain's campaign is in big trouble. He creates a sideshow stunt by rushing to Washington to save the day. Let's just overlook his 24 hours delay while he did TV interviews and took care of political business.
It's obvious the bipartisan leaders don't need his help and wish he would stay away. But he has convinced Bush to play along with this completely unnecessary White House photo op meeting. At least that's what we thought.
But no. They have to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory so they can create a situation that "needs" McCain's help and he can play the selfless hero. Maybe he should put on a cowboy outfit.
So he meets with Boehmer before the WH meeting. It's true, many Republicans aren't happy with the plan, but might have gone along with Boehmer's encouragement. Remember, before McCain entered the picture, Boehmer seemed to be hopeful of a bipartisan deal. Instead, to help McCain, they are encouraged to balk, to offer some crazy plan of their own.
This gums up the works. This gives McCain something to do. Because as their presidential candidate he probably does have some clout at this point with the Republicans in Congress; after all they want to win the presidency.
At the White House photo op, he sits silently while he lets John Boehner spills the beans: no deal. McCain remains non-committal, saying he still hopes this can be worked out so he can debate tonight.
His campaign is now putting out the info that he spent the night on the phone with Republicans trying to broker an agreement.
Eureka. Some time this afternoon they will announce success, which will probably be the deal that was in place before he mucked it up, maybe with just enough tweaks to claim he did something.
Then he waltzes in to the debate tonight as the hero who saved the nation from bankruptcy.
And it's all a bunch of political stunt grandstanding.
Please, Barak. Do not get sucked in to trying to "help" with a solution. Leave it to the congressional leaders as you have been doing. The only way for you to win in this situation is to point out McCain's stunt, that it was not only unnecessary but actually slowed the process.
Ralph
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Has anyone, any news source or serious blogger, suggested that McCain's coming to Washington was helpful?
The Democrats, of course, are furious, saying that they had a framework agreed upon with bipartisan leaders; and then McCain came to town and it fell apart. Dodd says they had to start all over from scratch at 8:00 last night. Schumer called on Bush to tell McCain to get out of town.
Mike Huckabee says it was a huge mistake. The Wall Street Journal talks about it as political and risky. Lindsey Graham of course is trying to smooth the way for him, but where is HolyJoe Lieberman? Haven't heard his take on this. Hello, Joe!! Aren't you going to try to save your buddy from this latest misstep?
I have yet to read or hear anyone calling it a presidential act of statesmanship except the McCain campaign.
The WSJ was illuminating on this explanation. It seems the House Democrats along with a small number of Republicans are still on board -- enough to pass the bill, and apparently the Senate will too.
But the Democrats want it to be clearly a bipartisan bill. If it fails, they want Republicans to have to share the responsibility, not use it for political advantage.
If it looks like they can't get a bipartisan agreement and the Dems do go ahead without them, then they will likely make more demands for a bill to their liking than the one that McCain scuttled.
Still looking for some conservative who thinks McCain acted wisely.
Sam Stein reports: "It just proves his campaign is governed by tactics and not ideology," said consultant Craig Shirley. "In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The 'steady hand in a storm' argument looks now to more favor Obama, not McCain."
Another erratic move: Even before he announced that he would debate tonight, McCain has an ad up claiming that he won the debate.
How's that for chutzpah?
In trying to highlight a word in the above post, it eliminated it instead.
It should have read: "Said Republican consultant Craig Shirley."
Found one on CNN.com. See Ruben Navarrette, a nationally syndicated columnist and a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He says McCain has his priorities straight.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/26/navarrette.obama.mccain/index.html
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