I believe events are proving John McCain prescient.

McCain knew he had to get to Washington. He also knew that the debate, as all debates do, was going to require him to disappear for much oof two days to hone his debate points and message.

Then McCain is dealing with calls from Paulson late Tuesday and Wednesday to publicly support “the bill”. What bill? It’s still being hashed out in private. Calls from slimy Harry Reid and Pelosi that if McCain did not support “the bill”, there could be no consensus. Calls from Republicans.

What in the world was he to do? Couldn’t you at least discuss the thorny position this puts him in? If he’s going to support “the bill”, he’d better be in Washington discussing it closely. And he’s no dummy: The Democrats want to hang it on his neck, and he knows it. Look at all the Democrat talking points today. McCain decided he wanted a hand in the resulting bill if he’s going to be under all this pressure to be a team player.

The campaign gimmick was only in *suspending* the campaign, not in taking a personal break from it. There was no way to properly do the debate and participate in creating the resulting bill. McCain made sure that the clarity of what he was doing was perfectly clear. He certainly didn’t have to go as far as he did. But he did. What’s so terrible about that?

And the debate was going to be about foreign policy. The moderators are surely nearly completely ready with their questions. The only meaningful debate would have switched the topic to economic affairs, making it a seat of the pants affair. What’s the sense in that?

And now the Democrats have blown up completely today, and McCain *is* in Washington, helping with a Senate bipartisan effort, in close discussions with conservative House members on interesting changes in the bill that would support conservative principles!

And everyone thinks it’s just a political stunt. I can’t understand why more conservatives aren’t being more considerate of McCain. You, and they, seem to hardly even be trying to put yourselves in his shoes, and attempt to defend what are obviously reasonable positions. Please don’t pull a George Will, a Charles Krauthammer.

“The suspension of his campaign is a gimmick, of course”

I do believe McCain is doing this half out of political commitment and half campaign gimmick. I do not doubt his love of his country, but the question no one has asked, as a sort of litmus test, is, “Would he have done it if he was ahead in the polls and pulling away?”

“If he had acceded to McCain’s wishes and gone back to Washington, the Republican would have had a triumph”

Aaah, but he did return to Washington, albeit at the President’s request, not John McCain’s. So, for the Republicans half victory as well as half victory for Obama. Guess you could call it a stalemate.

“So where does that leave McCain? I believe that the GOP will close ranks today and agree to join the Democrats in voting for the bailout package.”

Well the Repubs are revolting again and it is not over energy, it is over the bailout.

The point is not to correct you or say you were wrong, it is to say that this is an extremely volatile election cycle and it is hard to predict any outcomes on anything. The only things we know for sure are advantage Obama, GOP is blamed for financial crisis, and we have a financial crisis. Whether McCain’s gambit paid off or not will not really be known until Monday. So far there is a bump according to Gallup and BattleGround, but Rasmussen shows an Obama lead of +3. Yesterday on Ras, they were tied. Hate to do it, but I believe Ras to be the most accurate, that is why I give Obama the advantage as far as the polls are concerned.

Reality of all of this is, there are no variables that you can predict in this election, things are out of whack. The data from everything has alot of people confused, that is the only thing I know for sure.

Assembled Republicans, how do you react to something like this? I am without words.

Frankly, nobody really expects Obama or McCain to take a leading role in the negations, since neither one of them chairs any relevant committees. Only a very few critical events (outbreak of war, major earthquake) justify shutting down a presidential debate. I simply don’t believe that this crisis measures up. If McCain had not proposed to cancel or postpone the debate, it’s hard to believe the average American or the MSN would criticize the candidates for holding the debate anyway.

You’re mindlessly parroting McCain’s “Country First” marketing slogan.Please give yourself more credit than that. Even our host, Rick Moran agrees this was a “gambit”. That’s what it is..,And please stop with the “barry” and the “BHO” and the “Hussein”. We all know what his middle name is and he’s doing quite well, thank you. Don’t cheapen your cause with silly name games. I refer to Sen John McCain by “Senator” which he is and deserves to be acknowledged. Why am I even saying this?? My bad..

Surabaya Stew….Actually tomorrow night’s debate has been planned for years. This production started in 2006.

Bald Ninja, On your McCain Selling points:

This is the way I felt about Sen. McCain in 2000. I hoped he would get the nomination in case Gore lost. He didn’t get nominated..we all lost. To all my conservative friends here…I admit it. McCain would have been a better pres than Pres. Bush. But McCain is different now. He’s blowing it…

Hey Rick… I happen to be a web designer. How about threaded comments? There’s a plugin that
could do this easily for you…

So McCain should say, “Hey guys, I know were all trying to hash out some sort of agreement and all but I got this gig in Mississippi - what do ya say we take a short 8 hour break?”. It would be selfish of McCain to expect all of the other Senators and Representatives to hold off while he leaves.
On the other hand not much may be going on for those 8 hours and he could slip away and return. I believe he’s left that option open. I believe all he’s said is that his priority is finding a resolution to the economic crisis.

Perhaps hot MILF is the only thing conservatives and liberals can agree upon in this election.