http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown_923

He's one mile from home already. Old Barney Frank got the lead out, trying to get something in place before McCain gets to town.

That old bully pulpit is powerful. Clap the man.
Give him his due, ya mean men.

Where has Oprah been lately? She's my thought leader.

Letterman didn't just rib him for a moment with Olbermann either. Check this out from the 3:25 mark. Letterman pulls no punches.

Here's what happens. The economy is about to crater. You're a Senator, a fourth term Senator from Arizona. You go back to Washington. You handle what you need to handle. Don't suspend your campaign. You let your campaign go on, shouldered by your Vice Presidential nominee. That's what you do. You don't quit.

Then around the 4:15 mark:

You say, "I've gotta get back to Washington to save this country." Good for you. "And while I'm gone campaigning in my stead will be my great running mate from Alaska, Sarah Palin." And she comes out and campaigns... What happened there? What's the problem? Where, where is she? What, why isn't doing that?

At the 5:10 mark:

And let's say there's a time of crisis and the poor guy, because he's a little older, he's about my age, and then Sarah Palin takes over as President, well she ought to be ready because she's handled crises like this in the past. Oh, wait a minute, she really hasn't handled a crises[sic] like this in the past. You don't suspend... Let me just go through this one more time to make my point absolutely clear. He can't run the campaign because the economy is about to crater. Fine, you put in your second-string quarterback. Well, where is our second-string quarterback?

And the finisher at the 6:10 mark:

A hero, an honest to God hero, an American hero, maybe the only actual hero I know, I've met the man, I know the guy, so I'm more than a little disappointed by this behavior. "We're suspending the campaign." Are we suspending it because there's an economic crisis or because the poll numbers are sliding?

Now, I don't claim to be a simple man, the salt-of-the-earth. I'm probably more what you'd call an intellectual elitist, but I'd be willing to bet that your Joe Sixpack can understand the terms that Letterman just put this in. You'll notice that Letterman doesn't even question the ridiculous premise of John McCain flying back to Washington to save the country. He takes it at face value, calls him the only hero he knows and still finds this whole sham to be completely lacking. McCain better hope Joe Sixpack had already finished his nightly ration of Bud Lights and passed out before Letterman's tirade.

Who's gonna carry this football for John McCain? It's apparently not gonna be Charlie Gibson or Katie Couric or Campbell Brown or George Will or David Brooks or Maureen Dowd or Peggy Noonan or.. hell, I give up. How's he gonna make hay out of this, Billy? The recent change of trend in the polls doesn't matter half as much as the fact that the whole MSM just developed a bitter taste in its mouth for John McCain, maybe for the first time in twenty years. Do you you really think he can push this story himself? With what, television ads? While every network anchor, every pundit, every late night talk show host in America is calling his bullshit?

So McCain says he hasn't read the plan yet. (it's on the front page). He's a maverick, who needs a plan.

His big solution now, we need Warren Buffet. Mike Bloomberg and Mitt Romney to oversee this. What is wrong with that picture?

This thing has been going on all week. McCain riding in on his jet and pretending to save the day. I don't think anyone is going to buy that.

Aww, really? Can't put him away? We're gonna do the "Why can't he close the deal thing?" again? I know you like to play here, but this ain't your first rodeo. No one gets "put away" before election day and you know that.

BTW, last night Colbert referred to John McCain as the guy who would rather lose a campaign than win a campaign.

Billy Glad, I think your post makes some great points about the way McCain is gaming this and just may come out ahead.

But I don't agree that what Obama's doing is somehow endangering the goings on in DC. Quite simply, he's needed in DC even less than McCain is. The Democrats aren't the ones wailing about socialism and how the bailout is unamerican, and threatening to scuttle the deal.

Though whether McCain can deliver his party is pretty iffy when Cheney himself couldn't. But even if McCain can deliver some votes, can't he logroll by phone? By proxy? This pilgrimage to DC smacks of the same kind of election theatrics that his pilgrimage to New Orleans did.

He just doesn't need to be there physically, except to grandstand, and while I agree he could score some points for this little dog and pony show, the operative word is could. Right now it seems to be blowing up in his face.

Even if he does get a little leg up, I think this stunt will play to very few outside of the true believers, and people who understand dick about what's really going on in DC. I don't think anyone who's truly concerned and thoughtful on this issue and attentively watching the story unfold will be impressed with McCain's new sturm und drang effort -- not even Republicans, or at least not the adult wing of the party. When George Will tells us McCain is making him fearful, you better believe the sturm und drang has ceased to play.

My guess is it's pretty transparent to the whole country that McCain knows he's hogtied by his deregulation history and he's trying to create chaos simply to distract the country from it -- and certainly not get asked any questions about it right now in a nationally televised debate.

But I think, in the end, he may be just too branded by his ideology to stop the downward spiral he's in -- which is only going to get worse as the market flounders for the next few weeks -- and it will, bailout or no bailout. So my strong suspicion is, as the bailout gets finalized and the dust settles, and Jane and John Doe watch their 401ks dwindle between now and November anyway, the consensus will be, oh yeah, McCain. He went to DC to fix everything. Yeah. That asshole.

Sometimes it's better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and confirm all doubt.

It wasn't me lad. Someone must have raised a stink. They purged all my prior comments, including the dialog I was having with you. That seemed like it was pretty innocuous stuff. If Jazz and the Coen Brothers are off limits, then TPM is not going to be the place for me.

Do you suppose they would allow us to mention The Ranking Family, or Natalie MacMaster? I know, that is really playing with fire. Perhaps it was Natalie that stomped out our fire.

"Natural GOP voter suppression activities." I love it. It's a fact of nature, like the leaves changing.

Dewey, you're going to have to confer with the cat disguised as a rabbit on that particular blog. He got it. You didn't. Think of the ramifications of being less astute than a perpetually startled cat. For your penance, 5 minutes outside the echo chamber.