I first noticed its Friday a week ago--the McCain ads that had been polluting the airwaves on Washington, DC during the dinner-news segment were gone.  I was out of town most of last week but my wife just commented that all last week, the nightly local and national news broadcasts were McCain ad free zones.

Obama continues to advertise heavily in this market, which includes the battleground state of Virginia. I'm sure that McCain continues to spend in the Old Dominion, but he seems to have given up on Northern Virginia--unless others can correct my impression.  Fairfax County went for Kerry in 2004, and the inside the beltway communities of Falls Church, Alexandria, and Arlington are Dem strongholds, but this TV market also reaches red-leaning Loudon, Prince William, and Stafford Counties.

Anybody else know whether McCain has really pulled his ads from No. Va. /DC/MD?

TPM's lede this morning captures it perfectly:

"And the fact is that the same people that are now claiming credit for this rescue are the same ones that were willing co-conspirators in causing this problem that it is. And you know their names. And you will know more of their names. Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd are two of them."

He really thinks that the Senators are lounging up there on Mount Olympus and their merest whim directly outcomes and huge events in the real world.  Give me a break--their votes are like toilet paper, or at best like cash, to be traded for other votes or favors.  I'm getting really sick of McCain's theme that he lives in this dangerous, heroic place called "Senate World" where he slays dragon and protects damsels, and mighty swings of his sword are "votes."

Because only in a warped fantasy can McCain, even for the purposes of slinging red meat to a pack of racist yahoos, look at the GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS and say, "this is the fault of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd... and that one." 

I don't think it's just rhetoric--he really sees the world this way.  He thinks that the Congress slings their mighty lightning bolts from on high and that makes the world go round.  Because if he couldn't see himself that way, he's just an angry, frustrated old man who failed to measure up to his father and grandfather... and kids... and wives... and fellow POWs...

Oh wait, I think I finally understand John McCain.