Well, as expected John McCain flip-flopped for the umpteenth time and decided that yes, he can show up for the debate. No, things didn't pan out on the bailout like he had planned but playing chicken with the first Presidential debate is something that most Americans strongly disapprove of. McCain clearly got that when he changed the channel from his crooners at Fox News.
From The NY Times:
Yada, yada, yada.
Campaign statement:
Senator McCain has spent the morning talking to members of the Administration, members of the Senate, and members of the House. He is optimistic that there has been significant progress toward a bipartisan agreement now that there is a framework for all parties to be represented in negotiations, including Representative Blunt as a designated negotiator for House Republicans. The McCain campaign is resuming all activities and the Senator will travel to the debate this afternoon. Following the debate, he will return to Washington to ensure that all voices and interests are represented in the final agreement, especially those of taxpayers and homeowners.
So McCain's grandstanding and gratuitous drama-king action failed miserably. The meeting he had Bush call him and Obama to actually highlighted Obama's consensus building abilities while McCain was deafeningly silent. Now he has to drag himself down to Mississippi for tonight's debate with all the attention on his ridiculous campaign tactics. Not only that, he can be called on to answer why it took several days to read the three page plan from Treasury Secretary Paulson, why his plan is just like George Bush's and how when our economy is in such tatters, why we should trust someone with it that said on the record that he doesn't know much about the economy to begin with.
Undecideds have looked to the debates in the past to sway them to one candidate or the other. That has certainly made a difference in prior elections. In 2008 Americans are looking for a leader after several years of the disastrous Bush Administration and there are still a few that need to see the two candidates go head to head.
So right now McCain is either shaking nervously in his boots or devising another gimmick to spare him from the embarassment he'll endure tonight at Ole Miss.
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