McCain's Bailout

Hey Charles,

You’re right … it does just get better and better!

Did you catch Letterman last night? Now if you’re going to cancel on Dave, and you tell him that you’re getting on a plane for Washington, you might want to make sure that is, in fact, what you’re doing. And if you’re ditching Dave for another media interview, maybe you don’t do it with the same network that hosts the Late Show. I mean, I’m just saying.

Skip the monologue and go straight to the Olbermann segment, if you are pressed for time.

Let me get this straight. We are just about 40 days from this most critical election and we’re going to suspend the campaign? (By the way, what happened to last week’s “the fundamentals of our economy are still strong?”) Isn’t this exactly the time when politics matters, when we should be having a vigorous debate, when we should be shining the light on those who believe they should be the next leader of the free world, when the public should be looking at whom they can trust and who they want to lead them in a crisis situation? And when the current Oval Office occupant chooses to do a disappearing act for a week (it took him nine whole days to finally address the American people!), doesn’t it become that much more important that we hear from those who would be our next president?

And maybe I missed something, but I didn’t hear a public clamoring for the campaign to be halted. I didn’t hear the call for John McCain, or Barack Obama for that matter, to get back to Washington. To add to your sentiments, if you invented the Blackberry, you’d think you could easily be in touch with Capitol Hill!

I also thought it was quite interesting how events unfolded yesterday. So Obama calls McCain at 8:30 a.m. and leaves a message about issuing a joint statement urging Congress and the White House to work in a bipartisan manner to solve the economic crisis. Six hours later (maybe the Mac-Berry wasn’t working?), McCain calls Obama and suggests a “political free zone” for the next several days until both sides in Congress hammer out a compromise. What was going on in the McCain camp during those six hours? Think about it. It took six hours to come up with a plan that ultimately could only be described as another Hail Mary. I suppose that against the 9 days it took Bush to respond to this crisis, McCain’s doing pretty well.

Of course, you don’t think McCain’s attempt to outflank Obama on the “let’s not be partisan here” tactic had anything to do with how Obama supposedly disrespected him a few years ago on bipartisan lobbying reform, do you?

Wait a minute, you don’t think this is a grand ploy to keep Obama from showing up at tomorrow’s debate so that McCain can actually do what John Kerry suggested and debate himself, do you? Imagine the spirited discussion the two McCains could have on the current economic crisis. Imagine the potential one-liners. “Senator, I knew John McCain, I served with John McCain, and you are no John McCain.” “There you go again.” “Sigh.”

For a preview, check out this eye-opening Tale of Two McCains!

Ryan

P.S. “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times … “