"Bleeding"? Hmmmm. I suppose JSM was trouncing BHO then. For his "bleeding" to lead to a tie, that is quite a reasonable assumption (if one buys the silly and emotional rhetoric, such as "collapse', "demise", "floundering", and now "bleeding"). I'll give points for using a new emtional modifier, though. Points for the originality, but no points for the lack of logic. In other words it's a tie in points, then.

The interviews were taped Wednesday. McCain did not rush to DC until sometime Thursday.

And, as I posted earlier, the interviews were seperate. Too bad for Palin. I'm glad she's your candidate.

No, the House Repubs were on board, and peached later.

They are playing the usual Repub games, they will only provide the bare number of votes to pass the bail out if most of the Aye votes are from the Dems.

That way most of them can go home and falsely and piously claim they were against it.

Any other bill, whatever Bush asks they vote in lockstep. It is no mystery why they are playing games now, although the Republicans are not acting very patriotic, or very honestly.

There isn't one editorial piece that you can find that isn't coming down on McCain, right or left. This is from Republican strategist Chris Coffey from FOX News;

"McCain delivered an implicit ultimatum to Obama: suspend your campaign, cancel the debate, and high tail it to D.C. — or tempt the perception of being one who puts politics before country.

Ultimatums are delivered to defenseless foes, not to vital opponents. They are a form of intimidation intended to trigger subservience. That is why McCain now risks looking like a duplicitous bully with little interest in bipartisan cooperation, even though he has spent a lifetime cultivating the opposite image.

Whatever the case, the McCain campaign has put itself in the unique position of being unable to campaign before an election. Suspension means suspension. If one staffer shows up for work, this whole gamble turns into a media stunt.

I hope I am wrong and that this wager pays."

This debate costs $5.5 million to the state of Mississippi, with a Republican Governator who came out yesterday and can't wait to see the debate. The idea from the debate commission if McCain doesn't show us will be a townhall style affair where Obama would take questions from people through the moderator.

John McCain doesn't get to control what the rest of the country does all by himself without consulting people and just making demands. If he doesn't show tonight, it'll be because he's really, really lost it.

Personally I feel bad for him now, since he's going to have to face the music on 8 of the most terribly governed years in American history, which wasn't all his fault.

But even on foreign matters, McCain is going to lose points on Iraq, which he still doesn't have a plan for.

You have any support for that? If not the you are just repeating Dem talking points. No quotes from Dems as support please.

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Andy
Cynical Optimist

I'm not for this bailout. It sucks ass.

I'm looking at things from the perspective of those involved and the perceptions they face by what they do about it.

John McCain over the last few weeks has completely changed the narrative of his campaign to "Reform" and "Change". So if he just goes along with House Republicans and nothing gets passed, he'll get the blame for being on the losing end of a plan with no reform in it.

But if he goes along with a huge bailout, he'll be seen by his base as holding hands with Bush. But it's the only way he'll be able to continue the whole "Reform" argument.

People, this is what happens when you just go with your gut all the time. Sometimes you fuck yourself over.

And it's too bad, because McCain actually is a great Senator. Just look at him yesterday in all that footage. He's comfortable in his skin in Washington, running around from building to building, taking the underground train, and just doing a good job of listening in whatever room he's in. But as a Presidential candidate he's a huge disaster.

Marcel quotes a Republican strategist: "Ultimatums are delivered to defenseless foes, not to vital opponents."

Wrong. An ultimatum can be delivered to a straying husband, "Give up the mistress or I'll move out and divorce you," the wife says. That's an ultimatum. Is the husband a "defenseless foe"? Nope.

When you're dead wrong on your premises, your reasoning cannot be sound.

Actually, John Boehner brought up the whole "tax cut" proposal at that meeting, and everything crumbled after that because House Republicans hadn't breathed a word of it the day before since Paulson was already against that idea.

They're seriously not happy with the bailout, which is good, but when they tried to creep their ideas back in there, it all fell apart and the House Republicans walked away.

Which is fine with me. These guys are fighting for their lives, but at the same time it's revealing that John McCain has little control of the Republican ship right now.

last week it was the other way, again, screw the polls until someone takes a 13% lead or above, I have said so since day one......polls in the 5-8 pt range are all subject to scrutiny re: sampling etc. so I discard them and as far as state electoral voting counts, well the dems have had for the last 3 years a new type of plan they have been working in Colorado.......IF all they can manage at this late date after tons of money and grassroots efforts is a tie or 1-2 points Obama, that does no bode well...

The Colorado Model

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

I'll settle for one who can think, period.

If McCain is certain to win and just giving this up "for us" then why is Obama demanding he debate? One would think he'd be relieved that his invincible foe has backed down.

McCain's a tyrant and he's taking the tyrant's way out. He thinks that if he can prolong this crisis and maybe turn it into a full scale Great Depression he might be able to get the military to back him and take the country over by force. He's realized by now that neither he nor most any Republican has no chance in an honest election

I’d like to say that to many of you who are parsing reactions to each parties actions reactions etc. as to the crisis, I for one am all for more of it. I don’t think we need to rush into anything.

Boehner’s ideas to lower the capital gains rate is actually a sound one, huge money markets and pension funds have monies they would free up to finance buyouts of failing banks like Wash. Mutual which has now gone down the tubes and been bought, etc. that’s were that money comes from to drive mergers etc.

If we lowered the cap rate that might free up a lot of dough that wouldn’t have to come from the government and allow other entities, more healthy ones to get in ther and use that cash to make prudent investments and but those that are going down...it is the way things have always been done. In every down turn there are winners too, those that have assets like Buffet who see opportunity to buy in cheap and realize gains 3- 5 years down the road.

So, I am all for them taking their time and doing it right. Letting them convince us they have to get to down now smacks of political bullshit to me, they want to recess to go home and campaign.......screw that and that just adds to the reason why McCain suspending his camp. Was a good move.
They didn’t give 2 shits before this happened, and colluded in this mess, all they care about is their political hides and staying in office.....

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

Why are you sprouting this nonsense all the time?

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Andy
Cynical Optimist

as to the OP- well Bill has weighed in..

McCain’s acting in good faith in pulling out of the debate, says Clinton...

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Awesome: McCain’s acting in good faith in pulling out of the debate, says Clinton

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

Bill did say that, but remember he was still waiting for McCain to show up to his confrence to speak, so politely declining to call McCain a fraud was probably in Bill's best interest at the time.

Besides, Obama and Biden have been very cautious about calling attention to McCain's many falsehoods or to publicly questioning the POW's motives.

But, since I'm not part of Obama's campaign, I can and do question his motives. President Clinton may not have that freedom.

It only nonsense until it happens, then it's "why didn't anyone see?".

Whats to stop them? Bush's respect for and love of the Constitution? McCain's sense of fair play?

It's just dawned on the Republicans that you can't fool all the people all the time and eight years seems about the electorate's limit. They're facing a debacle in Nov which may(hopefully) end their existence as a political entity in the US. Now suddenly there's ANOTHER literally heaven sent opportunity to suspend democracy and substitute their ideology for the will of the people. You don't think lots of them are insane enough to pull a coup? Shit, how did they put their boy in to begin with back in 2000?