What's McCain Up To?

by: Chris Bowers

Thu Sep 25, 2008 at 12:09


Among others, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and AP are all reporting that a bailout deal is close on Capitol Hill. Congressional Democrats and Barack Obama say the same thing. McCain, however, says otherwise:

It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the Administration's proposal to meet the crisis. I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time. So I am returning to Washington to seek five fundamental improvements to this critical legislation.

What's going on here? I can think of a few possibilities:

  • Delaying tactic? McCain is simply lying about the state of the deal in order to justify his move and skip the debate. Maybe he just really, really wants to skip the debate, or push the foreign policy debate until closer to the election, or get Palin out of her debate, or as Americablog reports, keep people from seeing his droopy eye. If a deal is close, then he can't skip, and the move makes even less sense that it currently does (which isn't much). So, he has to claim that no deal is close.

  • Undermining tactic? McCain is seeking to torpedo the current version of the deal, and then be the guy who forges a new deal, thereby taking credit. Perhaps congressional Republicans are in on this one.

  • Supporting Tactic? Maybe McCain is trying to ratchet up the sense of crisis even more, thereby helping the bill pass. $700 billion is, after all, a lot of money for McCain's friends, and a good way to make President Obama look bad. Maybe this is simply a continuation of the shock doctrine tactics on this bill.

  • Just plain nuts? McCain could also be lying, or out of it, or just kind of nuts. This is a possibility that is always worth considering with McCain.

Hard to say for sure, but McCain is coming off as more of an unstable wackjob every day. The debate is scheduled for just 33 hours from now, and the University of Mississippi, Commission on Presidential Debates, and Barack Obama all say it's on. Will they go forward with a one-person panel if McCain doesn't show up? Along with trying to figure out what McCain is doing, that is the other big question I have right now.
Chris Bowers :: What's McCain Up To?

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What's McCain Up To? | 30 comments
A Fifth Possiblilty (4.00 / 1)
McCain skipped the substantive negotiating sessions today but plans to show up for the photo op this afternoon.  After the photo op, with the national media present, he announces that he has just spoken to the President and convinced Bush to accept the deal Congress worked out.  McCain claims credit for that -- which claim the media duly report -- and then he flies to Mississippi in triumph.
I don't think that's likely (0.00 / 0)
He has to have gops in Congress back him up, and they may not be willing to do that. They don't actually like him that much. And the Democrats will do the exact opposite. (Bill Clinton excepted.) The best case scenario becomes a major he-said/she-said conflict, which the press loves even more than Saint McCain, and it doesn't actually help McCain at all.
[ Parent ]
I hope this is it because (0.00 / 0)
it's lame and not dangerous as opposed to the also plausible 'monkey wrench' theory in which he opposes the bill because it doesn't include a few purposefully contentious items so the bill won't get passed until the weekend or later, allowing him to show up at Oxford so he can yell at Obama for being a traitor for not suspending his campaign.

That's what's going on here. The Dodd bill is a Democratic bill. That's the first very big clue. The Dodd bill looks roughly like a bill that Obama would have come up with. That's clue number 2. The Dodd bill is on the verge of being passed in a relatively timely and non-panicked fashion. That's clue number 3.

[ Parent ]
If McCain wants to own this horribly unpopular bill... (4.00 / 1)
....he's giving us Democrats an incredible gift!  You want to own this horribly unpopular bill!  Please!  Please!  Go ahead!  You couldn't give us a better political gift than for the Republicans to take complete ownership of the bill...

I don't understand what they are thinking!  A few days ago, they were going to be the "populist opponents" against any bailout, and now they want to own it and wear it as a badge of honor?

I can't believe our good fortune!

REID: Voting against us was never part of our arrangement!
SPECTER: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
REID: This deal keeps getting worse all the time!

Who knows (4.00 / 3)
All I'm certain of is he's flying by the seat of his pants trying to milk as much political advantage out of the situation as he can. Another is that I don't see how he can vote no on the package after he has made such a ballyhoo. Voting against it would be like saying he is a lousy negotiator who can't get things done with his idea of "leadership". I think he votes yes and tries to take credit.
Good point but you're overestimating McCain and his campaign (0.00 / 0)
They have proven themselves short-sighted in the extreme.

He might oppose it to score political points at Oxford where he will get to blame Obama for not working hard enough to get this done.

Yes, he would rather blow up the world economy than lose an election. Yes, he's stupid enough to think people won't figure it out and call him on it. Yes, he's short-sighted enough to think only, always one move ahead.

[ Parent ]
what's going on (0.00 / 0)
McCain is the Ross Perot of 2008 (4.00 / 3)
The difference is Perot was mostly honest and a little crazy. McCain is mostly dishonest and a little crazy.
Or... (0.00 / 0)
Or McCain is a little dishonest and mostly crazy.

Karl in Drexel Hill, PA
[ Parent ]
I don't see how they couldn't just go ahead with a 1-man panel (0.00 / 0)
I suspect the networks may not all carry it though... of course, this would just be acceding to whatever McCain is demanding... So hopefully they understand this.

And I doubt that viewership would be that much lower anyway... people expect to see something on Friday... the networks will give them what they want.

If McCain does stay home and sulk, (0.00 / 0)
I'd like to see Barr, McKinney, and Nader invited for a 90-minute discussion with Obama. It would get great ratings and give Obama to break away from the petty crap and do the policy stuff where he shines. Might just move some votes away from McCain, too.
[ Parent ]
Dangerous... (4.00 / 3)
I'd sort of prefer to not have all the other 3rd party candidates scores points off of Obama.

If McCain were included as well, then they would also take him to task.  With just Obama, he'd become their only target.

[ Parent ]
Bob Barr couldn't criticize McCain b/c he's not there? (0.00 / 0)
That makes no sense at all. Barr is the one I would invite, since he can syphon votes from McCain.

Howard Dean in 2016
[ Parent ]
Not really. (0.00 / 0)
You can be a target without being in the room. Think of the discussion about why McCain is AWOL. And without Mr Whiny there blubbering about his prisonerness all the time, there might even be some substantive discussion. Which is all to Obama's advantage.
[ Parent ]
McCain is nuts (0.00 / 0)
for sure, but I'd like to think he's right about the bailout being in trouble. As reported downstairs, there's a tremendous popular outcry against a quick fix. It's hard to believe that the timid flowers on both sides of the aisle will suddenly develop the backbone to defy their constituents to this extent just before an election. Despite the media spin, getting an agreement, getting a bill passed through the full Congress, and getting it signed without more obstruction seems near impossible.

As to McCain's motive, it seems simple: escalate the "crisis" hype and then when anything happens claim it's because he nobly sacrificed his campaign to parachute in and straighten out his beltway friends, thus saving the homelandt yet again -- just like he won the Iraq war.

Are there enough voters out there who think "Superheroes" is a reality show to hand him a bump in the polls? Not this time. Nobody wants to back an embarrassment.  

I dunno (0.00 / 0)
Bill Clinton tells us we shouldn't parse McCain's "good faith" attempt to transcend partisanship in this time of crisis.  
no comment. nt. (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
I wouldn't even mind Bill's sly McCain love, (4.00 / 1)
but I do wish he'd quit reminding voters how Dems can be the worst bullshit artists of all.  
[ Parent ]
I think it's the droopy eye... (0.00 / 0)

something happened.

The McCain campaign doesn't want everyone talking about John's health me thinks.

droopy eye (0.00 / 0)
You can kind of see it in this photo (from the Washington Post front page at this moment, but front page photos rotate)

http://media.washingtonpost.co...

methinks primary reason is shielding Palin (0.00 / 0)
McCain is in it deep.  His VP pick that seemed like gold just isn't learning fast enough at Wingnut U.  Palin's Couric interview was terrible, and so yesterday afternoon he was in a quandry: how can he huff up all the media oxygen so that the Palin interview isn't the top news story?

He knows he has less money for the general than Obama, and since it appears that this financial bailout will NOT pass by Friday, he says that he won't attend the debate so he can attend to more pressing matters.  (aka the dog ate my homework, presidential candidate edition)

By rescheduling the presidential debate to the VP debate, he protects Palin from more scrutiny.  How noble, how gentlemanly, how 1940s.  I think this is the end goal: shielding Palin from the VP debate, while temporarily going dark out of necessity and having a plausible (to him) excuse for it.

end the occupation of Iraq

Witness the GI Bill (4.00 / 1)
McCain likes to be wrong and then take credit for the work of the people who get it right.

John McCain opposes the GI Bill.
A valid reason, but probably not HIS reason (0.00 / 0)
The one thing McCain could bring to discussions about this financial crisis is his experience from the S&L crisis.  He could conceivably say, "I was on the wrong side of that, and that experience taught me some things we should watch out for this time."

(I don't think this will happen.)

I disagree on the premise (0.00 / 0)
This was his statement yesterday afternoon. McCain's statement yesterday was specifically, unless I'm mistaken and I'm pretty sure I'm not, referring to the first bill. He was right about that -- it wasn't going to pass. It was not till late afternoon/early evening yesterday that the Dodd bill starting getting talked up as close to agreed upon.

These two bills have really been blurred together over the last 24 hours; this is just another instance. We need to take care around here, for everybody's sake, to keep these 2 bills distinguished.

Oops and Cripes and Oh Shit (0.00 / 0)
Oops: Now I read the linked article and see that he said this this morning. My bad.

Cripes: He has made his (bad) choice and he's sticking with it. When you're in a hole, stop digging.

O Shit: He's throwing a monkey wrench into the deal, as some have predicted. He's going to show up at Bush's pad in a couple hours, make it clear that he wants Pulled From His Ass Sticking Points 1-5 added to the bill. This will effectively push back this mess past the debate if not further, thereby pushing the market down and critically endangering our economy JUST SO HE CAN GO ON TV AND BLAME OBAMA FOR NOT SUSPENDING HIS CAMPAIGN.

[ Parent ]
I'm surprised we haven't heard more of this (4.00 / 1)
But why do we want a guy who doesn't understand the economy rushing back to DC to save the economy?

John McCain opposes the GI Bill.
I still don't get it, this is suicidal for Democrats (0.00 / 0)
Why the democrats have taken ownership of this bill, put in a stopgap measure, and not pushed it off to the new administration.

It's just pathetic.

You can make an argument - though a bad one - about the FISA law - here we are, 3 months later, and no one seems to care - so that may be a good political judgment.

But NO ONE - the polls are very clear - the public is very unhappy with this bailout.  It's what - 99% unpopular?  They REALLY think that there won't be IMMEDIATE ads cut, saying "[Fill in the blank] Congressman voted with the wasteful Democrats for a 700 BILLION bailout of the crooks on Wall Street.  Every taxpayer just sent 5000 of their own money to crooks an reckless Wall Street executives (flash on a limousine, 2 smiling, leering, guys in suits, but with that crooked look, saying "now I get to KEEP my 3rd home - and make some MORE millions at taxpayer expense!!".

So many possibilities for ads - regular guy/gal, a knock on the door, a Congressman next to a Wall Street executive saying "give me 5000 dollars" - and then he hands it to the Wall Street executive", says "thanks - you've kept our financial system going".  And then they drive off, with a "your Democratic Congress at work".  The limo ad above.  A mother and a child, with a nameless official giving a "bill" to the child of 5 to 10 Grand, saying "this is yours now - courtesy of the Democratic Congress".

So why are the Democrats going to take responsibility for it, right before elections??   Especially since they must be bright enough to see that Krugman is right, regarding that Paulson had made the determination to throw money at the financial system.

What Krugman intuits, usually becomes the common wisdom - although much later - so can you imagine the loathing, beyond how Congress is loathed now, as Congress enabled this?

I have finally gotten to the point where I have really given up on the Democrats.  They are simply craven, and let Bush and company, still - STILL! - 40 days away from an election, manipulate them like puppets on a string.

It's just pathetic, really.  And in the current political environment, TOTALLY SUICIDAL!!

I don't get it.

Those polls refer to the first bill, not the Dodd compromise (0.00 / 0)
They are fundamentally different. There's no polling yet that I'm aware of on the Dodd bill.
[ Parent ]
Will be a distinction with a difference (0.00 / 0)
For the nation at large.
[ Parent ]
What are his five points? (0.00 / 0)
Obama had five reasonably good ones (as far as they went). What does McCain want added to the legislation?

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What's McCain Up To? | 30 comments
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