We had a cat fight at the White House yesterday. The Republicans turned on their own party, rallying around a rogue package - that had previously been killed by the White House. It appears that progress on the Paulson bailout package was proceeding albeit tortuously, when suddenly, the speeding John McCain arrived and threw it into turmoil. Very Presidential John.
And what a sense of urgency displayed by candidate McCain. He rushed to cancel his appearance with Letterman only to be interviewed later by Katie Couric, then spent the evening at a hotel, dawdling the next morning only to finally arrive in Washington in the afternoon. You suspended your campaign for this?
At least he's going to debate now, although I'm sure he didn't want to. Apparently his team's trial balloon about pushing back the debate so that it replaced the VP debate date didn't go over well. Too bad for them. I have a sense that Sarah is not coming up to speed as quickly as they hoped. The good news: She's got the Lipstick line down cold. And how about those photo ops at the UN? Now she has met some heads of state and she's clearly qualified to be commander in chief. Forget the lipstick and the pig; this is the emporer's new clothes. Maybe Olberman can start a "Days since nomination and still no press conference" count.
I must admit that I've been proud of Congress for pushing back at Bush and Paulson. Our financial system remains on life support and some sort of action must occur. However, the Bush/Paulson proposal was a classic Neocon power grab. This language was ballsy even for Bush : "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are nonreviewable ... and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." George must be tired of all those pesky Congressional hearings. I'm sure the Neocons were licking their lips at the prospect of "losing" a few more billion in the process. For once Congress got it right and added oversight provisions as well as protections for home owners. Of course that was before "McCain the Maverick" came to town and blew it up.
The good news for us: Congress consists of a bunch of rich people who can't afford to have our system implode. Something will get done. The bad news: we're paying for it.
Regardless, it's debate night. I'm predicting a major McCain stumble if not tonight then before the end of the debates. I'm sure he'll attempt a Regan-like line similar to the famous "I won't hold your age and lack of experience against you", but I doubt it will land. The great communicator he's not.
Grab the popcorn and pay attention.
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