Well, I confess I didn't think John McCain would debate tonight. The deal seemed too far off this morning to plausibly claim that it was close enough for him to fly down to Mississippi. It undercuts his original argument about the paramount importance of coming to an accord on a bailout that he's now meeting up with Obama to argue about Ukraine's NATO inclusion.
Lindsey Graham was lowering the bar for success this morning, saying all they would require is an "outline or proposal that will protect the taxpayer" instead of a true agreement.
Before that news broke, former Clinton adviser Hank Sheinkopf argued on Fox & Friends, against interest and conventional wisdom, that Obama standing on that stage alone tonight would have looked like a self-indulgent boob and McCain would have looked like a hero. "And, voters are looking for a hero," he added.
Now that that point is moot, what pray tell, are they going to talk about? And, what must McCain say to come out on top, here? Pundits can throw out all those "5 keys to a McCain win" columns they wrote Monday.
McCain has suffered, fairly or not, a bad week of press, with the MSM buying the Dems' argument that there was a magical, mythical deal until McCain got to Washington, "injected presidential politics," and blew everything up leaving Hank Paulson to suffer the indignity of kneeling at the feet of Nancy Pelosi. There was, of course, a deal only in the sense that there was an agreement between everyone on the Hill except for the very people Pelosi and Dems need to back the bill- House Republicans.
The press, which always viewed McCain's suspension as purely political, will hammer him again for suddenly deciding the deal could wait until after the debate. (And, why must they debate tonight? Doesn't it feel as if we're indulging a MSM/Obama temper tantrum in the face of economic doom?)
But there's still work to be done, and McCain can still position himself as a leader in a mighty unorthodox way, from the debate stage. He reportedly met with a bunch of GOP leaders this morning. The debate will necessarily touch upon the economy and the bailout, probably as the first topic, so why not use the debate as a platform for introducing a new formulation of the bailout, including taxpayer protection and some conservative concessions, to the 50 million viewers? Message: "While Barack was at the gym today, I and some of my colleagues came up with a plan we think will work better for you, the American taxpayer, and I'd like to tell you a little bit about it."
One of the principal problems with the original Paulson package is that no one even attempted to sell it to the American people. The reason it has gone down in flames is because citizens are mad about that, making calls, and forcing Pelosi and Co. to seek the broad support of Congressional Republicans even though they could pass it without them.
It would seem to me that Oxford, Miss. might not be a bad launching pad for Bill Kristol's Option No. 3- a new, improved plan that would place McCain at the center of the solution, make voters happier, and get taxpayers at least partially off the hook. It's risky, but no one is happy with the current plan, and there's no reason a new one couldn't gain significant support if the American people were substantially happier with it than the Paulson plan. Obama, although cool under pressure, has been anything but influential in this debate. He's still in danger of looking impotent if McCain actually delivers something.
It just feels like that's about the only way to gain by stepping on that stage tonight after having staked so much on the argument that the debate in Washington was what mattered. The McCain camp has spent the summer living by a modified mantra of tournament play: "surprise and advance." Surprise us again, Maverick.
