Who Needs John McCain?

Apparently not Congress. Debate's still on, old man!

From The Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Warned that time was running short to bolster the distressed economy, congressional Republicans and Democrats reported agreement in principle Thursday on a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, and said they would present it to the Bush administration in hopes of a vote within days.

Emerging from a two-hour negotiating session, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said, "We are very confident that we can act expeditiously."

"I now expect that we will indeed have a plan that can pass the House, pass the Senate (and) be signed by the president," said Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah.

The bipartisan consensus on the general direction of the legislation was reported just hours before President Bush was to host presidential contenders Barack Obama and John McCain and congressional leaders at the White House for discussions on how to clear obstacles to the unpopular rescue plan.

Key lawmakers said at midday that few difficulties actually remained.

"There really isn't much of a deadlock to break," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

McCain is a magician! The deal may be done and he didn't even have to do anything! It's magic, I tell ya! Magic!

The White House is still playing it cautious, but this further solidifies what a stunt this was by McCain to hijack the narrative and make it about him and not about the economy (or the fact that his poll numbers were crashing).

From CNN:

Sen. John McCain's decision to suspend his campaign is being played by Democrats as a desperate ploy from a campaign in decline and by Republicans as a courageous move to rescue the economy.

The Arizona senator said he won't show up for Friday's presidential debate if no deal is reached on the government's $700 billion bailout proposal, leading Democrats to accuse him of looking for a distraction.

"I think it shows that John McCain is becoming increasingly desperate in his campaign," said Keith Boykin, a Democratic strategist and host of BET's "My Two Cents" ...

Democratic candidate Barack Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden on Thursday accused the Republicans of looking for a "distraction."

"They don't want to debate the issues with us," he said Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky. "They don't want to debate the issues ... because they know they really literally don't have a political leg to stand on."

Touché. Your move, McMaverick.

McCain wants to ditch the debate, economy too important even though it was fine according to him last week!

This is amazing considering a week ago he couldn't even admit there was a crisis, but John McCain is "suspending his campaign" and asking that Barack Obama do the same and them both skip the debate in Mississippi on Friday -- which was supposed to focus on foreign policy

From Jonathan Martin's blog on Politico:

John McCain is calling for the first presidential debate, scheduled for Friday in Mississippi, to be delayed and urging Barack Obama to join him in Washington for a high-level meeting of congressional leaders to address the financial crisis.

McCain said in New York today that he is suspending his campaign tomorrow and will return on Washington.

It's an extraordinary move, plainly aimed at appearing presidential and above the partisan fray at a time of great challenge. It comes a week after McCain struggled to find his footing on the crisis and as national and state polls show him slipping in large part because of voter concerns over the economy.

"I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself," McCain said this afternoon. "It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem."

McCain said his goal was to have a bailout package in place by the start of next week.

Martin also wrote that McCain compared the economic crisis to 9/11.

First of all, what can McCain do that President Bush won't inarticulately butcher in his special address tonight? I watched The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night and former President Bill Clinton broke down the economic mess without even resorting to "house of cards" metaphors.

My God. It's been so long with W. in charge that I forgot presidents could be smart and actually explain their views without massacring the English language.

Considering that going to Mississippi to bark at each other for 90 minutes really wouldn't stop either candidate from engaging in the economic crisis, I'm more baffled that someone didn't just request that the debate topic be switched to the economy so people can compare and contrast McCain and Obama's dueling plans. (Or McCain's lack of plan since the economy was fundamentally sound a few days ago.)

This is pure theater. I wish Obama had thought to first ask that the debate topic be changed because of the crisis. That way this stunt would have a lesser chance of working, but now that McCain's pulled it there aren't a lot of options here. And McCain (obviously) needed to do something that says "I get it" when it comes to the economy because in some polls Obama is opening up a 6-to-9 point lead.

Sigh. I call shenanigans.