Mr. McCain Goes to Washington

Last Wednesday, John McCain threw the political and media establishments on their ear by announcing he was planning to suspend his presidential campaign and return to Washington, D.C. to help broker a deal that would stave off the seemingly imminent collapse of our financial infrastructure.

The next 24-72 hours of McCain's campaign may well turn out to be among the most disastrous of his political career. Consider:

• McCain cancelled his appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. Letterman invited outspoken McCain critic Keith Olbermann on in his stead and then spent the vast majority of the program raking McCain over the coals. A YouTube clip that distills Letterman's assaults has been viewed over 2.3 million times.

• Rather than head straight back to D.C., McCain stayed in New York, gave an interview to Katie Couric, spent the night, then spoke at the Clinton Global Initiative on Thursday morning.

• The 24-hour delay between his announcement and his arrival in D.C. proved costly, as it allowed the Dems to get their ducks in a row and turn McCain's plan against him in the following ways:
  

• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank (D-MA), seemed to ink a compromise deal with enough support before McCain showed up, leaving the Arizona Republican to look less like the cavalry riding in to save the day than a superfluous attention-seeker whose only way to remain relevant was to throw the deal off track.

  
  

• When it came time to meet with leaders from the two parties and President Bush at the White House, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) handed over role of lead negotiator to Barack Obama, who then pressed McCain to choose between siding with the conservative base in the House that had revolted against the original bailout on the one hand, or with the bipartisan agreement supported by Dems, Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. Reports indicate that McCain would not respond to Obama's repeated requests for him to say which plan he supported. Eventually, the notoroiously tempermental McCain left the meeting a few minutes early, erasing any chance for the big bi-partisan presidential photo-op with him, Obama, Bush and other congressional leaders.

• When McCain announced he was suspending his campaign, he also indicated he would not attend the debate if a deal had not been reached. Because he took so long getting to D.C., he wasn't part of brokering a deal but of breaking the deal. With no agreement in place, McCain had to find a way to justify attending the debate without losing face. The answer from his campaign: Senator McCain believes progress is being made and he will return to D.C. immediately after the debate and remain there until a deal emerges.
  

• McCain's running-mate Sarah Palin's disastrous interview with Katie Couric meant she continued to be hidden from the press, allowing Joe Biden to make the rounds in the hours after the debate while McCain's VP was conspicuously MIA.

• McCain's temper seemed to show in the debate, in which, despite maintaining that he likes to reach across the aisle, could not even look across the stage at Obama. This bit of body language has featured prominently in post-debate coverage and will likely result in an awkward bit of over-compensation in the second debate.

• With no deal in place, and McCain having sworn he'd return to D.C., the Maverick spent all day Saturday holed up in his Arlington, VA condo. This will have some repercussions, to be sure. With only five weekends left before the election, weekend events allow candidates opportunities to draw the largest possible crowds while also ensuring that they don't have to compete with other news. For instance, instead of trying to maintain the appearance of putting country first, Obama hit the trail in the battleground state of North Carolina, where he hammered McCain on the economy in front of 20,000 people in Greensboro.

All in all, not a great couple of days for the Straight Talk Express.