John McCain Will Debate After All

The McCain campaign, after swooping into Washington a full day later then they said they would, after never suspending any aspect of a campaign they said they would and after making once-friendly David Letterman feel like an "ugly date," now says that they will, after all, attend the debate in Mississippi tonight.

Why? Wasn't the original purpose of John McCain "suspending" his campaign to be able to stay in Washington until this financial crisis was resolved? Does this mean it is resolved then?

Let's review. The "agreement in principle" that a bi-partisan committee had come up with before McCain arrived in Washington is floundering at best. House Republicans are still acting as blocking agents. McCain came into town, said very little and then backed a plan completely different from the one that had gendered support across the aisles, a plan that Secretary Paulson said "would not work." The largest bank failure in the history of the country happened overnight.

Nope. Problem definitely not resolved.

So then why is McCain back aboard the Debate train? Simply, really. Because the polls and the voice of the people yelled at him that he needs to be.

This whole thing was a grandstand ploy to try and make John McCain look heroic and responsible while also allowing him to avoid the extra attention of a debate during a time of plummeting polls and giving him additional prep time. This despite the fact that he has known when the debate was for just as long as Obama and that he once again, during that interview with Katie Couric when he was supposed to be on Letterman, has accused Obama of basically being mean to him by not giving him he "ten Town Hall's."

It's transparent. It's ridiculous. It got him ridiculed extensively for two nights by a man reputed to be one of the sharpest wits in America, who used to be enough of a friend that McCain announced his candidacy for President on his show. It made the people of the U.S. actively engage in conversation along the lines of "What the hell is he thinking?"

And it got him caught in one of the silliest accusations yet, when his team called the White House meeting a "shouting match" and tried to blame it on Obama (without ever saying they were trying to blame it on Obama, of course.) Really now, John. We're supposed to believe the guy that kept his cool through everything he has been faced with this year was the one that got into a shouting match, and the guy with the nasty temper who calls his wife things you can't repeat on television was the calm one. Um, your buddy George would say "That dog won't hunt."

Oh, but hey. At least it distracted everyone from noticing what a fool Sarah Plain looked like when Katie Couric asked about Alaska being next door to Russia again.