Noodling: State of the Campaign

I was just catching a Kiwi friend up on events of the day here in the States, and in the course of explaining the bailout meltdown in the House today I happened upon this lone thought rattling round in my head: McCain sure looks pretty silly tonight. What do you suppose that means?

Here's how I captured it in my email.

Also, what makes this even messier is presidential politics. McCain took credit just this morning for fixing the economy, and then the whole bailout rescue bill fell apart. He's looking mighty silly at the moment, and you can bet he's giving hell to a whole lot of Republicans he thought he could count on. Not sure what that does to the mix. I sort of think it shows you just how unpopular McCain is within his party, and that Republican officeholders around the country have written him off. I mean, if they thought he was gonna be the next Pres, wouldn't they be working pretty damn hard to make sure they're seen making him look good?

What do you think? Am I on to something? Or is this merely an indication of how tough the field looks for incumbents, and Republicans (and Democrats as well, I should point out) in tough races desperately need to make their constituents happy and eke out the votes? First, keep the seat, then kiss the tuckus?

One other possibility, of course, is that the GOP has a Plan, and though none of this makes any sense now it just might in a few days. I'd be curious to know what other thoughts are floating around out there. The more I consider my original thought, though, the more I like it. It's no secret that conservatives don't much like McCain, nor that many Rs think he's pissed in the pot with the Palin pick (sorry, just finished editing a chapter on alliteration). Maybe the GOP really has written this thing off.