The "McCain Plan": Biggest. Gamble. Ever.

Reuters outlines the McCain Plan.

The other news outlets haven't painted the scene in such stark terms. To the extent that the Reuters account is accurate, the observation should be made loud and clear, from town to town and coast to coast, that John McCain, the wild card candidate with a history of gambling, has wagered not merely hundreds of billions of dollars, not simply a campaign or the presidency, but the American economy itself in a politically--no, in a civically--irresponsible electoral stunt. Country first? John McCain no longer deserves the credit he's been generously awarded these past years as a patriot.

And as a maverick? Here's Webster: "an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party." I'd amend that to read "group, party, or country."

It'll be interesting to hear how independent analysts parse the new plan. Obviously, I write from the gut at this immediate moment. Just as the man who wants my vote shoots from the hip.

More Ambinder

I'm gonna pass on another from Marc Ambinder. In a nutshell, Ambinder called out the Obama camp for complaining that McCain will take his economic advisor, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, to the (somewhat irrelevant) White House meeting today. Marc wrote that Holtz Eakin "knows as much about the economy as anyone on McCain's Senate staff." He went on to write "McCain's bringing his best policy guy to a meeting, and he gets knocked for it?" From there, he awarded Obama the cheap shot of the day.

But Ambinder later posted an update:

Update: the Obama campaign says that they were told NOT to bring campaign staff to the White House.

So -- there's a double standard here.

I guess it's not a cheap shot. Just irrelevant.

Just as, it turns, the White House meeting might be, since Congressional leaders and the White House have already reached an agreement on principles, and neither Barack Obama nor John McCain had anything to do with it.

Obama must feel like he's walking into the lion's den, between GWB and John McCain in what appears to be a closely coordinated effort to momentarily derail or at least distract from the campaign. What kind of conversation can that possibly be, anyway?

How's McCain Polling Tonight Among Those 18%?

All the polls have been big news pretty much since the conventions. With Obama pulling steadily ahead in a number of key states and perceived nationwide as a clear leader during economic crisis, it makes sense that McCain would want to derail that steady, effective messaging of the Obama campaign. How better to do so than to trump the conversation about the economy with the only thing going right now that's just as hot: the campaign itself. Suspend the campaign? Delay the debate? Bump the October 2 VP debate? Man alive. There hasn't been this much inane chatter since the Palin announcement last month.

Which is exactly the point. Since about 2:00 today (mountain time) nobody's been talking about the economy (except the president in prime time, but I'm not sure anybody was listening). Bad as all this is probably bound to play out for McCain in the long run, tonight has got to be a welcome break for the beleaguered campaign staff. Rick Davis? Who's Rick Davis? Nobody could quit talking about Rick Davis all morning, and nobody's talking about Rick Davis tonight, so something might just have worked as hoped today for Camp McCain. Granted, tomorrow presents a whole new host of challenges, suspended campaign or no, but the president just called both candidates in off the trail for a meeting of the minds on the credit meltdown, and I don't see how that's not going to throw Obama's crew off just a little, even if only by annoying them to death with the blatant triviality of the thing.

Back to the polls, though. Here's the only question that probably matters tonight: How is the McCain campaign stunt playing to that 18% of undecideds out there who will push this thing one way or the other on November 4? Are they seeing the media play on all this and wondering "WTF?" just like the rest of us? Or is there a sentiment out there that McCain really is putting country first, putting the campaign aside for the greater good, and making a genuine effort to solve this thing before we're all out of work? Are undecided voters sitting back, waiting to see decisive action on the economic crisis, and saying "Thank God somebody's finally doing something! He's got my vote."

I don't think it's likely, but it's a screwy scene out there and I'm not ready to rule it out. For every undecided who bites, however, I think there's a thoughtful conservative or two trying like hell to find reasons to vote Republican and coming up shy. And today's antics sure aren't helping the cause.

The 8:30 AM Phone Call

Everybody understands that Obama called McCain at 8:30 this morning to suggest that the two men work together on a joint statement about the economy. Right? Right?

A Simple Lunchtime Walk

Go for a simple, lunchtime walk and come back to a three-ring political circus. Nice.