But it is hard to see what McCain can do to help, and easy to see how his intervention could hurt. He brings, as he himself has admitted in the past, no expertise to the table. And won't Democrats be less likely to cooperate on a plan if doing so will help make McCain be the hero of the hour?
So McCain's move may have been a mistake on substance. It may prove to be a political mistake too: If McCain can't bring both parties together in an economic crisis after staking so much on it, won't voters draw adverse conclusions about his
leadership ability? What do you think?
I hadn't even considered that he'd fail to pass something. I think this gives the Democrats a winning play: make a show of accommodating McCain, but just don't pass a bill by his deadline. McCain fails according to his own timeline, he gets back on the campaign trail (he can't afford to be off it for a few days) having been unsuccessful, Obama attacks him for being presumptuous and a leadership failure. The more I think of it, the less this move makes sense. McCain can get blamed if a bill passes and it doesn't work. He can get blamed if a bill doesn't pass and things get worse. He can even get blamed if a bill doesn't pass and things don't get better. And the odds of the Democrats giving McCain a boost at this point are bad.
He can blame Democrats if a bill doesn't happen, but McCain just took ownership for this bailout package. It's that simple.
What an idiot.
