Just some random thoughts before I get on a plane to Michigan. I honestly believe that the determinative factor in McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign and go to Washington was that he thought it was the right thing to do (in other words, politics was part of it, but he wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t feel it was his duty). Whether his move helps the situation or hurts it is hard to figure out now and may only be knowable in hindsight (and perhaps not even then). But politicization is a two way street. If the Democrats’ reaction to McCain’s intervention is to care more about denying him a victory than to get the deal done, they’re just as guilty of “politicizing” this mess. And even more egregious is Barney Frank’s apparent effort (I’d like more reporting on this) to funnel more shmundo to left wing shock troops like ACORN.
Obviously, I have no idea what will happen tonight with the debate, but is it all possible that if the debate does happen that they’ll spend the evening talking about NATO expansion and CAFTA? Indeed, Obama’s argument that presidents need to be able to do more than one thing at a time is at odds with his rhetoric that the American people should hear from these two candidates about what they’ll do to handle this crisis. The airport TVs seem to alternate between those two soundbites from Obama. Which is it? The show goes on with a foreign policy debate, or the debate becomes a seminar on the financial crisis? I honestly don’t know what Obama’s actual position is.
Whatever happens in the future, the politician I’ve come to detest in all of this the most is Harry Reid. Either he’s amazingly out of his depth, or he is a shamelessly dishonest politician. Exhorting John McCain to come to Washington and then denouncing McCain for following his advice is really irresponsible behavior given the stakes here.