This week's perspective, from the illumination provided by 200 million televisions...

First, a word to the nervous... There is no "trap." Bush was caught napping by two very different "Pearl Harbors" that will encapsulate the sad legacy of his presidency like bookends. The wheels are falling off the Straight Talk apple cart while it's racing downhill, and McCain can't get it stopped to make repairs. The signpost up ahead reads "Applesauce."

Here's how this latest sequence of events unfolded:

1. Obama called McCain and suggested a "bipartisan statement of shared principles" on the topic of the bailout bill.

The plan was to stake out areas of agreement on both sides of the aisle in an effort to help gain consensus and, no doubt, gain the initiative over McCain on this topic.

2. McCain clearly didn't want to be seen as a follower, so he tried to up the ante to get Obama to follow him in a grandstanding gesture to lead a charge on Capitol Hill.

He did this in spite of the fact that neither senator is a major player in any banking committee, and could only slow things down. The move provided distraction from negative newsbytes, a chance to delay the debate, and a chance to use that delay to provide cover for Palin, possibly even getting her debate delayed.

3. Obama knew better, and said "Let's just issue the statement of principles for now, and discuss the campaign issue later."

This was, of course a "No."

4. McCain, despite (I'm intuitively sure) being discouraged by anyone in his campaign with common sense, rushed to the media to announce his suspension, trying to force Obama's hand.

5. Obama did not take the bait.

6. McCain got Bush to call Obama back to Washington, to promote the appearance that either candidate could actually come late to the table and still have a significant impact on the issues already discussed by the real players in Congress.

Surprisingly, the White House actually admitted the meeting was McCain's idea. Nice to have that kind of "home field advantage" influence.



It would be tough for McCain to duck the debate at this point. Even if he somehow manages to get the republican reps to delay the passage of this legislation, he'll be hounded by camera crews eager to show what he's doing *instead* of the debate. Letterman already caught him in makeup for a Katie Couric interview after a late, "fiscal emergency" cancellation. It would be hard to come up with a diversion that seems important, especially if other lawmakers have already gone home.

The more McCain pushes this issue, the more he looks childish, inept, and bureaucratic. At this point, he's figuring that out and is now just trying to get an angle that gives him an out for his latest failed tactical move.

Between an apoplectic fear of letting Palin talk -- one that gets justified every time she answers a reporter's question -- a campaign manager who's been taking failed bank money all year, and being an anti-regulation zealot during a regulatory failure scandal, McCain is imploding under the weight of both those issues and his nutty failed schemes to circumvent them.

Deep in the bowels of McCain Campaign Central, how many times do you think hushed phrases like "Mitt Romney," "executive financial experience," "better choice than Palin for this crisis," and "coulda, shoulda, woulda" are heard, on those occasions when the boss is out of the office?

Those same staffers are probably grateful for this campaign "pause" giving them a chance to update their resumés.