Not McCain's best week

This was a really bad week for John McCain.

After declaring that America's economy was in great shape, even as it melted down around him, he spent much of last week putting spin on his remarks and flip-flopping so fast voters were getting dizzy trying to keep up (as an example, saying on Wednesday he supported the AIG bailout and less than 12 hours later on Thursday saying he opposed it). Then he refused to comment on the president's three-page bailout plan, saying he hadn't had time to read it (three pages!).

Then he "suspended" his campaign so he could ride his white horse into Washington, D.C., and save the country, a move that began to look more and more like pure political theater rather than actual capability. Even Republicans were upset at his trying to claim credit for the hard work they'd been putting into crafting a more detailed bipartisan plan that would protect taxpayers as much as possible. Democrats and Republicans announced they had a deal, and within hours after his arrival, the GOP withdrew from the deal.

So ignoring everything he'd said about the need to be there, he headed to the debates anyway, blaming Obama for everything. Obama, meanwhile stuck by the plan that he'd first proposed last summer and reiterated this spring, a plan that looked remarkably like the compromise Republicans and Democrats put together Sunday, but which failed in the House Monday.

Sunday, GOP leaders were praising McCain for crafting the 140-page compromise and helping get enough votes together to ensure its passage (ironically, the man who did that praising voted against the bill Monday).

Then Monday he took credit in a press release for the bailout package hours before it failed due to massive defections by the Republicans. Those Republicans apparently got miffed that Pelosi had (heaven forbid!) criticized Bush's policies leading up to the crisis, and, in the only explanation offered, said that was why they voted against the bill. They got their feelings hurt, which was more important apparently than saving the country. McCain's influence appeared sadly lacking.

With less than a month to go before the election the economic meltdown has seriously exposed McCain in a way none of us would have expected.

It was not his best week.

-- Kelly Everitt