"The global economic crisis was barely averted today by the courageous efforts of US Presidential candidate, John McCain, who selflessly set aside his campaign -- putting country first, while rival Barack Obama practiced for a debate -- to work around the clock with a breakaway group of maverick House Republicans to get them to back the $700 billion troubled assets purchase plan first offerred over the weekend by the genius, Henry Paulson, Treaury Secretary.
Senator McCain, as he has done so often in his long and storied career of public service, used his experience to reach across the aisle and single-handedly negotiate the most important piece of legislation ever acted upon by the US government.
In early polling, results show that 75% of Americans now trust McCain on the economy, up from less than 45% just yesterday."
The above excerpt, from tomorrow's New York Times, is the outcome I see developing. I think the Republicans, just like all Americans, want the economy to get healthy. I think they want to take action and they want it to be the right action. They are, in my view, well-motivated public servants.
They also desperately want the White House.
Is it not possible they might choose to use this opportunity to position their man as the hero of the bailout negotiations? Despite the fact that he sat silently in the President's meeting for hours yesterday while Senator Obama peppered Secretary Paulson with questions, the spin could well develop that the group of conservative House Republicans rallied behind McCain and the day was saved. And Americans will buy it. And, as a result, a man who only a few months ago confessed to knowing little about the economy and who has built a career on the very deregulation that brought us to this place, could well be elected our next President.
Watch the spin in the next 24-36 hours. The cynic in me says this will be done in time for him to arrive in Mississippi at the debate tonight as the conquering hero, but the skeptic thinks even that might be impossible to engineer. I don't know if there will be a debate, but I expect there will be. By the way, the spin on that will be that Mr McCain will look bad because, instead of practicing this last few days, he's been trying to save the world...