i really, truly hope so.

also, i think....i think this man is the voice of reason for america. given to us by the celto-scottish gods.

born from a bagpipe.

The fact that even the late night hosts, who usually strive to be apolitical (or rather, to mock both candidates equally) are giving McCain shit over this, is probably a bad sign for the old coot. This is going to backfire hilariously and 20 years from now it's going to end up in some magazine article listing the ten biggest electoral fuckups.

One hopes, anyway.

Something tells me McCain is going to occupy more than one space on that list

I'm sorry, but i can't help but disagree.
Mccain leaving the campaign trail tells me he takes this seriously - and helps to debunk the notion that the economy is in serious trouble, as the Obama campaign has been implying since the "Housing" gaffe.
It may harm him some.
But I don't care - He's doing the right thing.

What will REALLY hurt him is if the "Anti-Pork" "Maverick" signs the bail out. (Which, unless I'm mistaken, is the biggest fiscal expense the government has ever enacted, if it passes - though, admittedly, i haven't fact-checked that.)

Slight Add-On: Attempting to cancel the debate IS Bullshit, though. I'm Just referring to him leaving the campaign trail to head to DC where he may (Or may not) be needed.

I think, if you watch Dave a few videos down, you'll see that McCain says he needs to cancel because he wants to get back to Washington, but as Dave is filming, McCain is a few blocks away in New York doing an interview with Katie Couric - really not suspending his campaign. Anyway, this is 5 layers of bullshit, as what can John McCain really do that nobody else can in this situation?

I'm confused by one part there: "helps to debunk the notion that the economy is in serious trouble".

McCain went from saying the economy was fine and dandy a week ago to saying we are all DOOMED if this thing isn't passed in two days. His rhetoric now makes Obama look optimistic. How can he be debunking that notion then?

Like Craig said, it'd be one thing if he said "I'm taking a few days off to work on this" (which wasn't needed or requested), but its another to say, "I want my opponent to suspend his campaign while I run around meeting campaign donors and doing news shows, and by the way, Palin's not going to show up for the debate and I might not either."

Sorry. I phrased that a little wrong - Defuse the accusations that he thinks everything is all hunky-dory.

Too bad the people actually working on the bailout don't want either him or Obama there.

ProfessorChaos doesn't seem to understand that the workings of congress can handle two senators not in DC. This is the 21st century. Both McCain and Obama are kept well aware and in the loop while on the road. Neither of them need to be, and wont be, grilling Paulson or Bernanke on the economy or the bailout plan.

McCain is playing politics.

Yes but his constituents' telephones consist of paper cups with really long strings. They are old and in the middle of nowhere, and neither they nor McCain know how to use e-mail.

Of course, everybody else (75%+ in unscientific polling) knows that this is bullshit. And if McCain or Palin try to dodge their debates they're going to look like huge pussies no matter what -- even to their base.

^^ this is true. I frequent a couple of message boards for my favorite NFL team - usually a hotbed for "Barack Hussein Osama" jokes, about as close to Freep as you could get without the real thing - and even on those boards they're shaking their heads over McCain's support for the bailout, and for suspending the campaign and ditching on the debates, and Palin's drool-mouthed idiocy. There are still a couple of hard-cores left, but (in a very unscientific way, I admit) you can almost see McCain's base evaporating by the day.

So, Professor Chaos, speaking from 2010--how does it feel to be a complete fucking drool-mouthed moron? NOT GOOD I EXPECT!

About TARP ... if you want to see how it's doing, go to this link:

http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/financial-stability/report s/Pages/Daily-TARP-Reports.aspx

As of the latest TARP report (June 18 2013), just shy of 0 billion was disbursed, and a little over 7 billion has been recouped through repayments, investments, and the like.

Every reputable economist agrees that TARP kept the economy from completely melting down, Great Depression style, and in the end TARP will likely turn a profit. So to you dullards on the right who said we couldn't afford it ... we could, did, and are the better for it. And you dullards on the left who think TARP was some giveaway to corporate America ... it's an awfully funny giveaway that requires you to repay what you received.

I like it. I figure if he's twice the citizen, I can slack off.

teener, I like your style

He's only taking the civic duties you don't want.

That McCain is less scared of a primetime newscaster than he is of a late night talk show host is... horrible. But not expected. The guy is a surprisingly huge pussy.

That line just cracked me right up.

2009 sez: tell that to Palin :D

John McCain cuts and runs.

The Democrats have my express permission to use this line.

Oh, like you totally haven't done that.

In middle school when you didn't want to give your oral report on the destruction of the rainforest.

Yeah, but if I had to skip a day of school I didn't just make a lame excuse, I made myself throw up or faked a fever. Pretending to be old-man sick probably wouldn't have hurt his campaign any worse.

Then you are either a soulless automaton or English. Which might as well be the same thing.