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First of all, and to quote David Letterman, the set up stinks.

After spending a couple of weeks going from "the fundamentals are strong" to "the economy is in the worst shape it's ever been"; from "we have to deregulate more" to "we should put some regulations in there"; from "the bailout is the only way to save the economy" to "I haven't even read the 3-page summary of the bailout"; from "no one in my campaign has had any dealings recently with Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae" to "The New York Times is a pro-Obama, liberal-biased rag hiding behind journalism for finding out that Freddie Mac was paying a lobbying firm created by Rick Davis, my campaign manager, $15k/mo for seemingly no work in return, and then printing about it." It should be noted that, as of Thursday, Davis remained as both campaign manager AND as an officer at the lobbying firm.

Despite loud protestations regarding his ability to handle an economic crisis, no one was buying, his numbers were slipping and the situation on Wall Street worsened.

Wednesday morning, the Obama campaign reaches out to McCain's, offering a chance to jointly come out with a statement laying out the conditions to which they'd both agree to a bill that would address the economic breakdown. It would be a show of bipartisanship from the two candidates a little under 72 hours from their first debate.

Radio silence from McCain.

Then he drops the suspension-of-campaign bomb, then publicly asking Obama to do the same without even mentioning it to Obama as an option first. He cancels campaign appearances, even a high-profile softball guest spot on Letterman last night. The crisis was too important, you see, no time for such frivolities. McCain is later spotted taping an interview with Katie Couric at the CBS News HQ in New York, right around the time he'd've been on Letterman.

In the midst of all this he's saying he's not showing up for the debates, and to top that off, maybe they should cancel postpone the Veep debates too.

Meanwhile, down in DC, where they have people capable of both addressing the current meltdown AND get input/feedback from the presidential candidates from afar, the majority party of both arms of the Legislature have hammered out an agreement of what they think should be on the $700 billion bailout bill, and are ready to present it to the Republicans Thursday morning.

Surely the Republicans have people with the ken it takes to negotiate from there...What exactly does McCain intend to add to the proceedings?

"All of sudden, now that we are on the verge of making a deal, John McCain here drops himself in to help us make a deal," [Rep. Barney] Frank (D-Mass) said.

He expressed fear that McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona who has spent much of the year away from the Capitol campaigning, could end up slowing down work on the bill.

Frank is not alone in that fear; Senator Harry Reid agrees. Sure, both Frank and Reid are Democrats, and could be playing partisan games, you still have to wonder if they don't have a point.

No, sorry, just like "lipstick = Palin," this won't wash. Sorry, Senator McCain.

May I suggest a nap before you go back to your debate preparations.