What's Next For Camp McCain?

I was watching the coverage yesterday of McCain's decision to "suspend" his campaign and blow off the first debate. Barney Frank called the decision "the Mother of All Hail Mary passes" or something like that. I've also heard McCain's decision to tap Palin for the VP slot being described as a "Hail Mary pass." It makes you wonder what other gimmicks McCain has in store for us over the next several weeks.

Clearly McCain is terrified to let this election be decided on the issues -- in fact, didn't one of his campaign people actually say that this election will not be about issues?

The best part of McCain's recent stunt is all the hysterical shit that has resulted from it. This David Letterman stuff is hilarious. And I loved Barney Frank's comment that "We’re trying to rescue the economy, not the McCain campaign." I also enjoyed this post from Kevin Drum:

A couple of hours ago I suggested that maybe John McCain would try to postpone the first debate to October 2nd because that would then eliminate the vice presidential debate. (So sad....) I thought I was just being hackishly cynical when I said that, but no: according to CNN, that's exactly what McCain is proposing. The VP debate would then be "rescheduled." (Perhaps to November 5th, joked Dana Milbank.)

My lesson for the day: No matter how hackishly cynical you think you are, you're no match for the hackish cynicism of the McCain campaign.

But some people think that all of the recent maneuvering is merely setting the stage for this:

Democrats fear this morning that McCain is setting up a scenario in which he will vote against the bill, rally conservatives to his side and, most importantly, distance himself from both President Bush and Congress before the election.

Of course, both McCain and Palin are on the record at least supporting the idea of a bailout, so a McCain flip-flop on this issue might do more harm to his campaign than good. But it would sure be an interesting development, wouldn't it.

By the way, I find this very interesting:

Though Sen. John McCain says the nation's current financial crisis requires "all hands on deck" because "the whole future of the American economy is in danger," he admitted in an interview in Cleveland on Tuesday that he hadn't even read the Bush administration's proposed rescue plan that was unveiled over the weekend.

If the rescue plan was a 1000-page document, I could understand McCain's failure to read it. But as Josh Marshall notes, the Paulson Plan is three pages long.