Snarkastic

Cynical.

Shortening the GOP convention, restricting access to the Veep, finding a way out of looking bad at the first debate...

Johnny Mac whips out the "bi-partisan, beyond politics" card when he's behind the eight-ball.

One could call it "survival."

It is certainly cynical and definitely pro-reactive, unfortunately I also think it's a nasty brilliant move. McCain, the guy who told reporters last year, "the issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should. I've got Greenspan's book", is now the guy who is willing to put this crisis ahead of his campaign for president. So now he may not know much, but he's got the right attitude (not my opinion, just how it will get be generally interpreted).

To make matters worse, regardless of how right he is, Obama's refusal to postpone the debate just plays into the McCain accusation that Obama cares more about winning the election than the American people. This will be true even if there is nothing for them to do as neither of them are on any relevant committees or have much influence in these matters. Or that the debate is scheduled for 9:00pm on Friday.

I've seen a lot of people on the boards drilling McCain for this and he deserves it. But I'm afraid that the average American isn't going to see it that way.

This is basically the John McCain equivalent of clinging desperately to a tree and yelling "BASE!!!!" like we all did as six-year-olds playing freeze tag, but Sparrow isn't entirely wrong -- he may fool plenty of people into thinking he's the hero in all this.

Still, there are any number of good comebacks Obama could employ -- "Wow, McCain has missed nearly two-thirds of the votes in the 110th Senate, and now all of a sudden he's found one he's just got to show up for," for example -- and given that the momentum has swung decidedly back in Obama's favor, he's still got a chance to be viewed as the more credible party here. I mean, looking at the "Is X qualified to be president" polls, even Sarah Palin has lost some of her luster.

The "BASE!" assessment is the most cogent analysis of the McCain campaign I've read all season.