MSNBC is reporting that Congress is close to reaching a deal on the bailout. Top leaders are huddling today at 10:00 a.m. to work out the details before taking the plan to the White House where President George W. Bush will be meeting with Barack Obama and John McCain. Sen. Olympia Snowe said that she wasn’t sure that the deal would be complete before the end of the week.
The timing of the deal will have a huge impact on whether McCain will attend tomorrow night’s debate in Oxford, Mississippi. I still don’t understand McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign and get involved in this problem. He doesn’t sit on a committee with jurisdiction and several outlets are quoting sources from inside the Treasury suggesting that McCain’s decision has unnecessarily politicized the situation.
Chuck Todd reports that House Republicans were on the verge of killing this bailout plan, which would have resulted in a negative that McCain could not have survived. He also notes that polls were moving quickly to Obama and McCain needed to get away from the bad political week he was having. “At the photo op, he’ll declare victory,” Todd said.
John Dickerson of Slate writes, “John McCain has launched his second Hail Mary pass in a month. On Wednesday he called for a suspension of the presidential campaign—no events, no ads, and no debate Friday—so that he and Barack Obama can head to Washington to forge a bipartisan solution. Even more than his selection of Sarah Palin as running mate, this gambit feels like a wild improvisation someone in the McCain team mapped out on his chest: OK, you run to the fire hydrant, cut left, and then when he gets to the Buick, John, you heave it.”