I n a rare and edifying display of bipartisanship, congressional Democrats and Republicans appeared on Thursday morning to have reached agreement on an unprecedented $700 billion bailout of America's crippled financial system.

But it was not to be.

John McCain, who had no part in the bailout negotiations, had to be seen as a player in rescuing the system from its paralysis. Meanwhile, free-market purists among House Republicans believed the White House-sponsored plan to save what remains of the American financial system was a step on the road to socialism.

And that GOP faction was also convinced that the process was being rushed along so McCain would not be seen to be part of whatever reclamation project emerged.

McCain made a great show Wednesday suspending his campaign so he could be in D.C. to help save the republic from financial ruin. And he bowed out of the presidential debate scheduled for last night, challenging Democratic rival Barack Obama to follow McCain's selfless example.

Obama was having none of it. He said now is precisely when Americans want to hear from their next president about the candidates' plans to revive the economy. That "as candidates, we should be able to do more than one thing at a time." And that the injection of presidential politics in the delicate bailout negotiations would do more harm than good.

General hilarity greeted this latest McCain stunt. By his own repeated confession, McCain is untutored in economics. At best, he could help with the Thai food orders that sustained the congressional negotiators in their late-night sessions this week.

Obama was right. The arrival in D.C. of both McCain and Obama, resulting from a George W. Bush invitation solicited by McCain, was followed by a collapse in the negotiations Thursday night, after the House Republicans withheld their support.

But not before a rancorous White House meeting in which a well-briefed Obama grilled U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, author of the bailout package for which Bush was fighting, while an unhelpful McCain spoke so little that no one present could recall what he said.

Earlier this week, McCain's flop sweat was showing as he tried to cut and run from last night's debate. It had foreign policy as a theme, but McCain fretted he would be asked about his role in a 1980s savings and loan scandal. And about his record as a diehard opponent of the regulatory oversight that could have prevented the current financial crisis.

So, as with the stunt of selecting the unqualified Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain tried again to change the subject. The Palin effect is waning, even before her straight-to-YouTube encounter with Katie Couric in which the rookie Alaska governor tried to establish her foreign-policy credentials by correctly identifying Russia and Canada as her state's neighbours.

With America refocused on the economy, approval ratings for both McCain and Palin have shifted into reverse.

But Obama called McCain's bluff, insisting the debate would go ahead even as a one-on-one between himself and moderator Jim Lehrer.

So McCain, who didn't suspend his campaign at all – his attack ads continued to run nationwide – caved in and jetted to the Mississippi debate site rather than let Obama have a TV audience of 40 million to himself.

Washington was not in angst about McCain's departure, or surprised that he was changing his mind yet again, having earlier vowed not to debate until a bailout deal was reached.

Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat and the House Financial Services Committee chair, said, "We're trying to rescue the economy, not the McCain campaign."





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David Olive's American Scene column appears Saturdays in the World & Comment section.





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