Ex-McCain Adviser: McCain Blinked

The last two days have been a bizarre psycho-drama generated by John McCain and/or his campaign. Between the faux suspension of his campaign, his wordless attendance at the White House meeting yesterday and now his capitulation to proceed with tonight's presidential debate one can only wonder whether McCain has gone crazy or had a bad mixture of meds. Whatever grandstanding he was trying to accomplish seems to have blown up in his face in the opinion of rational adults (admittedly, that category omits most of the religious based fanatics who now make up the GOP base). Even conservatives seem to realize that whatever McCain's intended ploy, it has not worked as planned. Here are highlights of comments from a former McCain adviser via Huffington Post:

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After days of saying that John McCain would not attend Friday's presidential debate unless an agreement on a bailout package for the markets was "locked-down," the McCain campaign has gone back on its word. On Friday, it announced that the Senator would head down to Mississippi even though, as they readily admit, much work remained needed on the bailout agreement.

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The whole episode left even conservatives admitting that the McCain campaign looked erratic and a bit foolish with no apparent direction or guiding principle."It just proves his campaign is governed by tactics and not ideology," said Republican consultant Craig Shirley, who advised McCain earlier in this cycle. "In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The 'steady hand in a storm' argument looks now to more favor Obama, not McCain."

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Shirley added, "My guess is that plasma units are rushing to the McCain campaign as we speak to replace the blood flowing there from the fights among the staff." Adding to the rocky perception was a McCain campaign web ad released this morning declaring "McCain Wins Debate!" -- put out even before the candidate had announced he was planning to debate.

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[S]aid Howard Wolfson, formerly the communications director for Hillary Clinton, "John McCain's presidential campaign has been in a death spiral since the Wall Street collapse and this summit gambit was an attempt to pull out of it. But it hasn't succeeded because McCain hasn't done anything to move the ball forward."