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I can relate. Most anyone can. One lie builds on another until, the foundation starts to crumble and the whole house of cards falls in a heap. McCain’s campaign has begun to shake and an implosion seems imminent.

And there is no one to blame but themselves it seems. And in fact, it is not clear whom to blame. One is simply not sure whether McCain has in fact been calling the shots, or whether he in his befuddled mind, has simply been okaying everybody’s ideas, no matter how self contradictory they are.

In any case, the campaign is in severe disarray, the left foot not sure where the right foot is, each hand in another cookie jar. And to top it off, they seem to be doing the entire thing with both eyes closed, and both ears stopped. Perhaps they can smell a problem? One would hope.

A plethora of inconsistent things have occurred, and even me, the amateur journalist can manage to figure out that this is one hell of a messed up campaign. Let’s see if we can work our way through the madness and find any coherence, or at least explanation of what has been going on.

  • First we start with the fiasco on Wall Street. Without a thought to history, (his own) McCain (apparently not having heard of xerox machines or other forms of copying remarks) makes the stupid error of saying that the “fundamentals of the economy are strong.” This is then clarified with fundamentals being defined as American workers. So now American workers have a new name, namely they are “fundamentals.”
  • This then morphs into “we are in a crisis the likes of which have not occurred since WWII.” No explanation of how our soundness changed. We are within hours told that “no bailout should occur” to a “bail out is necessary to save America.”
  • On Tuesday, McCain received a copy of the Paulson legislation, three pages in all. By Wednesday, when asked, McCain said he had no opinion because he hadn’t had time to read it as yet. Oops. Either McCain mislaid it, or he reads awfully slow.
  • Sarah Palin gives the most god-awful interview to Katie Couric, since Quayle admonished the kid that potato is spelled potatoe. Actually it was much worse. Not only have they come up with zero explanation for why being next to Russia gives her “foreign policy experience,” she actually made it worse by saying that being sandwiched between Canada and Russia, and being an “executive” somehow makes her obviously knowledgeable. After all, Putin can raise his head ?? and I guess she might see that?? It made no sense.
  • McCain is scheduled to appear on Letterman. No doubt he will be asked about the Palin interview. Oh, lord he doesn’t want to do that, and now the team is desperate to get the Palin interview off the news. (It really was verrrrryyyyy bad, you see.)
  • The poll numbers are also verrrry bad, with Obama pulling away to a nice lead and the internals also being very good for the Democrat as well.
  • All this and now Rick Davis. It turns out Davis has been receiving money up to JULY for his lobbying efforts with Freddie Mac, all to keep those pesky regulations off their back. McCain has already said that Davis quit years ago. Oops. He gets into a war with the NYTimes, but the Times keeps producing facts, and McCain can’t counter except to call them “liberal” stooges for Obama. (He forgot they endorsed him in the primary season I guess.)

All this amounts to a perfect storm for McCain. Everything is going to hell in a handbasket. So, suddenly when Obama indicates that for the sake of the country and calm, they should put out a joint statement that is nonpartisan on the legislative actions now before Congress, McCain decides to throw another hail Mary pass, similar to the one that he is most certainly now regretting. He not only calls for bipartisanship in a statement, but he “suspends his campaign, says he must rush to Washington to save the day, (echoes of Mighty Mouse come to mind) and OH NO, he might have to delay that debate!

Thank goodness, Obama, remained cool and precise. Presidents, he says are expected to multi-task, I will go to Washington if I am needed, and this is precisely the time that debates are important to that the electorate can be clear on our views.

McCain, still operating with less than full command of all his parts, cancels Letterman, telling him that he must rush back to Washington. Except he didn’t. He appeared instead with Katie Couric to talk about the crisis on Wall Street. And, he didn’t fly back after that either. He slept in NY, and went to the Clinton Global Initiative to speak the next day. Letterman is not amused by the obvious lie, and McCain’s handlers decide to ignore that whole thing.

McCain, does not suspend his campaign as far as anyone can see. Ads continue running and when various campaign headquarters across the country are called, they admit to receiving no such order, and are conducting business as usual.

It appears that McCain finally arrived on Thursday in Washington, and contributed almost nothing to the White House meeting. In fact, plenty there suggest his very public entrance onto the scene, stalled negotiations, and politicized it, when before it had been pretty non-partisan.

The debate holders ignore McCain’s grandstanding and are fully intent on going forward. If McCain doesn’t show, they suggest that they may let the audience ask questions of Obama instead. Now Obama might get a full 1 1/2 hours of free time on primetime TV. They pay no attention either to McCain’s argument that the Palin debate might have to be postponed as well, (scrapped he hopes). That too is ignored.

What to make of all this? Like I said, it was a perfect storm, and McCain went nuts it seems, and just demanded a time out. I think the Letterman cancellation was designed to avoid dealing with the Palin mess. The rest of it suggests that the campaign has NO IDEA what to do about Wall Street and needed time to figure out a coherent position. The dancing around about the debate, is that McCain is simply scared poopless that he is not prepared and can never be prepared.

McCain is obviously attempting to drive this Wall Street mess, and appear as the savior of the plan, whatever one is finally passed. Or he will vote nay, and try to claim that Obama and the Democrats are with Bush on this, and they aren’t. I doubt they know yet. Policy you see is not important here, it’s getting the best for the campaign out of the disaster. He is ironically and amazingly still trying to spin this as him placing country first. That is an outrage of the first order.

Worse, they have to deal with Palin, and there is no solution to this. She is horrific, so bad that it’s embarrassing to watch. Yet they have no basis by which to call off her debate. None, she is clearly not at all involved in this economic mess or solution.

One wonders just what is going on inside. I’m sure there is screaming aplenty and finger pointing going in every direction. McCain is blaming everything and everybody no doubt. Surely not himself. This is the gift he offers to the American people as his “government.” Because, you can be sure, these folks aren’t doing this for fun, they fully expect to be getting job in John’s house. And that would be a scary place indeed from what we have seen the past week. Country first my eye. This is just the sad results of a man who it seems is a pathological liar of the first order. Except, folks have caught on. Pinocchio John, remember him?

I look forward to getting to bed early election night, but then again, heck I may stay up. It may be worth it to turn on Faux Noise and watch them vomit into pails strategically placed next to their chairs as they whimper and moan the night away. Popcorn anyone?


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