The Leadership of John McCain

Where to start?

At the beginning, where the drama queen of the campaign pulled one of the most notable political stunts in history to place himself in the center of negotiations -- and had no small hand in causing them to fail?

Or in the middle, where he gave himself premature credit for having revived the deal he screwed up (via Politico).

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his top aides took credit for building a winning bailout coalition – hours before the vote failed and stocks tanked.

Shortly before the vote, McCain had bragged about his involvement and mocked Sen. Barack Obama for staying on the sidelines.

“I've never been afraid of stepping in to solve problems for the American people, and I'm not going to stop now,” McCain told a rally in Columbus, Ohio. “Sen. Obama took a very different approach to the crisis our country faced. At first he didn't want to get involved. Then he was monitoring the situation.”

McCain, grinning, flashed a sarcastic thumbs up.

“That's not leadership. That's watching from the sidelines,” he added to cheers and applause.

Doug Holtz-Eakin, McCain's senior policy adviser, told reporters on a conference call that McCain "dedicated the past week" to addressing the problem but made "a conscious decision not to attract attention to John McCain."

Why not just start at the end, this afternoon, after the complete and abject failure of the Republican candidate to deliver on his brag. The master of chutzpah himself:

"Senator Obama and his allies in Congress infused unnecessary partisanship into the process. Now is not the time to fix the blame, it's time to fix the problem."

Doesn't it just make your head spin? Only a Republican could deliver lines like that. Blame everything on your opponent and then admonish your audience not to assign blame!

Or maybe I just misunderstood. Maybe the "don't blame" time doesn't begin until all his campaign's press releases blaming Obama have been sent, or until after this:

(Warning! You are about to encounter the most nauseating pile of shit passing for spin that I have ever seen. Those taking high blood pressure medication may want to pass.)