I wanted to wait to comment on yesterday's announcement from John McCain that he was suspending his campaign to focus on the Paulson plan.  It seemed so quirky that I thought some perspective was necessary.

But 18 hours or so later, it still makes little sense to me.

1.  It would have been one thing if McCain had been chairman or ranking member of any of the congressional committees that were most heavily involved in the negotiations.  But he isn't.  It also would have made some sense if McCain had some sort of ex offico status in the discussions or his presense had been needed for some other reason.  In fact, the only thing the Senate needs McCain for is his vote when the package is actually debated and you don't have to stop campaigning to fly back to Washington, especially when you have access to a private plane and the vote will be scheduled to meet your needs.

2.  Even if you are going to stop campaigning personally, there's really no need to stop advertising on television and radio, and that was also part of the McCain announcement.  That makes absolutely no sense unless you're running out of money and need to stop advertising for other reasons.

3.  Isn't McCain a little late coming to the party in any case?  The legislation was submiitted by the Treasury to Congress last weekend.  If he was going to suspend his campaign to return to Washington to focus on the crisis, shouldn't McCain have done that last Sunday or Monday instead of Thursday?

4.  As many others have said and the polls have shown, McCain has not been helped by the economic events of the past week.  Maybe he was trying to make lemonade out of lemons by seeming to immerse himself in this situation and trying to make it look like he was taking charge.  But changing the subject to foreign policy, which is the subject of the first debate and is supposed to be McCain's strong point, might have stopped the bleeding faster.

5.  The better way for McCain to have taken control of this situation would have been to arrange for a highly publicized meeting or meetings with congressional Republicans where he could have been seen to be brokering a deal and taking command of his party.  Given that their fates are somewhat tied to his, it's hard to imagine that Hosue and Senate Republicans would not have been willing to make that happen.  McCain then could have led the discussions with the Democrats and been at the forefront of the outcome.

6.  I can't help but wonder whether the fact that this didn't happen means that congressional Republicans were not willing to accommodate their presidential candidate (After all, House GOP members are not sold on this plan or the need for any plan).  If so, that speaks volumes about the real state of the McCain candidacy.

7.  Finally, about the McCain campaign's suggestion that next week's vice presidential debate be postponed and the first presidential debate take place that day instead...What will happen if McCain doesn't show for this week's presidential debate and the Biden/Palin debate goes on as planned?  Do the McCain people really want that?  Or does yesterday's announcement really mean that Palin isn't going to debate either?

So let me see if I've got this straight: McCain is behind in the polls and the debates scheduled for this week and next, which could turn the polls around, might not happen.  That could mean that the campaign effectively will be over by the end of next week