Surreal Moment of the Day

The McCain campaign has blamed Obama for the defeat of the "bailout bill." In a released statement, the campaign said:

“Just before the vote, when the outcome was still in doubt, Speaker Pelosi gave a strongly worded partisan speech and poisoned the outcome. This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country.”

Now, we also learn from CNBC that "In the end, Republican House members voted against it by a more than 2-to-1 margin. A majority of Democrats voted in favor." In short, while Democrats were generally skeptical, it was a lack of support from Republicans that doomed the bill.

McCain said he was suspending his campaign to help pass the bill. We are left with two choices: either McCain spent most of his time lobbying the Democrats, or he did a lousy job rallying the House members in his own party. The latter seems more likely.

Finally, McCain blames the bill's failure on Obama and Pelosi. But the vote tally shows that the House Republicans were primarily to blame. (Has the McCain campaign even seen the vote tally?) Therefore, McCain would have us believe that House Republicans voted against the bill because of some perceived slight by the Democrats, even though McCain was lobbying for them to accept it. In short, McCain is accusing House Republicans of putting "Ego First" instead of "Country First."