One has to admire the stage management

[jducoeur]

I may still not respect McCain's economic skills, but he and his political team are showing real savvy when the chips are down. This current bit, of suspending his campaign in order to go back to Washington for the crisis, is a real masterstroke -- it makes him look out in front and leaderly on an issue that he's really not very good at.

I think the timing will still probably bite him on the ass (it's just plain too early for the sort of October Surprise he's trying to turn this into), and there are lots of perfectly sensible retorts that the Obama camp can and probably will make (not least, "What the hell are you doing politicizing this mess?"), but as political theater it's really quite clever, and likely to help him at least in the short run...