For the link showing McCain to be hanging out (at) a fancy restaurant with Lieberman, I think the link means to go to page 3 of the story, which contains

"As his colleagues worked on the deal at the Capitol Saturday night, McCain and his wife, Cindy, dined with Sen. Joe Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, at Cafe Mozu inside Washington’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel."

Page 2 doesn't even mention McCain

He stiffed thousands of Ohioans yesterday when he cancelled his ABC This Week appearance at the Great Southern Theatre in Columbus and didn't tell them - they all showed up while McCain had rescheduled his appearance with George Stephanopoulos at the Newseum in Washington. Country first should read Who's on first?

What a farce.

Too bad the press can't call him on this lie too. This is just getting to be too pathetic for words. At least Bushit's handlers had brains. Evil ones, but nonetheless, brains...

McCain is either resigned to losing, nuts, or is counting on a terrorist "October Surprise" to save his campaign. He'd make a genuinely dangerous president.

I'm waiting to see if and how he votes on this matter on Wed.

McCain can lie so brazenly because many voters don't know about McCain's Great Bailout Farce.

Come on, MSM, do your job!

Heh, he probably still doesn't realize this is the 21st century, where people go to the Internets and catch him at lying. Hell, LETTERMAN outed him as a lyin' liar on NATIONAL TV. Johnny Mac still doesn't get it: we KNOW. We know everything. We have eyes and ears and TV and Internet and dear ol' Steve Benen to tell us alllll about how he says one thing and does another. Total product of the ossified D.C. establishment who thinks that the voters can be lied to outright while he does what he wants. Piffle, I say.

God, it reminds me of that Jim Carrey movie "Liar Liar" - when Carrey was under a magic spell that prevented him from lying. With McCain, its as if he's under a spell to use talking points that deliberately contradict him and call attention to his lies.

You'd think that after the coverage over the weekend, he'd strike this talking point - why does he keep it?

I put my campaign on hold for a couple of days

Really? What part of his campaign was "suspended"? I want to know. I want the media to ask him what exactly was suspended about his campaign? Ads? attack surrogates? fundraising? Anyone, anyone? The media keeps saying what an extraordinary action it was yet no one seems to know what it means. Just more phony bluster from McCain.

He really does think voters are fools.
No, but he does believe, and rightfully so, that the media will not call bullshit to anything he says.

Who did Ohioans vote for in 2004 again?

Any Ohioans please feel free to smack me down, but if McCain's fiction will play successfully anywhere, it's Ohio.

It would really, really be nice to have a president who does not attempt to mask every face saving tactic as "putting America first". People really do know the difference and are way too cynical at this juncture for the McCain team to think they can succeed with this nonsense.

Problem is the majority of voters do seem to be fools. Witness Bush's majority win in 2004 - never underestimate the ignorance of a significant bloc of the American voting populace.

And meanwhile the House just voted the bailout plan down. . .

You almost begin to wonder if McCain is running his campaign in bizarro-land.

FreeProton - One would hope that people are on to his BS. Unfortunately, the sheeple that get their news from one source or don't have the intellectual curiosity to find out if he's actually telling the truth will probably buy it hook, line and "stinker".

Did anyone else catch McCain's appearance on This Week? He said that he wasn't sure he did anything to affect the bailout negotiations, and he also said he wasn't interested in getting credit for the results.

Humble John said all that matters is saving the nation. But today in Ohio he's grabbing all the credit. What a tool.

And yet, today, McCain wants Ohio voters to think he's some kind of hero, working tirelessly to craft bailout legislation. He really does think voters are fools.

They elected Bush one and half times. So he does have some evidence regarding voter intelligence.

All McCain has to do is keep it close enough in Florida and Ohio for a little behind the scenes fun and hello four more years of Republican rule.

I really wonder if McCain is even in touch with reality any more. It's as if he believes in a fantasy John McCain who Puts Country First, Doesn't Phone it In, etc., so it doesn't matter whether the things he does in the real world completely contradict the fantasy.

My home is kinda like Carville/Matlin. When we married my wife was slightly more conservative than I, but since our second child she is now to the right of Atilla the Hun. I only give small cash contributions to candidates she can't detect to avoid the requisite shouting matches.

But, after seeing Lieberscum's speech at the RN Convention I called in a credit card contribution to Obama and dealt with the consequences.

If Obama/Biden win this thing I think we should all make a road trip to Connecticut and celebrate along with the true Democrats in that state - excluding the 80% of Republicans that crossed over to vote for Holy Joe Lieberscum.

"He really thinks voters are fools."

He's not all wrong on that one.

But we can have the last word.

One other absurdity lost amidst all the other absurdities:

. . . some people have criticized my decision to put my country first . . .

I have no doubt many people dispute that McCain actually is putting country first, since he's, you know, not. But I defy McCain to name a single well-known individual who has actually questioned that that's the right thing for a president (or candidate for president) to do.

The guy is all B.S. and zero substance.

I think we have 2 problems with John McCain -
1. Because he does not use the internet he does not seem to know that we can fact check everything he says, and do!
2. He really is senile!

Hey Thorin-1: at least Ohio has a Dem Gov and Sec of State now, which should help keep the voting shenanigans to a minimum. Brunner's been tossing a bunch of absentee ballot requests that McCain-Palin distributed because they're not filled out properly, which has the local Rs in a tizzy.

As to suspending his campaign, I might have been impressed if he had actually done it. As near as I can tell the only actual change McCain made in his schedule was to cancel David Letterman in favor of Katie Couric. We all know how well that turned out.

And meanwhile the House just voted the bailout plan down. . .

But the Dems are keeping the vote open in hopes of getting people to change their votes. Bad move. It's reminiscent of the prescription drug bill. Let it die. Good they jjust did. And the Dow is diving.

I am an Ohioan. I am voting for Barack Obama, and am DESPERATELY hoping other Ohioans will do the same. Watching Morning Joe before I left for classes, they pulled up their version of the political states map, showing which candidate had which states. And I am happy to report that Ohio is now a swing state leaning towards Obama! And, according to MSNBC, if McCain gets Ohio, Michigan, and Florida, he wil still lose if Obama gets North Carolina and Virginia--both of which are leaning his way!

Plus, I'm suprised no one's mentioning McCain's temper on the debate. Many people say he was very well composed and didn't loose it. I saw a McCain that looked one step away from jumping up and down and having a temper tantrum like a three-year-old. But, that's just me.

Off topic of this post, but the bailout bill just failed and stocks are plummeting.

There you go Hilzoy and friends: a true measure of how dependable the Republicans are. But next time Lucy won't pull the football away...

Not Really

Boy is this getting scary. Grampie McShame is acting like a man with early onset demantia. He actually believes he is god sent to save us from ourselves and is so narcissitic and that he is always right and no matter if someone actually agrees with him they are wrong. Can you imagine 4 years of this in the White House. And then you have Cheney-on-steroids Palin lurking to take over at the first opportunity. The MSM should be prosecuted for treason as the knowlingly hold back damning info about these two.

A month or so ago, Steve Benen wrote a piece about how the McCain strategy was to direct all the focus on Obama. At the time, it was a very accurate assessment. However, it seems the McCain squad decided it wasn't working, so now it's all John, John, John. Bad decision.

Dear Senator McLame,

You are the crisis, please go sit on the sidelines!

C*ntry 1st!

Yes, while John McInsane says he will fight for a rescue plan, he has never taken ownership of any plan being floated around the beltway (maybe none ever floated inside of his apartment or campaign office). Som eonterprising reporter just might want to ask Senator McInsane just what plan he supports...wait, that's righth, Mr "Straight Talk Express" no longer talks to reporters.

McCain wants Ohio voters to think he's some kind of hero, working tirelessly to craft bailout legislation. He really does think voters are fools.

Anyone who paid attention to the 2000 + 2004 elections will agree that McCain may be placing a pretty safe bet.

-Z

Now that the House has voted it down, what does he think he's taking credit for?

To be fair to McCain, a whole lot of Ohio voters are fools... including some of my neighbors in the fighting 14th district...

McCain was not hanging at a fancy restaurant with Lieberman. The story notes the following correction at the bottom:

Correction: Based on an erroneous pool report, an earlier version of this story said that the McCains and the Liebermans dined at CityZen Saturday night. In fact, they ate at Café Mozu, a less formal restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

they were at a less formal restaurant. I expect a retraction :-)