I'm going to just come out and say it... McCain's recent gamble to "suspend his campaign" and head back to Washington to concentrate on the economic crisis is a failure.  It was an interesting gamble... one that I had doubts about from the start, but I believe it was poorly conceived, and poorly executed.  First of all, this is not the first time he's done this... but he had every reason to believe it would be very popular:

No wonder John McCain "suspended" his presidential campaign Wednesday to focus in a bipartisan manner on a grave national crisis -- he's been pulling the same stunt for nearly a decade now, boosting his poll ratings by pretending not to care about them.

You probably remember his suspension of the Republican National Convention's first day of business in order to raise funds and awareness for the victims of Hurricane Gustav (a move that, besides allowing umpteen convention speakers to praise McCain's selfless patriotism, neatly airbrushed the unpopular sitting president and vice president from the proceedings).

But McCain first used the tactic to spectacular effect way back in March 1999, when -- even though his White House run had been chugging along for five months -- he postponed the "official announcement" of his candidacy so that the nation could focus as one on the week-old war in Kosovo. "It's not appropriate at this time," the somber senator said then, "to launch a political campaign."

How did that play out? As McCain's sympathetic first biographer, Robert Timberg, wrote, "His decision amounted to a masterful political stroke."

The reason why this has failed where it didn't in the past is because of his intent.  His previous campaign suspensions were purely so that other people could do something.  Delaying the convention allowed other people to do work in hurricane ravaged areas and allowed attention to be placed where it was more needed.  Even delaying his first presidential run because of the Kosovo War didn't actually require him to do anything, except be somber.  He stepped aside so that others could take the spotlight and do what needed to be done.  In doing so, that spotlight natually reflected back on him, and so it succeeded.

This time the stakes were different.  He suspended his campaign so he could lead.  Patrick McIlheran seems to think that he was successful just by going.  But McCain put a lot of pressure on himself to do something... not just show up.  He said he was going to Washington to focus on the economic crisis.  The only way he this could prove a successs is if he went to Washington and got his fellow Republicans to rally around his plan, and walk up to the White House with it.  But that didn't happen.  In fact, from most accounts, McCain was largely silent during the meeting with Bush.  The ones doing all the talking and fighting were the House Republicans.  And according to Paul Ryan, McCain has yet to sign on to their alternate proposal, despite McCain's harsh words during the campaign against a bailout. [Note to Self: Deliver bottle of Single Malt to Ryan's Wisconsin Office].

So while I was hard on McCain from the beginning, he could have still made this successful by simply doing what he said he was going to do.  Go to Washington and lead his fellow Republicans through this crisis.  Now then, either he tried and failed, or he never really tried at all.  The former would at least have the potential making for a noble effort, while the latter would lead me to believe that this was in fact a political stunt.

Wiggy thinks that it was sincere, though filled with huberus and grandstanding.  I tend to agree.  I think McCain made the exact same mistake that George Bush did.  He assumed that he could just go to Washington, and as the party's presidential candidate, that eveyone would rally around him without much work on his part.  Bush is doing the same thing.  He seems to think the can just cram this bill down his party's throat, and that they should be happy for the opportunity to gag on it.  Clearly certain members of his party have more back bone, and less of a gag reflex than either one of them think.  [Note to Self: Maybe you should make that a case.]

What caused this failure of leadership... I don't know.  But it's not good for the McCain campaign.  As of this writing, the debate tonight is back on, and McCain has very little to show for his efforts.  That is not good for him.