The circus comes to town: McCain in Oxford for debate

While John McCain was en route to Oxford, Mississippi for the debate that he said he wasn't going to attend (until the polls showed it would be political suicide), his flunkies were spewing nonsense across the air waves about why he changed his mind. Joe Lieberman, former Democratic Senator and current Chief McCain Flunkie, actually had the gall to say in an interview on MSNBC this afternoon that McCain was forced to ditch the bailout negotiations and go to the debate because "Obama didn't play by the rules" and bow-out of the debate as well.

Uh, whose rules would those be Joe? McCain's lame-brained scheme to cancel the debate and play savior in Washington DC, despite the fact he wasn't invited or welcomed by his own Party? McCain turned the negotiations and the debate into an absolute circus starring himself as the Freak Show.

Here's how a leading Republican Consultant, Craig Shirley, described McCain's ill-conceived ploy to bailout of the debate:

"It just proves his campaign his governed by tactics and not ideology. In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The "steady hand in the storm" argument looks now to favor Obama, not McCain."

Not only did McCain blink, he appears to have fallen asleep at the wheel of his own campaign, sending it careening wildly out of control. A pool reporter on McCain's flight to Mississippi this afternoon described the atmosphere as "utter confusion."

Is there anyone in the McCain campaign who isn't in a constant state of confusion? Palin can't give a straight answer in an interview; McCain's campaign placed a "McCain Wins Debate" ad online today - before the debate has even taken place; and McCain himself seems dazed, disoriented, and more than a bit senile.