Well, if up to this point, you haven't "seen it all" in politics, you are seeing it now. Can you believe that McCain has the gall to suggest, after his infamous, "economy is fundamentally strong" comment AFTER Lehman Bros just collapsed, that he is now so superiorly concerned about the economy that he has to be D.C. even though it means missing the first presidential debate on Friday? OMG, that stretches the imagination!

And if Bush's speech tonight doesn't cause a run on the banks tomorrow morning, I'd be surprised. I mean, I'm ready to go take all our money, which isn't much, out of the bank tomorrow. I mean, I haven't been alive that long - some almost 56 years, but I don't ever remember hearing a president of the U.S. talk in such dire terms. But come on - he's responsible for it! He's been president for 8 years! He has like zero credibility. And even if he is telling the truth and things are as dire as he suggests, why should we believe him to lead us out of it, when he is the one that lead us into it?

And did anyone notice that the Warren Buffet $5 billion, yes BILLION, at least according to press reports although no one produced a deposit slip, is going to Goldman-Sachs, which was Sec. of Treasury Paulson's firm? Is this just coincidence? Yeah, and I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you too!

McCain is sinking faster than the Titanic in it's last 15 minutes. That's because he has no core - he has no self - he has no honor. He is saying anything, and doing anything, like picking Palin to be VP, in order to try and find some gimmick that will catapult him into power, or at least get him so close that the republican machine can manufacture an election theft without people taking to the streets. But, if the landslide is too much, the republicans can't stop it, and that is what they are seeing, and they are getting desperate.

But if McCain simply doesn't show up Friday for the debate, he is sealing his own fate - his own demise. People are desperate for this debate. They so much want to see, and are ready to see, Obama and McCain go one on one. And there is no way that a Democratically controlled congress is going to schedule a critical vote during the debates. So there is no reason, with today's travels arrangements, that McCain can't take a few hours to Lear-Jet into Oxford, do the debate, and get out in 3 to 4 hours, or even less if it's an emergency. Especially considering that McCain has criticized Obama for not debating enough. I mean, how lame can you be to expect people to believe that you are so critical to something that you can't take 3 or 4 hours to do something really important? Especially when, just a few days ago, you weren't even acknowledging the problem.

Can you imagine? Obama is standing at the podium by himself talking? I mean, it's a politician's dream come true. But McCain has boxed himself in. If he comes to the debate, he's going against himself. But if he doesn't come, he's letting Obama go against himself. Who wins? Geez, that's easy.

There are those that will say this is a cynical move by McCain to try and stop Obama's surge. And, from all the polls, it appears that Obama's surge is working. But it's too little too late I think. As Stephanopolous said this morning on Good Morning America, no candidate has ever been down 9 percentage points in their poll late in September and come back to win the election. I think the republicans are seeing a landslide, which may mean the collapse of their viable minority, and they are getting desperate. But the country has seen what Bush has done to us, and they want to try something different. While the Dems probably won't give us the change we really need, they will have a better chance of instituting some change than the republicans, that's for sure.

Finally, I just have to say again, that if, for many months leading up to now, McCain was criticizing Obama on experience, but then changed his campaign to use Obama's strategy, which is "change," which is now also McCain's mantra, doesn't that mean that McCain is following Obama's strategy? That means that Obama is the leader and not follower, doesn't it? How can McCain follow Obama's strategy and then criticize him as not being ready to lead? Isn't that absurd? Today was political theater of the absurd perhaps more than any day I have ever experienced.