NICE. Bail out of the campaign, but get in a few parting shots

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Despite "Suspension" Of Campaign, Two McCain Advisers Attacked Obama Today

McCain's suspension of his campaign apparently doesn't apply to his own advisers.

Despite McCain's claim that he's put his campaign on hold, two of them directly attacked Barack Obama in political terms on television this morning.

On Fox about an hour ago, McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer was asked about Obama's suggestion that the bailout deal appeared to be adopting some of his suggestions.

"We don't want to focus too much on that right now because we want there to be a resolution," Pfotenhauer said, a bit later adding:

"But this is maybe perhaps part of the pattern that we've seen before where Senator Obama would claim that the housing bill came out of his committe--and he didn't even sit on the committee. or that the stimulus package was his package and even his democratic leader said that it wasn't."

So McCain's adviser accuses Obama of falsely taking credit for stuff. Does that count as running a campaign?

Meanwhile, a few minutes ago on Fox, McCain spokesperson Tucker Bounds was asked whether there would be a debate on Friday.

"Certainly, John McCain is eager to debate Barack Obama on these important issues, because he has a record of actually performing on the issues that are going to be debated," Bounds said. "And additionally he's called on Barack Obama time after time to meet him anytime, anywhere, in joint town hall meetings. So the idea that there's a debate about the debates, I just think, is absurd."

So this McCain adviser said Obama doesn't have any record of performing on the issues and is too chicken to face McCain in town hall meetings. Does that count as running a campaign?

Calling out the campaign-suspension fib is kind of useless at a certain point, of course, since the original claim is inherently so ridiculous and borderline meaningless anyway. The suspension itself is a political act, after all.

McCain's eventual position on the bailout will be political, too -- and there's nothing wrong with that. Politics is all about arguing about stuff and deciding what to do about it. The idea that there's some kind of clear line between politics and policy or leadership is a bit of a silly construct to begin with, McCain's phony piety notwithstanding.

Late Update: Here's the video of Pfotenhauer on Fox:

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Ginny

I can has iPhone?