Analysis: McCain’s Bailout Gamble Looks Like a Bad Roll

By Jonathan Allen,
CQ Staff

After rolling the dice by personally indentifying himself with a $700 billion Wall Street bailout proposal last week, it appears Republican presidential nominee John McCain crapped out early Monday afternoon when the House of Representatives rejected the bill by a vote of 205-228.

Republicans insisted that McCain’s well-publicized involvement had led to improvements in the legislation and built backing among Republican members behind a bill that no one wanted to have to vote for.

But despite a McCain intervention in the process that was dramatic — or melodramatic, as some critics describe it — only 65 House Republicans voted for the measure. The figure fell far short of the number that House Republican leaders had promised to deliver to ensure wide bipartisan support.

Nearly every member of the nation’s political leadership owns a share of the blame for crafting a bailout that did not assuage enough lawmakers’ concerns to pass. But McCain invested more political capital than anyone else in a deal that went bad.

McCain announced last Wednesday that he was suspending his campaign and called on President Bush to convene a White House meeting with him, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama and congressional leaders of both parties to put some muscle behind the legislation. At the same time, McCain called for last Friday’s scheduled first debate between himself and Obama to be postponed, though he later back off that position.

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