Mordant

Good heavens is it difficult to keep up with what the hell is going on up on Capitol Hill today.

There is a bailout deal. There is no bailout deal. There is an "outline" of a plan. McCain has suspended his campaign until a deal is reached. But no, he's going to be giving interviews on all the major networks tonight, and several of his campaign surrogates have been appearing on TV all day to attack Obama (how is that a suspended campaign, again?).

And in the midst of all this bailout hullabaloo, McCain has been trying to make himself look like the very serious politician. Only, he can't seem to hold his poker face very well. This short paragraph from an article in the New York Times is particularly illustrative:

Mr. McCain grinned and mordantly chuckled when reporters began shouting questions, none of them answered. Mr. Obama, who sat with his fingers laced, maintained a somber expression.

Bonus points to the author for use of the word "mordantly." I think it sums up McCain's attitude about most things quite well.

Will McCain show up to the debate on Friday? Honestly, at this point I think either way he looks like an ass. But he looked like an ass before, so I suppose that's not news.

Will Congress approve a massive bailout plan? And what will the final product look like? Honestly, I don't think anyone has any clue at this point, but we should all be watching very, very closely.