I just wanted to add one personal thought here about the bailout and presidential politics. The absolute worst thing either candidate can do is not show up for the bailout vote in the Senate. I have been reading “speculation” and “rumor” around the Internets and the MSM. I just wanted to add in pure opinion it would be the hight of cowardice for either of our Senate Presidential candidates to sit on the sidelines and not be put on the record.

Both candidates have been straddling the fence. In short though, great Presidents lead and they go on the record, they don’t duck the tuff choices. Harry Truman famously had on his desk the saying “The Buck Stops Here.” In these difficult times, the same kind of leadership is needed.

I have to say in terms of fallout, McCain needs to be there the most. After suspending a campaign to travel to Washington, you don’t sit out the actual vote. It doesn’t matter the day and time, in my humble opinion if McCain misses this vote, he is through as a candidate. It doesn’t matter so much if he votes for it or against, he just has to show up or every movement of the last week was for nothing, a waste of time, a true misstep, a signal that he is not the reformer maverick he claims to be. If McCain misses the vote, Obama can attack even if he misses it too.

If Obama misses the vote and McCain doesn’t, his campaign won’t be over but he will be in a position for an onslaught of attack. It will remind us of all the “present” votes cast, the fact that he is a first term Senator with no real legislation accomplished, that he isn’t the “new politics messiah” his supporters believe him to be.

In short, the safest and most dignified and responsible course of action is for both candidates to go to Washington and be on the record.