McCain campaign manager
Steve Schmidt explains that it's not his fault:
The moment that I will look back at as the moment deep in my
gut that I knew, was September 29, when I was flying on a plane
with Governor Palin to Sedona for debate prep, watching the
split screen on the TVs . . . and it showed the stock market
down seven, eight hundred points; it showed the Congress voting
down the bailout package on the other side, and then, House
Republicans went out and told the world that the reason that
they voted against this legislation, allowed the stock market
to crash, allowed the economy to be so injured, was because
Nancy Pelosi had given a mean and partisan speech on the floor.
And this was their response. And I just viewed it as beyond
devastating, and thought that at that moment running with an
"R" next to your name, in this year, was probably lethal.
Got that? House Republicans "allowed the stock market to crash,"
and that's why John McCain lost, rather than because of
Schmidt's insistence on Sept. 24 that the candidate suspend
the campaign, call for a postponement of the debate, and fly to
Washington to push for the unpopular $700 billion bailout.
Classic.
