Got A Couple Of Couches, Sleep On The Loveseat

I think McCain wants to lose.

Perhaps unconsciously, John McCain -- as a man of courage and principle, and as a man who until fairly recently put high stakes on his own reputation -- senses that it is hard to be right, courageous, or principled when you stand in direct opposition to the first viable African-American candidate for the office of the Presidency of the United States. Perhaps, like many of the rest of us, McCain senses that this is the time, this is the man, and this is the moment.

The specifics of Senator McCain's economic recovery plan seem to have little benefit to people not already in the top tax bracket or those who do not carry extensive investment portfolios. Lowering taxes on IRA withdrawals for people at or near retirement age may be useful for some -- but not many -- in the middle class, but doesn't seem to much effect the day-to-day lives of most of us who continue to struggle with the costs of mortgages, health care, day care, credit cards, home repair, and so on.

McCain would also like to quintuple the amount we can write off due to losses, from $3K to $15K, which -- while I'm sure he says is to the benefit of small businesses -- is really to the benefit of the monocled Monopoly character who's mortgaging St. James Place in order to buy Boardwalk. Which is kind of what started this mess, yeah? And whom, among the middling classes, has more than $100K in a savings account that would need extra protection?

To draw upon the grammar of our British cousin and infant impersonator Winston Churchill, I hope that this is the sort of the thing up with which the American people will not put.

And, unless I'm totally wrong about the American people -- and I have been, many times before -- this will not result in a 6-point boost in the polls. Or even a 2-point boost.

(Pictured: John McCain totally hammers a hot dog, keeps one on reserve.)