As more details come out about McCain’s return to D.C., the more I see a true leader.  And I see what Obama is really made of.  The Washington Post has a great article today (h/t Hot Air).  The title and some of the language in the article make it sound like McCain did something wrong.  I read something totally different. 

All sides were worried about McCain’s return.  Democrats wanted to get something done so McCain couldn’t take credit.  House Republicans were afraid that McCain would try to shove the Paulson deal down their throats.  Senate Republicans had worked on some tweaks to the Paulson plan that they thought would pass.  McCain’s imminent arrival put everyone into high gear.

Here’s a great passage from the article:

The $700 billion Wall Street rescue, as laid out by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., was never going to fly with House Republicans, Ryan said. The plan had to be fundamentally reworked, relying instead on a new program of mortgage insurance paid not by the taxpayers but by the banking industry.

McCain listened, then, with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), he burst into the Senate Republican policy luncheon. Over a Tex-Mex buffet, Sens. Robert F. Bennett (Utah) and Judd Gregg (N.H.) had been explaining the contours of a deal just reached. House Republicans were not buying it. Then McCain spoke.

“I appreciate what you’ve done here, but I’m not going to sign on to a deal just to sign the deal,” McCain told the gathering, according to Graham and confirmed by multiple Senate GOP aides. “Just like Iraq, I’m not afraid to go it alone if I need to.”

For a moment, as Graham described it, “you could hear a pin drop. It was just unbelievable.”

McCain didn’t go down there to shove anything down his colleague’s throats.  He went there to do what he does best — reach out to people on opposite sides of an issue and bring them together.  In this case, he had to get the House Republicans heard, since they were conveniently being left out of meetings by Dodd.  He also reminded them that his butt was on the line if he was elected President.

McCain was also silent in the White House meeting because he wanted to have the major Republican players, leaders Boehner and McConnell, were the ones talking.  He was there to let them be heard, not for him to be a blowhard himself.  He wanted to put a light on the proceedings and make sure the bill was TRULY bipartisan, not just something forced upon the minority Republicans.

What the articles don’t cover is why McCain left.  Many of the politicos made it sound as if he admitted defeat and retreated from the fight.  However, I saw him as a lightning rod.  He served his purpose getting the House GOP to the table.  The Democrats were blaming McCain instead of the House GOP members for the breakdown of the plan, forcing Pelosi and Frank to talk to Boehner, Ryan, and Gregg.  McCain simply took the lightning rod to another place, away from the work being done, and to McCain’s possible political detriment.

The Washington Post article also made mention of a couple of things that showed Obama was just using this whole thing as a political ploy.  Obama and the Democrats tried to pin McCain down on which plan he supported during the White House meeting.  They were trying to turn the tables on him, but McCain didn’t say anything.  He was trying to turn the discussing into a political card to be used later.

Dring the meeting, the news channels touted a statement that Obama had planned to make after the meeting.  On Fox, they repeated that they KNEW Obama was making a statement, but they weren’t sure if McCain would be there, too.  Apparently, McCain left the meeting before anyone else, but the plan had been to have them make a joint statement all along.  When McCain left, Obama refuse to go to the microphones, fretting how he would look making a statement in front of the the White House. 

McCain went there to get people to listen to each other, because he was asked to by Paulson via Graham, as written in my Dingy Lies post.  Obama had to be summoned to do his job, then he tried to make it political.  I think McCain will win this one in the end.

Update: I forgot to add another example of Obama’s playing politics vs. McCain’s working for people.  The bracelet incident from the debate has been playing out in the blogosphere.  I can’t believe Obama forgot the name on the bracelet that was entrusted to him by the young man’s mother.  Obama’s nothing but a poseur.