I talked to Sen. Lindsey Graham, top member of the McCain posse, before the debate last night. I asked him what actual contribution McCain had made to progress in the bailout talks. “John’s biggest contribution, if we get a deal, is getting the House involved, on the Republican side, in a constructive way,” Graham told me. He pointed to the hearings, attended by Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and others, as evidence that McCain needed to intervene:

Did you think those hearings went well? Could you have sat there for the last couple of days and watched those hearings and said, “You know what? I think we’re almost there”? The hearings highlighted that the Paulson proposal as written was going nowhere. Secretary Paulson convinced us that we’re running out of time, so it got to the point, quite frankly, after the hearings, where everybody was sort of in their separate camps, that something had to give, and I said, “John, we’ve got to get this one right. I have been here on the ground, and these hearings — we’re going nowhere quickly.” So for him coming back, I think, has really helped in one area, and that is by meeting face-to-face with House members and other colleagues, that has brought a new dynamic to it. This is one you just can’t phone in. There is no substitute for being in that room and listening to the House members and talking to them….So I am convinced completely that getting on the ground in Washington was what John needed to do.