I am watching Senator Reid sound like a total weasel on Fox. He “did not create the problem.” Paulson and Bernanke, in his view, don’t understand that Senators and Reps have to “take care of” their voters. So, what? Is that is a reason to lard up the bill with bailouts for everyone and bonuses to advocacy groups? Could we rise above that just this once, please? I know the answer.

I want to believe that Boehner and Co. are right to stand on conservative principle. It just isn’t clear, though. Sometimes it is better to bend the rules. The fallout from a real market seize-up will be painful beyond anything we have seen. (That is especially true for those of us whose work tends to be more of a cost than a profit center.) Taking your medicine can be unpleasant, but it is generally better than living with the unmitigated pain.

I do not think that people who have had the benefit of better housing than they could afford, and who have lived by refinancing lo these past many years, while some people paid their bills — which were that much higher because of the housing bubble — should be bailed out. Perhaps I think that because I rent.

Right this minute I sit in a hotel room in Los Angeles. I was planning to comment on tonight’s debate on Real Time with Bill Maher this evening. So I am hoping that John McCain gets on that plane and shows up for the debate. Though I will be there, regardless, with a cute Democrat actor from the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff Private Practice, and the aging spoilsport, Ralph Nader.

Senator McCain may be doing the right thing in Washington. Or he may have pushed things way too far considering that he is running for office and has serious political calculations to make. He will not be a hero if he doesn’t show tonight. And if he shows, no big lectures about the economy. The rules apply to him, too. This is the foreign policy debate. Even if it sounds a little irrelevant under the circumstances.

It is possible, of course, that his recent actions, for good or ill, will have doomed the McCain campaign. (I know better than to take any one day’s polls too seriously. But the elecorate does not seem to be impressed.) Either way, it is pretty clear that the next president will have way too much on his plate; will be faced with many no-win situations; and will need greater wisdom than our political system tends to promote. Winning could be losing.