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Knowing it was going to pass, McCain could easily have voted "no", loudly proclaiming that it was laden with pork and had strayed 448 pages from the original intent. He could have even "named some names." It would pass anyway. We know it will pass the house, because, IMO, the democrats are using a "sticker shock" tactic to bring the republicans around in the House

I don’t disagree that he could have done this and I would have been cheering him on because I trust him to do the right thing (yes, even after all this). But would it have helped for him to have done it this way? Maybe, maybe not. It would have satisfied some in the short-term, until he did something else they didn't like, but it could have been spun in either direction by the media and dems, and that's a fact.

Part of the 448 pages you mentioned is a bill that had previously passed the Senate and was just waiting to be tucked into a package that was likely to get Congressional approval -- so he could have yelled about that, but to what end? It was a done deal long ago. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he wanted the previous measure to fail in Congress - and knowing that it stands a better chance while attached to something that has the spotlight on it, well, that’s good strategy on the Republican’s part, IMO.

Watch the lard melt off the bill as the Democrats decry the 'wasteful spending' attached by the Senate. After some judicious trimming, it will pass the House.

As far as the lard melting off, I’m very hopeful that this is the strategy, as I said above. But your point about the dems decrying the pork...please! Even if they put forth a good front for the taxpayer's benefit, is there anyone who would take them seriously!

In fact, quite the opposite is more likely to occur, as there are many dem members of Congress who voted no on the original bill because it didn't go far enough to hand out goodies to their constituents.

On the other hand, the majority of Republicans in Congress, who were opposed to the pork from the start, will do their best to cut it out, and regardless of how it pans out, they will have the approval of the people.

And in the meantime, the Senate Republicans had a chance to attach some tax cuts and other taxpayer protections that Congress may not have been able to accomplish, and without a lot of fuss from the dems because they have their previously-passed pork bill before Congress.

Now it’s on to the ones who hold the purse-strings, and I honestly believe when they get finished with it we’ll be very close to the plan that McCain and the House were trying to push from the git-go.

It's sad that there has to be so much maneuvering for these folks to get anything accomplished (so much for the panic to do it now). But when all is said and done, McCain wins this round in my eyes....and obama is exposed for the fool that he is, after all of his chest-pounding and politicizing of this boondoggle - especially with him taking full credit along the way and claiming ownership of any idea put forth. And then he announced triumphantly on the Senate floor that this was not the end of the matter, but the beginning.

Now, it goes back to the Senate, where John McCain can vote "aye" without problem of conscience, because it is close to the original intent of the bill. I suspect that even most conservatives would have sympathized with him.

But he wasted it all with his "aye" vote on the original Senate abomination. I'm no politician, but I don't see how this could be so complicated for McCain. He threw away his entire domestic campaign strategy in one stupid vote.

Apparently that's the sentiment of a lot of folks around here, but I won't be counted amongst you. Let's face facts, the dems were looking for a financial crisis in order to get onto the subject that everyone trusts them (although that boggles my mind).

Well they got their crisis, and every bit of it can be laid at their doorstep, beginning with Dodd and Frank - and ending with BHO himself. And they have the added bonus of cornering Mac regarding pork.

And now, with the fallout, he has obviously paid a heavy price for the good of the country...and I don’t think many realize the enormity of that fact, but he realized what would happen, yet did it anyway.

But let's not kid ourselves, he would have been called on it either way, and the MSM and dems would have been relentless in their attacks. As for throwing away his campaign strategy, I’ll just have to disagree, because he won me on the fact that he was cornered, recognized that fact, and he lived up to his campaign theme of “Country First.”

So if you feel that he’s wasted his campaign strategy with this, and that he didn’t consider and weigh all of his options - along with the potential fallout for each, then we’ll just have to disagree. He still has my support. If not enough folks feel that way, so be it.