Analysis: With bailout, McCain reaches dead end - AP

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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hocXiEYKKd07OxuNLMOX-vvxQ5sQD93H60R81

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican John McCain has maneuvered himself into a political dead end and has five weeks to find his way out.

Last Wednesday, McCain suspended his presidential campaign to insert himself into a $700 billion effort to rescue America's crumbling financial structure. In so doing, he tied himself far more tightly to the bill than did his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama...

...After the House vote, Obama — campaigning in swing-state Colorado — declared that McCain had "fought against commonsense regulations for decades, he's called for less regulation 20 times just this year, and he said in a recent interview that he thought deregulation has actually helped grow our economy."

"Senator, what economy are you talking about?" Obama said.

Sensing Obama's advantage, spokesman Bill Burton piled on:



...McCain has been routinely wrong-footed on the slumping U.S. economy throughout the campaign, starting last year when he said he was not as up on that subject as he would like to be.

Polls consistently have shown voters place greater trust in Obama to pull the country out of a financial crisis that has not been matched since the Great Depression of the 1930s.