Jonathan is our conservative blogger.

Yesterday I noted that McCain’s move to suspend his campaign indefinitely (or at least until a bill was through Congress) was politically savvy and a definite game-changer. But I also mentioned that, like any investment, the move was not without political risk. By its very nature, any bold move like this one will have a potential downside at least as significant as the desired payoff.

McCain’s calculated risk in the matter is fairly straightforward: rather than seeming self-sacrificing and compassionate, the move could be taken as a political stunt. More than that, McCain bet much of his reputation as an effective leader on his consensus building ability–should a satisfactory bipartisan bill pass with McCain at the helm, he looks presidential and in control. But should the bill get held up by disgruntled House Republicans (or some other group), his leadership looks weak. And the risk in threatening to skip a presidential debate… well, that speaks for itself.

Fortunately for McCain, initial indicators look good. As far as hard numbers go, the Gallup daily tracking poll has the candidates tied today at 46 % apiece (a net loss of 3% for Obama since earlier this week), and the Zogby poll has even better news: McCain up by 2 % (45.8 to 43.8), representing a 5 % movement toward McCain since Monday.

And the less quantifiable indicators are equally encouraging for conservatives. For starters, Obama did end up in Washington today, exactly as McCain had asked him too. Obviously, this allows the McCain campaign to take a considerable amount of credit for getting both candidates back to Washington to solve the crisis. The picture out of today’s west wing meeting showing McCain and Obama at the table with Bush, Pelosi, Reid, and others will probably reassure many voters. And despite mixed messaging from Pres. Bush and House Minority Leader Boehner on how close Congress is to a deal on the bailout, there’s considerable motivation from both parties to find some sort of solution, and now.

The beginning of this week was an absolute disaster for McCain. He looked frantic and desperate on subjects that Obama was in clearly control of. And according to some pundits, he doesn’t look much better right now either. But I’m not buying it. True, the debate tomorrow night is still up in the air; true, the bailout isn’t going to get through Congress easily. But both of those were (in my opinion) secondary considerations for McCain yesterday when considering whether to suspend his campaign. When hurricane Gustav looked like a second Katrina right before the RNC, McCain put his entire convention on hold. And when America’s economy started really slipping, and the bailout began to sputter, again, he “put his country before his campaign.” This move was about showing voters that, for John McCain, acting like a presidential candidate is less important than acting like an American.

In the past 24 hours, he’s done just that.

UPDATE: I ran across this tidbit this morning, after publishing this entry, and thought it was interesting enough to include.  John McCain also suspended his 1999 primary campaign during part of the Kosovo crisis, and got a generally sympathetic press reaction.  Apparently being old doesn’t always mean you lose your memory… 

Read Jonathan’s previous post | Read his liberal counterpart.