Two days ago, John McCain addressed the press announcing that he would suspend his presidential campaign and not attend tonight’s debate, unless a bailout agreement had been reached. The move had the potential to be a devastating blow to the Obama campaign. It could have bolstered McCain’s claims of country first, portrayed him as a presidential leader in a time of crisis, and forced Obama to either follow his lead, or appear as a selfish egoist. The keyword however, is “could” have.

This morning the McCain campaign caved, and announced that despite no bailout agreement being reached, the candidate would attend the debate. Worse yet, before that announcement was made, a new web ad appeared, paid for by the campaign, that proclaimed, “McCain wins debate!” with a picture of the glowing candidate in front of a waving American flag.

So much for suspending his campaign. This latest political stunt has exposed McCain’s “country first” mantra as merely empty words, and in the process has made a mockery of what is turning out to be a global economic crisis. Had he stuck with his original plan of not attending the debate, and been a vocal presence in the congressional bailout discussions, McCain could have painted himself as the leader that this country needs. Instead, he used the crisis to promote his campaign and in doing so disgraced himself and his “country first” philosophy.

Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod put it best: “And all that happened was the waters got roiled and we had some political theater. That’s not what we need right now.” He’s right – it’s not what we need, and John McCain doesn’t seem to get it.