McCain is losing it -- so says conservative columnist George Will.

The $700 billion for the bailout sounds like a big number (because it is!) but it may get much, much bigger. Note that the S&L bailout of the early '90s ended up costing about 50% more than what was initially proposed, and that crisis was much more clear-cut and readily solvable than the one on our hands now. Also, the Iraq war was to cost $50 billion and the estimate is now up to $2 trillion! (Why is it people are alarmed at the $700 billion bailout figure and yet not nearly as outraged at the $2 trillion Iraq war number? Money is money people.)

Unfortunately, Dana Milbank believes the scare tactics will work once again: "Lawmakers, afraid of being blamed for the next Great Depression, have little choice but to give Paulson much of what he wants. But after the Bush administration railroaded them on other emergency measures that later turned out to be problematic -- the Iraq war, the Department of Homeland Security and the USA Patriot Act -- the bipartisan outrage suggests that, this time, Congress will make the administration squirm a bit." If true, do we need yet more proof that the Democrats are spineless urchins?

So in a matter of several weeks, we've seen the McCain camp go from Phil Gramm saying that we're a "nation of whiners" when it comes to the economy, to McCain saying "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," to now McCain feeling he must suspend his campaign and rush to Washington in hopes of fixing everything otherwise we may quickly slip into an economic depression. Does this appear to be presidential behavior to you (sans the last 7+ years)? Particularly in contrast with Obama's lucid, calm, and confident behavior on this matter, the near-schizoid messaging on the economy by McCain has to make one pause with great concern. He's not only scaring voters, he's just downright scary.