Yay!!! McCain did it!! He saved the economy AND he's gonna make the debate after all! What a hero.

In all seriousness, I have to wonder what the McCain campaign is going to do if (and when, I'm thinking) Obama continues to pull ahead in the polls. A common good guy-bad guy movie trope is that the deceiving bad guy rigs some fake disaster and comes out ahead by seeming like the hero (See: Watchmen, The Incredibles). I just see a time in the not-so-distant future when the McCain campaign sets the most dangerous animals at the D.C. zoo free, and only war-hero and elephant-gun toting John McCain is there to save us. Photo: McCain standing on a pile of dead beasts with his gun held vertically, a picture of Obama running from a lion in the background.

And, although at this point stuff like this doesn't even need to be said, if Obama had made noises about pulling out of the debates, the Republicans would be licking his bones clean right now.