The Buzz

• The bailout takes center stage today as the House is debating the measure at this very moment and discussions over how much the Fed assistance will really tamp down the crisis goes on amidst yet another desperate bank buyout - this one of Wachovia. But at least the Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill hammered out some sort of compromise plan that gets the Bush administration’s $700 billion approved while inserting taxpayer “protections” that both parties wanted. The candidates have also joined the supporters of the bill in pledging to work to get it passed in the Senate later this week. McCain’s initial concern with such a massive plan had eased by this morning, when he said that everyone must “swallow hard” and get the bailout passed. Obama had similar reservations but decided to mostly tout his role in the intense negotiations between Capitol Hill and the Fed. “For two weeks I was on the phone everyday with (Treasury) Secretary (Henry) Paulson and the congressional leaders making sure that the principles that have been ultimately adopted were incorporated in the bill.“

• No-brainers from the two campaigns today as confirmation comes down that both McCain and Obama will head back to Washington when the Fed bailout plan comes up for a Senate vote later this week. One intriguing nugget from the McCain announcement is that Jill Hazelbaker added something to McCain’s original line on the bailout from yesterday and this morning, saying that the GOP nominee “expects” to vote ‘yes’ on the plan, but would take a “hard look” if the final version up for a Senate vote differed significantly from the initial compromise. So McCain is still walking right down the line on a plan that he clearly wants no part of, but has to accept for political reasons.

• Major news on the Clinton front as Bill Clinton is confirmed to campaign for Obama - solo, that is - in Florida later this week. He will head to south Florida and Orlando on Wednesday before exiting the trail that same day. We told you that Obama and Clinton had talked about some sort of solo campaign gig at their big lunch in New York on 9/11; apparently it took their respective camps this long to finalize agreeable details. But it’s always a mixed bag when Bill gets involved with Obama, so you would expect a cryptic message from POTUS 42. He was on “Meet the Press” yesterday and failed to describe Obama as a “great man” when pressed by Brokaw to do so in response to repeated quips from Bill on the trail that McCain is a “great man.” He begged of on the query, saying that he had only met Obama for the first time at that lunch. So will the media storyline during what should be a huge boost for Obama  - that Florida trip - instead be all about the convoluted relationship between the Dem nominee and the former party standard bearer? Take a guess…

• McCain is working hard to win Ohio even as the recent polls from the battleground state show Obama regaining his lost points and mojo from over the summer.The McCain-Palin team is in Columbus today for one of their uber-rallies and McCain himself granted a rare interview with the Columbus Dispatch newspaper. Apparently battleground media gets a grudging pass from the press war being fought by Team McCain. Nothing special from the interview outside of more lukewarm language in support of the bailout (”…it has to work”) and some minimal chatter about how he would improve Ohio’s flagging economy - how does he ignore that? You get a sense that McCain and his staff are really struggling to work up a viable argument for the economy. Tax and spending is all they’re currently hitting Obama with, ignoring jobs and everyday worries. Do you remember that fleeting attempt to push McCain-Palin as a conservative populist ticket? That almost worked; why not try again?

• Desperation and panic are all that can describe the mad dash to make Sarah Palin debate-ready by Thursday night. Her initial burst of positive energy for McCain and a bulletproof storyline have withered in the face of voter obsession with the economy and her horrific major network interviews making more of a splash than the less-than-media-savvy McCain campaign had thought. Not everyone looks at Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric as the evil enemy. But the campaign senses a real opportunity as Palin gets set to take on Joe Biden in what will surely a be an entertaining and politically important event. Debate prep is already underway for Palin, but there have been considerable tweaks after her disappointing performances in what are essentially debate-style interviews. Questions asked of her Thursday are bound to be similar to those she muffed on ABC and CBS -only more of them and in front of a much larger audience. The old Bush team that had been taking care of Palin’s education on the issues has been dumped, replaced by the cream of the campaign - Rick Davis, part-time counseling by Steve Schmidt and one-on-one help from McCain’s debate coach. These three are taking over the duties and are ready for what is said to a marathon session of prep sometime this week in Arizona. Palin will also be subject to at least one more mock-debate with her new handlers (no word on who is playing Biden) after McCain insiders anonymously reported that she couldn’t even finish her initial mock-ups in the last two weeks.

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