The political world is afire right now with reaction to John McCain's announcement that he was "suspending" his campaign in order to return to Washington and participate in negotiations over the Paulson Plan. And oh, by the way, McCain also called for delaying Friday's first presidential candidates' debate.

But according to the most accounts, today's surprises reallly began with Obama contacting McCain this morning to propose a joint "statement of principles" on the bailout.

If I had to guess, McCain's "dramatic" announcement was intended to steal Obama's thunder in showing willingness to pursue a joint-candidate approach to the crisis. Since both candidates are senators, and would be leaving the campaign trail to vote on a bailout plan anyway, the practical effect of the McCain announcement would seem to be to inject the candidates directly into the negotiation process. McCain may also be trying to place himself at the head of the parade by taking credit for Republican concessions (e.g., on executive pay) that are already happening. The effort to get the debate delayed, at a time when foreign policy discussions might seem an irritating diversion, was probably just gravy to Team McCain.

The bigger mystery to me is the original Obama gambit. It's unclear whether it was offered in expectation of a "no" answer, or inversely, to ensure that McCain didn't find a way to separate himself from a bailout plan that might prove to be very unpopular. And none of us at this moment knows that a joint "statement of principles" might look like.

In any event, McCain seems to be getting the lion's share of attention for his public counter-move to Obama's original move. Whether that ultimately helps or hurts hiim remains to be seen.