Treasury Secretary Paulson calls out McCain's financial crisis bluff in new book

The Wall Street Journal has an excerpt from Treasury Secretary John Paulson's new book exposing McCain's phony meeting he set up with Obama and Congressional Democrats. Last year when the economy was in the tank, McCain announced that he was suspending his presidential campaign and meeting with Obama to fix the economy. McCain showed up to the meeting without any proposal, it was all for show. Some excerpts -

The room went silent and all eyes shifted to McCain, who sat quietly in his chair, holding a single note card. He glanced at it quickly and proceeded to make a few general points. He said that many members had legitimate concerns and that I had begun to head in the right direction on executive pay and oversight. He mentioned that Boehner was trying to move his caucus the best he could and that we ought to give him the space to do that. He added he had confidence the consensus could be reached quickly.

As he spoke, I could see Obama chuckling. McCain's comments were anticlimactic, to say the least. His return to Washington was impulsive and risky, and I don't think he had a plan in mind. If anything, his gambit only came back to hurt him, as he was pilloried in the press afterward, and in the end, I don't believe his maneuver significantly influenced the TARP legislative process.