Beyond the Dome

So John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden are all flying back on Wednesday for the big vote on an ever-so-slightly tweaked version of the bailout package. It’s not a big surprise, since both Obama and McCain are vested in the outcome now. But it’s one more reminder that, when you’re a senator running for the White House, no good ever seems to come from returning to your day job.

The last time Obama showed up for a vote, on July 9, it was to support a rewrite of the nation’s electronic surveillance rules. His vote was wildly unpopular among the Democratic base, and many leading Democratic senators disagreed with Obama. (Like Biden, for example.) But at least Obama’s vote made it impossible for McCain to attack Obama as weak on terrorism. Oh wait, he still does that.

The last time McCain came back to vote — on April 8, back when spring was in the air and the trees were just starting to bloom — it was a simple procedural vote to end debate on housing legislation. But he’s had plenty of opportunities to vote since then, on a popular wage discrimination bill he opposed, a popular veterans’ educational benefits bill he didn’t like, etc.

Somehow, those didn’t seem like smart votes for McCain to cast, so he stayed away. And then, of course, McCain and Obama came back last week — largely at McCain’s insistence — to jump into the negotiations on the bailout bill. And that worked out well, didn’t it?

The two spent much of the day Tuesday trying to look more active in suggesting ways to get past Monday’s defeat of the bailout bill in the House. Both Obama and McCain suggested increasing the FDIC deposit insurance from $100,000 and $250,000, and it appears that the idea will be included in the Senate package tomorrow. But all Obama got for proposing the idea was a smackdown from House Minority Leader John Boehner’s office, which accused him of stealing it from House Republicans.

And both nominees had large factions of their party turn against the bill on Monday — though it was McCain, whose main claim in the process was that he had gotten House Republicans back to the table, who suffered the biggest embarrassment.

Obama seemed to be addressing liberal Democrats — particularly the 95 House Democrats who voted against the bill Monday, arguing that it rewarded corporate greed — as he tried to make the case for the bailout in a speech Tuesday in Reno, Nevada. “If your neighbor’s house is burning, you’re not going to spend a whole lot of time saying, ‘Well, that guy was always irresponsible. He always left the stove on. He always was smoking in bed,’” Obama said. “All of those things may be true, but his house could end up affecting your house.”

And in Iowa, McCain tried to use a generic, but practical, pitch that might appeal to some of the 133 House Republicans who voted against it. “Bipartisanship is a tough thing, never more so when you’re trying to take necessary but publicly unpopular action. But inaction is not an option,” McCain said. “Businesses all over the country cannot borrow to finance their own operations and pay their bills. If we do nothing, many may fail.”

On Wednesday night, both McCain and Obama will have to hope that their return to the Senate floor won’t end in yet another defeat — for the bailout effort and for themselves.