What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all of the parties to the table, including the House Republicans, whose votes were needed to pass this.

— McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt on Meet the Press Sunday, taking early credit for getting House Republicans to support the bailout bill that actually failed in the House today. In the end, the bill failed a vote in the House of Representatives with a majority of House Democrats supporting the bill but two-thirds of House Republicans voting against the measure.

Senator Obama and his allies in Congress infused unnecessary partisanship into the process. Now is not the time to fix the blame. It’s time to fix the problem.

— Sen. John McCain, quoted in Time magazine