Campaign maneuvering 101: beware of the "we're close to a deal" talk

Democrats are trumpeting that a deal on the economic bailout plan is almost done:

"Lawmakers indicated Thursday that they were close to hashing out an agreement on a proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial system, hours before a meeting at the White House to complete the deal. After Congressional staff members worked through the night to hammer out the details of the remarkable rescue effort, Senate and House negotiators gathered for a meeting in the Capitol on Thursday morning, hoping to resolve any final disagreements ahead of the White House gathering. The Democrats had all but eliminated their differences, and both sides were hoping for a bipartisan consensus to emerge at midday, with the final imprimatur to come at the late afternoon meeting with President Bush, the Congressional leadership and the two presidential candidates."

But beware. Note the words above--"Democrats had all but eliminated their differences." Well, sure--but have they got Republicans on board with their bill? I doubt it. Indeed, if you go here,
you see that leading House Republicans, such as Deborah Pryce, still have serious doubts.

Look, Democrats want to put forward the notion that a deal is almost done.
That way, they can claim that it got done--without John McCain's help, and that there was no reason for him to come back to Washington, suspend his campaign, etc.
McCain, of course, has a different view of things. We'll see which side prevails here; but I don't think this deal is done yet, by a long shot.

UPDATE: here's more evidence for my point:

"From John Boehner on Chairmen Frank and Dodd announcing a “deal” on the rescue package, “As I told our Conference this morning, there is no bipartisan deal at this time. There may be a deal among some Democrats, but House Republicans are not a part of it.”

The conservative argument on energy, further refined

No pun intended. Meanwhile, Michael Gerson in a recent column further explicated good, solid principles for conservatives to follow on energy policy; and it's good for the McCain campaign that they're pursuing them:

"...for McCain the energy issue has been a gift. There is perhaps no other topic in American politics today on which the public is angry, seeks action and agrees strongly with Republicans. McCain's approach is to do it all: drilling, nuclear, alternatives and conservation. Obama's approach has been reactive and irrelevant. What would his redistributed windfall profits tax do to produce energy or reduce the need for it? And Obama is hamstrung by a coalition that insists we will not drill our way out of this problem -- which is true but beside the point. No single approach will solve the problem in the short or medium term. And a nation in an energy crisis has every justification to extract its oil and natural gas while it pursues alternatives to oil and natural gas."

Exactly. And what's also interesting is that this shows that conservatives ARE pragmatic, flexible, adaptable, willing to think through flexible solutions to a crisis. It's amazing that Obama and many liberals are being so rigid in their opposition to common sense energy proposals.