Recapping the day

So this should have been a pretty good day for McCain, what with the FISA vote going down and some Democrats angry at the way Barack voted. But if you actually look at what happened, it's been one of McCain's worst days in a long time, one in which I think he offered up plenty of material that should help cement his growing reputation both as a double-talker and and as a typical out-of-touch Republican.

• On FISA, the McCain campaign couldn't agree which way to attack Obama. McCain blasted Obama for opposing telecom immunity, the campaign blasted Obama for supporting immunity.

• McCain didn't even bother to vote on FISA.

• He skipped the Medicare vote too. Even Ted Kennedy made that one.

• McCain got hammered for saying Social Security is "an absolute disgrace." And then he promised to target Social Security in his deficit cutting plan.

• His campaign told the National Review that he had flip-flopped on cap-and-trade, but told Marc Ambinder that his position was unchanged.

• McCain personally attacked Obama for opposing a "terrorist" designation for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, but the attack wasn't true, as he should have learned one month ago when FactCheck.org debunked the exact same attack.

• It turns out that McCain himself skipped the very same vote on the Revolutionary Guard that he attacks Obama for skipping

• Speaking of Iran, McCain made another bad joke about Iran -- this time joking about killing Iranians by exporting cigarettes. That could be funny if Bill Maher said it, but not a presidential contender who has joked about "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran." (Good news for McCain: AP covered it up.)

• Jesse Jackson attacked Barack Obama and Bill O'Reilly played it up -- giving Obama a Sistah Souljah moment and the higher ground all in one. (Update: dnA isn't to keen on this take, and I think he might be right.)

• And finally, the same group that seems to be illegally coordinating with the McCain campaign on media placements has done it again, this time in Michigan.