Opinion: John McCain takes no credit on bailout plan, leading to rare accord with Barack Obama

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John McCain took a pass this morning on claiming any credit for the tentative deal congressional negotiators reached just a few hours earlier on a plan that aims to ride to the county’s financial rescue.

Barack Obama was only too happy to agree with McCain’s stance.

McCain, appearing on ABC’s ‘This Week With George Stephanopoulos,’ was asked by the host if he deserved some kudos, given his much-publicized ‘suspension’ of his presidential campaign late last week to return to Washington to join in the jockeying over the bailout proposal.

‘I’ll let you and others be the judge of that,’ he replied.

He quickly added: ‘I wasn’t going to phone it in. I’m a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. I’ve got to get in the arena.’ (McCain had the 26th president — his role model — on his mind today; this was the first of three times he dropped his name in the interview.)

Summing up the role he played in the bailout talks, McCain said: ‘I won’t claim a bit of credit, if that makes ‘em happy.’

Presumably, it pleased Obama.

Asked by Bob Schieffer on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ if his rival should be seen as a major player in the agreement on a plan, Obama had a one-word answer: ‘No.’

— Don Frederick