Oops! McCain leaks talking points on suspending campaign

Colorado Independent has the story.

The regional spokesman for John McCain in Colorado accidentally sent the campaign’s internal talking points on the candidate’s plans to suspend his campaign to its entire Colorado media list, instead of a list of key volunteers, Wednesday afternoon, PolitickerCO’s Jeremy Pelzer reports.

The memo, titled “TALKING POINTS: SUSPENDING THE CAMPAIGN,” includes a list of points the campaign wants emphasized, and includes this warning from Kise: “Please do not proactively reach out to the media on this.”

In other words, they want to throw a Hail Mary pass but don't want to talk about it.

This is hilarious:

Told by a reporter that the e-mail had been sent to him and others in the media, Kise said, “F*ck, tell me I didn’t send it to the wrong list.”

Kise said the talking points were meant for McCain volunteers.

I've got the talking points right here, so you can read along at home when you see Nancy Pfotenhauer or Douglas Holtz-Eakin on the teevee.

• To address our nation's crisis, John McCain will suspend his campaign and return to Washington. He has spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of his decision and has asked Senator Obama to join him. The campaign is suspending its advertising and fundraising.

• John McCain is calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership of both houses of Congress, including himself and Senator Obama.

• John McCain is directing his campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on Presidential debates to delay Friday night's debate until action has been taken to address this crisis.

• It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem. This is a time to put our country first. We must meet as Americans, not Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved.

• It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the Administration's proposal. He does not believe the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time.

• Last Friday, John McCain laid out his proposal and has discussed his priorities and concerns with the bill the Administration has put forward.

• America faces a historic crisis in our financial system, and we must pass legislation to address this crisis. If we do not, credit will dry up, with devastating consequences for our economy.

• John McCain is confident that before the markets open on Monday, we can achieve consensus on legislation that will stabilize our financial markets, protect taxpayers and homeowners and earn the confidence of the American people.

Just so your armed with the other side's arguments.

By the way, those arguments are completely non-specific on HOW to address this mess. It's also completely at odds with the Obama campaign's version of events.

“At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama’s call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details.”

McCain's trying to look like a tough guy here (perhaps with the ultimate goal of spiking Sarah Palin's VP debate), and his campaign looks as incompetent as ever by leaking their own blinkered talking points about this stunt.