MAYBE HE IS JEREMIAH DENTON:

John McCain falters as bailout swamps US election (Tom Baldwin and Suzy Jagger, 9/26/08, Times of London)

John McCain today hastily departed from Washington leaving behind the planned $700 billion Wall Street bailout teetering on a knife-edge.

With both sides playing for the highest stakes, the Republican nominee appeared to blink first as he raced down to Mississippi to face Barack Obama in a presidential TV debate.