Deal or No Deal update! Chaos! Pandemonium! Theater!

I have been watching cable news all day and I am more confused than ever.
John McCain thinks that the economy is in free-fall, and the situation is so serious that he has to “suspend his campaign.” Yet the Republican House members are holding up any kind of a deal. First, the congressional leaders met all day, and by 1pm, they said they had a deal. Then congressional leaders went over to the White House to meet with President Bush and the two presidential candidates, for "the meeting." Supposedly carefully staged, right? No. Angry words. "Chaos, pandemonium, theater," is how George Stephanopolous described it. The deal fell apart, McCain shrugged his shoulders, what can anyone do?
Apparently there is a trio of right wing Republicans holding this up. They are so far right that “after Dick Cheney appeared before House Republicans on Tuesday night to sell them on the proposal, lawmakers emerged howling about the "enslavement" of taxpayers and the "confiscation" of taxpayer money, and they likened the vice president's sales job to that of a used-car salesman or a shady realtor.”
"We may be looking at national bankruptcy and the road to socialism," said Jeb Hensarling, one of the ringleaders, after hearing from Treasury Secretary Paulson Tuesday morning.
So, is this a depression in the making? A potential calamity? If so, and John McCain is trying to show “leadership,” is he then going to lean on his Republican colleagues? Or should we just all forget about any kind of bailout? Maybe its not as imminently calamitous as John McCain and George Bush say.
Or maybe the House Republicans are just providing cover for McCain and refusing to settle on anything, so he can say that there is no deal and there should be no debate, and go home.
I think John McCain owes it to the American people to appear on the stage at Oxford Mississippi tomorrow night to explain.