In talking about the economy at a rally in Pennsylvania today, John McCain had a rather amusing gaff:

“Across this country, this is the agenda I have set before my fellow prisoners.“

As I see it, there are five possible explanations for this gaff:

1) He had been hoping to invoke his experience as a Prisoner of War (yet again) as one his credentials sometime during this speech.

2) This gaff is the result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The traumatic experience of campaigning, especially after last night’s rhetorical beat-down at the hands of Barack Obama, has been stressful enough to trigger random flashbacks. These flashbacks, in turn, are the subconcious basis for his Freudian Slip.

3) John McCain shares Ronald Reagan’s senility in addition to his values.

4) This is the latent result of Brain Damage that John McCain suffered during the Vietnam War.

5) This is a desperate cry for help, because Cindy McCain and Sarah Palin have secretly conspired to hold him hostage and force him to run for President.

Evidently, the prospect of either himself or Sarah Palin having to participate in a serious debate with the Democratic Candidates scares John McCain to death.

Yesterday, we found out that John McCain used the excuse of Obama’s proposed bi-partisan effort to address the Wall Street Crisis to delay Friday’s upcoming Presidential Debate.

Now we learn that John McCain also wants to indefinitely postpone Sarah Palin’s upcoming Vice-Presidential debate against Joe Biden. This, after the McCain campaign begged the Commission on Presidential Debates (who is sponsoring the Vice Presidential debate) to grant Sarah Palin a de facto handicap.

Specifically, the McCain campaign pleaded that the candidates be restricted to a short, question-and-answer style debate with few opportunities for the candidates to directly respond to each other. This debate style helps Sarah Palin by sheltering her from the dangers presented by  having to stray from pre-scripted talking points.

I’m sure that Sarah Palin’s fear of an open debate with Joe Biden has nothing to do with her request to have her financial records suppressed until the day after the Vice-Presidential Debate.

John McCain and Sarah Palin fear having a free and open debate with the Democrats because they know that such a debate would expose them as the poor option that they are. There