Number one:

"What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all of the parties to the table, including the House Republicans, whose votes were needed to pass this."

- Steve Schmidt, McCain's chief strategist, giving McCain preemptive credit for the passage of the bailout package that never passed.

And number two:

"Sen. McCain interrupted his campaign, suspended his campaign activity to come back to Washington to get Republicans around a table. Without Sen. McCain, House Republicans would not have appointed a negotiator, which would not have moved this bill forward. It's really Sen. McCain who got all parties around a table to hammer out a deal that hopefully is in the best interests of the American taxpayer."

- Jill Hazelbaker, McCain's communications director, doing the same on Fox News today.

So I assume McCain is now willing to take similar credit for the bill's defeat? Not quite. He's blaming Obama and other Democrats for "putting politics ahead of country."

Obama's reaction: "It is important for the American public and for the markets to say calm because things are never smooth in congress and to understand that it will get done."