I wondered all day what would come out of the White House meeting on the Wall Street bailout, with Senators McCain and Obama both in the same room, and a deal supposedly within reach.

Evidently not much more than partisan politics.

While there was optimism going in, there was nothing but finger pointing and confusion afterward, as Congress has been unable to broker an agreement over how to handle a Wall Street bailout (or rescue) plan.

Democrats pointed the finger of blame at House Republicans and specifically at John McCain, who reportedly indicated he could not support the "deal" that Democrats had unveiled earlier in the day.

"I think this was a campaign ploy for Sen. McCain," said Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

"He's in a position frankly where he's making it harder to get an agreement," Frank said Thursday night.

Both sides claim they had been ambushed in the meeting in one way or another, and you never know, the Bush Team may well have helped McCain try to ambush Obama at the White House.

It was sort of hard to feel bad for the Democrats though, because they did their level best to undermine McCain's message as he tried to make himself look like he was brokering a deal.

Democrats produced an early afternoon "deal" on a bailout, which seemed more like an effort to make McCain look like a fool for calling the White House meeting. 

Unfortunately for the Dems, the "deal" was more of a PR ploy than reality.

It left all of us in the press galleries gasping for air during the day, trying to figure out who was on the offense, who was running for the hills, and whether either candidate is going to be helped or hurt by this fast paced story.

In reality, neither Obama nor McCain was at the middle of the financial negotiations before today - and most likely won't be in the midst of those talks after today either.

I have no idea how all of this is going to be interpreted by the voters.  If you are already on one side or the other, it doesn't matter - those votes will stay in the same camp.

But it's those undecideds, or the people who sway back and forth like the wind that have me puzzled.

Did McCain really achieve anything by forcing this meeting at the White House?  Democrats will blame him for causing problems.  But McCain certainly pushed them around, and forced Obama off his game plan as well.

It's a very confusing state of affairs right now, in a situation that doesn't seem to have much room for error, whether we are speaking of the financial crisis gripping Wall Street or the political battle for President between Obama and McCain.

One misstep right now by either man, could well seal the November election.

Like sportscaster Don Criqui always said of a team going for it on fourth down:

"Everybody loves a gambler until he loses."