It sure was bad luck for the McCain campaign when the economy zoomed back into America’s focus this week. Here’s how McCain made a bad political situation much, much worse.

After touting the “strong” fundamentals of the economy on Monday (and later backtracking, claiming he meant the American workers were strong *snicker*), he dug himself deeper into a hole Tuesday when he rejected the notion of bailing out AIG. Then, after the Fed bailed out AIG, he backtracked again, arguing that the government was “forced” to save the reeling insurance giant because of “failed regulation.”

Wait, wait, wait. What? Regulation, you say? Didn’t you just say six months ago that “our financial market approach should include encouraging increased capital in financial institutions by removing regulatory, accounting and tax impediments to raising capital?” (emphasis mine)

McCain has been a vocal proponent of deregulation for years. In fact, he said just last year, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, that he was “the greatest deregulator you will ever interview.” It’s hard to run from a statement like that. And let’s not forget that one of McCain’s economic gurus, Phil Gramm, authored and sneakily helped pass a number of key deregulatory laws that opened the door to the subprime mortgage crisis rocking the financial world today.

The Obama campaign has done a great job in the last week of slamming McCain with his gaffes, lies, and unpopular ideas. (Check this speech out.) It’s about time. In a new New York Times poll, 48% of respondants said that the economy was the most important voting issue for them. Uh-oh, John. What now? Sarah’s gleam is wearing off and Barack’s back ahead in the polls. I guess you could say some bat-shit crazy stuff about our NATO allies.