John McCain gives the nation a little Straight Talk^TM in his latest ad, “Week”. He goes back to directly addressing the camera and speaking for himself — and in this case, blaming both parties for the breakdown in negotiations over the financial crisis:

What a week. Democrats blamed Republicans, Republicans blamed Democrats.

We’re the United States of America. It shouldn’t take a crisis to pull us together.

We need a President who can avert crisis. Put people back to work. Grow our economy. And move people from surviving to thriving.

We need leadership without painful new taxes. That will make our country strong again. I’m John McCain and I approve this message.

Two weeks ago, McCain used this same approach in his ad, “Foundation”.  In this, McCain even eschews the scary imagery of Wall Street and keeps the camera on himself the entire time.  It’s the strongest, most effective approach McCain has, and the mystery is why Team McCain hasn’t made more use of it.

McCain gets to sell himself as the true arbiter of bipartisanship once again, mostly because Barack Obama has been AWOL from the bailout debate.  Originally, it looked as though McCain made the wrong call by injecting himself into the debate, and Obama smart for distancing himself — especially when people opposed the idea of Congressional action so sharply.  That changed with the 777-point loss on the Dow on Monday, in which over a trillion dollars of value (potential value, actually) dissipated.  Suddenly, the tenor of the calls changed significantly, and people wanted leadership in Washington.

The timing seems perfect for the launch of this ad.  Voters look for leadership, and only one candidate even bothered to show up for this crisis on his own.  McCain needs to establish himself as a reliable leader who won’t go Harry Reid in a crisis, and this ad starts that process.