Editor’s Note: A longtime journalist, Margo Howard went into the family business (her mother was the fabled Ann Landers) in the 1990s as Dear Prudence. Her broad experience and understanding of human nature provide answers for the troubled — and entertainment for everyone else. Click here to read her column on Yahoo!

I have decided that John McCain is too clever by half. No, make that three-quarters.

Not only is the breath-of-fresh-air-hockey-mom opening act proving herself to be a hick who is having trouble knowing which briefing point goes where, but her Jolt-Cola personality meant to offset his elderly-seeming self is just not doing the job. Added to which the white-haired candidate is no longer in stealth self-aggrandizing mode – he is getting pretty up-front about it. As he left the big get-together about the bailout yesterday he said to reporters: "I think that we made progress, and I’m confident we will have a deal. How much I had to do with it, I’ll let you and others be the judge," reports The New York Times.

Sounds like he was a key player and successful, no? No.  Not only was there no deal, but the accompanying Times story said this: "Mr. Boehner [the House Republican leader] pressed an alternative that involved a smaller role for the government, and Mr. McCain, whose support of the deal is critical if fellow Republicans are to sign on, declined to take a stand."

And … not to put too fine a point on it, Obama’s statement about the same meeting was this: "What I’ve found is that when you inject presidential politics into delicate negotiations, it’s not necessarily as helpful as it needs to be." More deponent sayeth not.

Well … maybe one more thing. The POW patriot is getting rattled and confused, still withholding his medical records, and wishing his handlers had let him have Joe Lieberman. The lady is becoming a laughingstock and he is realizing, with help from the polls, that he put his money on the wrong horse. But as I always say to my advice column readers: Life is choices.