John McCain’s Tuesday was so filled with gaffes and bad news that no one seemed to notice when one of his top advisers held a BlackBerry aloft and declared “you’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create.” That spectacle simply couldn’t compete with former HP CEO Carly Fiorina and, more significantly, the very public failure of deregulation.

As a pillar of the McCain campaign, Fiorina clearly regretted deeming Sarah Palin unfit to run a big company. Saying that McCain was similarly ill-equipped was probably not the best way to diminish her remark. Command of the world’s only superpower, after all, is a fairly serious undertaking for an executive.

The real disaster for McCain, however, is one he cannot blame on the loose tongue of an undisciplined surrogate. The deregulated economy, which McCain, his advisers and his party have built over decades, is unraveling.

The collapse, bankruptcy or virtual socialization of one major financial institution after another has hit with such force that even McCain cannot deny the pressing need for government oversight. He’s running ads right now to that effect.

(h/t: PoliticalWire, The Page)