My guess is that they know it's going to be a loss that night. McCain will be too busy unleashing the infamous temper that he's had to keep in check this last year.

It's just a ploy so he can make a dramatic surprise entrance. Dull.

I smell a maverick. What a mavericky thing to do. What about the other maverick? Back on her bobsled to dumbfucksville, i'm guessin'.

He's going to be in the back, getting re-embalmed after his inevitable loss.

I think that they have since backed off that statement. At least, that's what I heard on MSNBC...

Maybe his supporters are creeping him out too much and he just doesn't want to be around them.

@6 FTW

Agreed with Karey - he doesn't want to get pinned down (and fall asleep) amid the hail of pepper balls.

John McCain really fucking hates cocktail parties.

It feels like McCain truly is uncomfortable with the racist ultra-conservative nutjobs in his own party (including his running mate and his campaign strategists). He made a deal with the jesus to be the republican nominee and now he can't get out of it. If he stuck to his beliefs like in 2000 and somehow became the nominee, I have no doubt he would have had a very good chance of becoming president. I almost feel bad for him.

I hope future republican candidates learn from this: your "base" is insane, shrinking, and dying off.

Um, what am I saying? I hope they don't learn from this!

Would that were so, jrrrl, but they have spawned a couple of generations since Raagan. Palin and her brood of trough feeders are an example. I wish the GOP base really were dying off, but they breed, like rodents.

I'm sticking with my theory that McCain is animatronic and his artificial intelligence is only programmed to last until November 4, so he has to make a hasty exit before he starts shooting sparks and his head flies off. If you watch the 3rd debate, his eyes definitely glow red. Just saying...

Seems plain to me - when he concedes and congratulates President-Elect Obama (jinx! sorry), he doesn't want to be drowned out by boos and cries of "terrorist" and "kill him." The small group of guests can be handpicked, and easily controllable, and will be less horrifying to the rest of the country.

I'm not sure, really, how to feel about this - upset that McCain is trying to sweep the racist wrath under the rug, or pleased that there will be some attempt to put a fucking lid on the hate that his campaign has encouraged and unleashed.

I think he just doesn't want to be up past his 10:00 p.m. bed time.

As a complete aside, the Arizona Biltmore is an amazing building. I've spent Christmas Even and morning there for the past decade, and will again this year.

The architect of record is Albert Chase McArthur; however, the consulting architect was Frank Lloyd Wright and it shows. McArthur (and his financing partners, which included his brothers) insisted on adding and extra floor which, to Wright's aesthetic, destroyed the massing. Wright was a drama queen -- the building is beautiful.

As for that lawn McCain can't wait to appear upon, I'm guessing it's the lawn inside the ring of the hotel buildings (the front lawn is too small, and there's a messy reconstruction project underway on the cafe adjacent) which, on a Christmas morning, on a clear morning, reveals a sloping verdant green, stopped by a low-slung Wrightian concrete block building beyond which is the sunrise-pinked mountains.

It's too good a place for John McCain.

We won't support spine-less NO-Bama and will re-defeat him in November !! Go Hillary 2012 !!!

Don't forget...the only time McCain doesn't need to pee is when he's peeing.

He's afraid white people will riot if Obama is elected and he doesn't want to get crushed in the stampede.

Maybe it will be an auction. He can auction off Palin's clothes.

@ Jubilation: You are clearly an elitist.

At this point declaring victory for McCain will require far more than walking out on stage and giving a victory speech. It will require an explanation of why math isn't true.

Julie's right. On Olbermann's program last night some talking head said that McCain will actually be mixing it up with the hoi polloi that night.

Mind you, they might have him in one of those hamster bubbles so none of the rabble actually touch him, but he'll be there.

I don't blame him...it's not going to be much of a party...

"Might drop by" is the excuse I always use when I know the party is going to suck. Smartest move McCain has made in ages.

@1 has it right. He will spend the evening in a sound-proof padded cell as the results come in and after being sedated will come out to make his concession speech. They want him to do it on the lawn so the sniper with the tranquilizer darts will have a clean shot if needed.

@21, you bet your sweet, sweet ass I am.

Dude. If you were gonna get your ass beat like you were running against Ronald Reagan would you want to be seen in public? Or would you just rather admit your loss to your reporter buddies and go cry on your bus?