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McCain has announced that he’s going to suspend his campaign to go back to Washington to address the financial crisis we find ourselves in:
Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me.
I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.
We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved.I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night's debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.
And when I showed this to my coworker he stated the obvious: This is a politician talking. And I’ll admit, as one who’s evaluated things that have happened before in terms of perception, this seems like a really great move—especially since McCain did it first.
The problem is, most people don’t trust McCain as it is. He may truly be this concerned about the problem. He may truly understand the scope and want to get involved. He may be above the fray—but regardless of all of this, a bunch of people are going to say he’s just doing it to get attention, to get favorable press, and to try to keep Obama from campaigning.
It’s a potentially game-changing announcement, and underscores the whole “experience” and “country first” theme of his campaign—which is why it’s hard to buy that it’s not also a political strategy.
UPDATE (4:30 PM EST):
- Sen. McCain has instructed his staff to take his ads down.
- Sen. Obama wants to go ahead with the debate.
UPDATE (4:50 PM EST):
- I’ve seen what I think will be the theme of why Sen. Obama’s going to keep right on going from Twitter: mommystory Did Obama just imply that leaders should multitask? Imagine that!
Will you accept the scripted Presidential ‘debate’ again?
Brought to you by your ‘good friends’ at Wall Street.
No Paul or Nader Main Street USA,
nor Cynthia McKinney.
If he can help fix this financial crisis more power to him.
Someone had better do something soon or this country is going down the toilet.
Leticias last blog post..Taking a break from politics
I completely agree with Obama: a commander in chief has to be able to multi-task. You can’t say, “Hey, hold those bombs for a minute. I have to take care of this problem over here first.”
McCain has just proven that he can’t handle the demands and multiple fronts the POTUS will inevitably encounter.
I think he also knew Obama would eviscerate him in the first debate. Interesting way to fend off that attack!
Musicguys last blog post..I Love Campbell Brown!
@Musicguy: Is Sen. McCain saying he can’t multitask, or is he saying that my job is a Senator, and right now this country needs me to be in Washington doing my job?
Let me frank, I think this was a good impulse that went too far. It would have been the right thing for him to say, “I’m a Senator, and I need to cancel my speaking engagements and go to Washington until this crisis is averted.” I think then his campaign decided to up the ante and cancel the commercials and the debate to make a splash.
There’s no reason that he couldn’t keep running his commercials, and Friday was supposed to be Foreign Policy, so that should have been okay as well.
But, for the record, if there’s a crisis– like Katrina, or a nuclear bomb, or even financial– you can bet I want my President focused on the big problem and pushing the fix to completion rather than spending his days prepping for a debate and attempting to run a campaign. Let your staff do that.
To me, this isn’t the kind of thing that should halt the campaign, but it does deserve the complete focus of those that would lead us.
And I think you have your talking points wrong, Musicguy. You’re supposed to be setting low expectations for your guy in a debate on Foreign Policy (Sen. McCain’s perceived strength) so that even if he just appears adequate he wins. If you set him up as eviscerating and he does anything but, he loses.
Oh, hey, listen. I’ve heard people whining for days because neither McCain nor Obama were even going to BE in Washington to vote on this deal.I think if you are in politics you can’t win no matter what choice you make.
A political move? Sure. It has to be at this point. (If McCain made an a-political move at this point, he would be accused of being too stupid to be president.)
I think what this move is saying is this: “This is a serious situation. I can multi-task, but a campaign that costs millions is not as important *at this moment* as me being at the center of the crisis, doing what I can. (He’d be accused of dereliction of duty if the economy went totally bust, and he’d been out happily campaigning. Can’t win.)
Bush kind of diffused the impact, regardless. He asked Barack to meet with him, and what was Barack to do, say no to the sitting president during a crisis? That wouldn’t look good…
So, McCain AND Obama can go to Washington – issue a joint statement, look good… (and by the time they get there the bailout is almost already approved and they didn’t really have to do anything.)
Still, all in all – point goes to MCain for being willing to sacrifice his campaign for the good of America. I think that wins over Obama’s multi-tasking comment.
🙂
Hollys last blog post..I’m at the new site!
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/bill-clinton-do.html
And look! Ol’ Bill agrees with me! 🙂
Hollys last blog post..To Pearl or not to Pearl – child discipline methods.
@Holly: Partially, it’s going to go back to what you already predisposed to think about the two. I would think, though, if you’re counting points, Sen. McCain gets this round.
@Holly: Actually, we must have found this at about the same time.