Yes, it’s a stunt. This where we are right now: McCain’s poll numbers are collapsing, the Palin sideshow gets more farcical every day, and if McCain doesn’t score a huge win in Friday’s foreign policy debate, he can pretty much hang it up, since he will almost certainly lose ground in the domestic policy and VP debates. This calls for what the footballers call a Hail Mary.
And here it is:
Senator John McCain said Wednesday that he would suspend campaigning on Thursday, and seek a delay in this week’s planned presidential debate, so that he could return to Washington to try to forge a consensus on a financial bailout package.
Interestingly, a reasonable degree of joint action was actually Obama’s idea.
Mr. Obama apparently began the exchange with his Republican rival hours earlier.
“At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal,” said Bill Burton, the spokesman for the Obama campaign.
“At 2:30 this afternoon,” he added, “Senator McCain returned Senator Obama’s call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details.”
So McCain, impulsive gambler that he is, basically said “I’ll see your joint statement, and raise you a debate! I’m all in, baby!”
Obama has apparently rejected the call to delay the debate.
[A] senior Obama campaign official said Obama “intends to debate.”
“The debate is on,” a senior Obama campaign official told ABC News.
I mean, seriously. The election is in six weeks, and that date is not going to change. American democracy has to move forward, and the debates are a crucial part of that. In fact, what more important time to hear at length from the two candidates than when the stakes are high?
Now, I could definitely see changing the topic of the debate from foreign to domestic policy, since the latter is what’s on everyone’s mind these days. But of course, McCain would never go for that.
UPDATE: Harry Reid says “thanks, but no thanks” to McCain’s offer to drop everything and parachute into DC, in a statement that makes a lot of sense.
This is a critical time for our country. While I appreciate that both candidates have signaled their willingness to help, Congress and the Administration have a process in place to reach a solution to this unprecedented financial crisis.
I understand that the candidates are putting together a joint statement at Senator Obama’s suggestion. But it would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations and risk injecting presidential politics into this process or distract important talks about the future of our nation’s economy. If that changes, we will call upon them. We need leadership; not a campaign photo op.
If there were ever a time for both candidates to hold a debate before the American people about this serious challenge, it is now.
Note Reid’s suggestion in the last sentence that the topic be altered from foreign to domestic policy. That’s really a good idea, and it’s hard to imagine a bunch of journalists talking about policy toward Uzbekistan when the American economy in on the line.
