CrazyDrumGuy

Shut It Down

This is apparently what John McCain wants to do with the election:

John McCain said he will “suspend” his presidential campaign on Thursday and will return to Washington to focus on the unfolding economic crisis. In the meantime, he called for a delay in the presidential debate scheduled for Friday night in Mississippi.

So Obama asks McCain to join him in making a joint statement on the bailout, and then McCain turns around and tries to unilaterally shut down the presidential campaign? What? Why wouldn’t he want to use the intense national spotlight of the presidential campaign to have a conversation directly with the American people? Why retreat to Washington and the confines of the Congress? Something seems fishy to me.

Lots of people aren’t buying it either.

John Cole:

The real reason is probably twofold. First, he is getting pummeled in the polls.

Second, McCain’s entire campaign is composed of lobbyists, and they need to be in Washington to get their cut of the $700 billion. They can’t miss this shot at the trough.

Straight talk, bitches!

Politico’s Ben Smith:

Both candidates have been marginal players; McCain, though, seems to have the potential to make himself a major one, and his move is a mark, most of all, that he doesn’t like the way this campaign is going.

But in terms of the timing of this move: The only thing that’s changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling.

Josh Marshall:

What’s changed today in the financial crisis other than John McCain’s poll numbers tanking? Isn’t this the campaign equivalent of faking an injury when you’re down late in the 4th quarter? Note too that McCain was in the midst of debate prep when he made this decision.

Look at what appears to have happened. Obama reached out to McCain privately to agree to a shared set of bailout principles. McCain went off the handle again and tried to use the crisis as a way to call off the debates.

Matt Yglesias:

WTF? You can’t just stop the presidential campaign — what does that even mean?

Meanwhile, I think walking and chewing gum at the same time is part of the president’s job.

Reason’s Jesse Walker:

Shorter John McCain: I’d rather debate pressing issues behind closed doors with my colleagues than on national TV where voters might see me.

Andrew Sullivan:

He’s suspending his campaign in an economic crisis because that’s what leaders do in a crisis, right? They check out. But it turns out that McCain has checked out of the Senate too.

Steve Benen:

Apparently, as McCain sees it, 10 days after the Wall Street crisis began, now he wants to head back to Capitol Hill to do some work. Of course, lawmakers and administration officials have been working quite a bit, but McCain, who has played no direct role in the negotiations thus far, wants to swoop in and tell everyone what they need to do. This from a man who hasn’t shown up for work at all in literally months.

What’s more, after whining incessantly for months about the need for one-on-one debates, McCain has decided, just 48 hours before the first official debate, that everything should be postponed. And Barack Obama should go along with all of this, because McCain says so.

I’ve never even heard of a presidential candidate acting in such a reckless, compulsive, and ultimately haphazard fashion. McCain just decided to “suspend” campaign activities? This rivals picking Sarah Palin for the ticket on the list of desperation moves.

McCain spoke at some length yesterday about the nature of the economic crisis, and what he’d like to see happen. But at the time, it apparently never occurred to him to get actually get involved in the process. That is, until today.

The Republican nomination has apparently gone to some kind of man-child who believes stunts and gimmicks are the way to the White House. It is nothing short of breathtaking to see someone so manifestly unserious seek the highest office in the land.

The moment the winds shifted and Obama had a growing lead in the polls, it’s time to suspend the campaign. Good lord, McCain really does think voters are idiots.

Jesse Taylor:

Conceivably, if any sort of due diligence is done, McCain could be off of the trail for weeks.  I mean, if he can’t push for a solution to this crisis because he’s going to be too busy trying to push for a solution to this crisis (which is bullshit in and of itself), why not just end his campaign right now, let Obama become president and McCain can run for Senate Minority Leader where (apparently) he’ll do better and more important work? 

This ass is running to be President of the United States.  If he has any leadership to show on the issue, the entire world’s eyes have been on him since it began – what work is he going to do in D.C. that he can’t do while speaking to the rest of the nation?

Wonkette:

Let us be clear, America: John McCain is a senile old coward, and his campaign is run by crazed dingbats who seem to honestly believe that hijacking a half-hour of the midday news cycle with another weird stunt is a good way to turn those polls around. It’s not. It’s just … embarrassing, for Earth. 

Chris Bowers:

So, McCain moves to upstage Obama after Obama made the first “bi-partisan” move. Several things to learn from this. First, trust McCain, and get a fork in your eye. Second, why on Earth was Obama looking to remove the contrast between himself and McCain on this issue? Third, McCain is crazy out of control. He will do anything crazy if it is perceived as helping him, no matter how ludicrous it actually is (such as, say, picking Palin as VP.) What an incredibly dangerous President this guy would be.

Harry Reid:

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.

I’m sure I could find more, but my fingers are starting to hurt from all the clicking. To their credit, the Obama campaign says the debate is on.

Update: Hunter reminds us that John McCain hasn’t voted in the Senate since April 8. Oh, now he’s in such a big hurry to be a Senator?

Also:

Update 2: The hits keep coming.

David Kurtz:

The guy who a week ago said the fundamentals of our economy remain strong suddenly suspends his campaign and wants to cancel the first presidential debate to rush back to Washington to deal with a crisis that his vice presidential candidate now says could lead to another Great Depression if not addressed immediately.

More Josh Marshall:

Let’s state outright a few obvious points. Bringing the presidential candidates and their press entourages back to Capitol Hill won’t speed or improve the process of coming up with a good bailout deal. It will politicize it. That’s so transparently obvious that it barely requires stating. And of course that is the point.

By going public with his ’suspension’ announcement as a breaking news statement McCain intended to make any agreement between the candidate impossible. Contrast that with Obama’s campaign, which apparently tried to get both campaigns to agree on a common set of principles privatelybefore going public. There’s no logical reason there can’t be a presidential debate while a bailout plan is being negotiated.

Finally, does anyone think that McCain would have come up with this gambit if his polls were where they were two weeks ago instead of where they are today? Of course, not. This isn’t a reaction to the national financial crisis but to the McCain polling crisis.

The McCain supporters who are cheering this aren’t doing so because they think it’s the right thing to do but because they hope it’s ingenious politics.

If anyone can think of any reason why these points are not incontestably accurate, I would be obliged if you could let me know.

Joe Klein:

McCain suspends his campaign because of financial crisis? Oh please. Given today’s poll numbers–even Fox has him dropping–it seems another Hail Mary (like the feckless selection of Palin) to try make McCain seem a statesman, which is difficult given the puerile tenor of his campaign’s message operation.

Perhaps, if he’s really interested in this financial stuff, McCain should propose that he and Obama change the topic from foreign policy to economics this Friday night–they could even stage the debate in Washington, so they wouldn’t have to stray far from the bailout negotiations. I’m sure their fellow members of the Senate won’t mind if McCain and Obama spend a few hours enlightening the public on this crucial subject.

Atrios sums everything up rather nicely:

So much obvious stuff can be said about this. McCain hasn’t voted since April, etc.. etc.. But basically his campaign thinks you’re stupid.

Obama described their conversation as follows: “I proposed putting out the joint statement. He concurred with that. he then also said, ‘I would like us to look at suspending the campaign and pushing the debates off.’ I said, ‘let’s put out the joint statement first, and then get our campaigns to discuss this.’” Obama said he later saw McCain announcing his plans on television.

9/24/08 1:53 pm | Comment (1) | Permalink | Tags: 2008, bailout, Barack Obama, economy, John McCain, shorter