Wednesday, September 24, 2008

McCain's Debate Delay Dodge

This is the best chronology we can put together on the fly, for now, about today's bizarre political developments:
  1. Obama called McCain this morning to propose that they issue a joint statement on shared principles with regard to pending legislation to hand $700 billion (or maybe $1 trillion) over to Treasury Department Secretary Paulson so he can distribute it as he sees fit.
  2. McCain apparently agrees to the joint statement idea. Staff members from the two campaigns begin meeting to hammer out the details.
  3. McCain goes before Tee-Vee cameras to say he is suspending his campaign and calls on Barack Obama to agree to a postponement of Friday night's televised debate.
  4. In mid-afternoon Obama holds a press conference, makes a short statement, and answers questions. Among other things, he points out that one of the two candidates will be elected President in just forty days and the people deserve to know, now when it counts, what each of the candidates has to say. He also points out that a president has to be able to handle more than one major thing at a time and there is no reason the candidates cannot handle both the credit crisis and the debate.
Real reporters as well as cable TV hair-dos are wondering if McCain is afraid of a public debate because he's "plunging" in the polls?

Duncan Black wants to know, seriously, "What's wrong with McCain's left eye?"

What we'd like to know is why did McCain unilaterally decide to go in front of the cameras to propose to Obama that the campaign debate be postponed if he already was in touch with Obama by telephone? Just who is playing politics with the financial crisis?

Dept. of Amplification
"Now John McCain is trying to act the knight-errant and grab the credit. This goes beyond lying. It is insulting to the American public... ."

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