Cut And Run
by tgirschSeptember 24th, 2008
Maybe just the cynic in me, but it sure looks like McCain’s afraid of Obama right now:
Republican John McCain said Wednesday he is directing his staff to work with Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign and the presidential debate commission to delay Friday’s debate because of the economic crisis.
In a statement, McCain said he will stop campaigning after addressing former President Clinton’s Global Initiative session on Thursday and return to Washington to focus on the nation’s financial problems.
McCain said he wants President Bush to convene a leadership meeting in Washington that would include him and Obama.
It will be fun to watch the McCain camp try to spin this as some sort of principled move. Seems more to me like a tacit acknowledgment that McCain wants no part of a debate with Obama when the economy is going to be topic #1 on everyone’s mind.
Categories: Economics, News & Current Events, Politics |
This sucks. Obama is now in a box. I think if I were him I would say the debate offers the best possible way to mwaningfully discuss the situation, and carry on. Wrap all the non-partisianship jibberjabber into post-debate action.
It’s hard to even keep up with this.
Campaign is a mess because we won’t debate.
Our economic fundamentals are strong.
By that I mean the people are fundamental.
So we are in good shape.
Thia is a crisis. We can’t debate, we have to fix it now.
Bipartisanship to the rescue.
and coming soon: wink, wink, I Told you I could get bipartisanship shit done. -or- Obama would rather lose an economy and win a debate.
If the media would hold McCain’s feet to the fire on this and force him to follow-through that would one thing; but he’s going to skate, being the straight-talking maverick that he is.
OK, good. Looks like Obama is taking the “time for debate” now approach”. Who scores points will be determined by thetype of coverage it gets.
McCain rushing off to DC now is same as McCain rushing off to Ike…a photo op. He’s learned that from Bush.
Dumb question perhaps, but isn’t the debate this week about foreign policy? If that is the case, doesn’t that mean they can’t talk about the economy during the debate? Not sure, but that’s what it sounded like.
No, I think it is safe to say the debate will be in mostly about the economy a this point (85%?). Guidelines are not rules…
If you think you can keep a politician on topic, Big U, I’ve got a bridge somewhere in Texas to sell you.
It was a cynical attempt to put Obama on the defensive, not ‘fear’. McCain has a (largely in my opinion undeserved, since he’s about as socialist as the Rep party gets on the matters) better public opinion when it’s on economic matters. Not as big as his advantage on matters of national security, but still more than margin of error.
With Obama out of DC, Obama’s able to make reliable and consistent fundraising opportunities. The Democratic party has been heavily focused on that since Obama went past public funding. McCain isn’t as focused — he’s still working within some of the public funding limitations, so he can’t get money in a lot of ways that Obama can. The goal was to either force Obama to D.C. and reduce the Democratic campaign’s funding income while forcing Obama to make potentially divisive decisions (say, voting on one bill or another), or to have video records of McCain helping ’save’ the economy while Obama is on stage or elsewhere. There’s no way to vote on the bills coming up that’ll keep Obama’s tent together on the economic side, and there’s no way he can go to a (more literally than normal) one-side debate or a fund-raising speech or dinner when McCain’s making impassioned (as much as the old guy gets) speeches to the Senate.
Cynical as hell, but we are talking the Republican party.
There was an interesting idea floated over at Patterico’s place (a conservative blog), namely that whenever the media coverage focuses on McCain, his poll numbers drop, and when the coverage focuses on someone else (Palin or Obama), McCain’s numbers go up. So based on this, McCain suspended his campaign specifically to shift the media coverage away from himself. And indeed, the coverage has been as much about Obama’s reaction to McCain’s suspension than anything.
That seems to me to be too clever by half, but an interesting concept, nonetheless.
“McCain’s afraid of Obama right now:”
The idea that McCain is afraid of Obama in any area of life is laughable. If your little man/child ever had to face a tenth of what McCain has faced, he would wet his little pants.
Don’t you love the reaction of Obama: I’ll go help solve the problem if you need me. That’s real leadership you can believe in. That’s not the way FDR did it when he addressed the nation on TV in 1929.
Also, doesn’t Obama embarrass you highly educated liberals when he states that the new president will take over in 40 days? What a doofus!
FDR addressed the nation on TV in 1929? Yikes. What a hoot.
Ted:
You’ve been out of the loop, apparently. Fred’s referring to the latest Biden gaffe.
Also, Obama did not say new pres takes over in 40 days, he said at that time “someone will be responsible for dealing with the mess.” Deals with an advanced concept sometimes called lame duck status. Responsibility and authority being two different things…
Biden should get an automatic pass on one gaffe a day, just to streamline things. You know he’ll use up that quota easily…
Well, that gaffe is a two-for-one deal given that (1) FDR wasn’t president and (2) TV wasn’t commercially available yet.
I hope you are listening Fred Wilpnon, Omar Minaya, etc.!
Get off your ass and start lobbying we postpone the season until Johan has his five days rest and can pitch again. Then, rinse, lather, repeat!
Yeah, TG, I know your guy just went on three days, but if Johan hurts himself that’s our problem next year. If C.C. does, that’s Hank Steinbrenner’s…
digg:
You, of all people, ought to appreciate this.
Nice.
Here’s one, back at ya’ The last punchline of the last paragraph is worth the whole read!
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/struggling_mets_combine_to_form