09.24.2008 2:14 pm
Political or pragmatic? Economy crisis pushes McCain to suspend campaign
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Here’s the news right now from the politics front:
Republican John McCain says he’s directing his staff to work with Barack Obama’s campaign and the debate commission to delay Friday’s debate because of the economic crisis.
In a statement, McCain says he will stop campaigning after addressing former President Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative session on Thursday and return to Washington to focus on the nation’s financial problems.
Is this naked politics as McCain positions himself as a guy in charge and ready to take action? Or is it pragmatic because the economic situation/banking bailout is that big?
Kurt is the director of social media for the Post-Dispatch, where he has worked since August 2002. He's been a journalist since 1982, covering municipal government, courts, education and two hurricanes as a reporter before becoming an editor. 
It’s a gimmick!
1. The bailout is that big.
2. The debate should still go on, but be changed to economics
3. It will take longer than the two days Bush, Bernanke and Paulsen are pushing for to address the bailout. Paulsen’s “trust me” is falling on deaf ears, particularly since just a few months ago he was extolling the “strength” of these same businesses.
Everything is political when it comes to the race for the White House.
Does this announcement mean that McCain is giving up his ambition to be the next President? Hardly. McCain still wants to be President, and so does Obama - it’s still up to the people to decide which one is better. McCain (and to be broader, the Republicans) are behind in the polls. McCain is known for taking political risks, and this is a well played one. It buys him time from the debates (more time to prep his very green VP choice) and gives him the appearance of being a leader.
Perhaps it will give him a bounce, perhaps not. But when you are behind, you have less to loose by taking chances.
McCain and Obama are going to come up with a solution in less than 48hrs. ? Um…right.
Coming from the campaign that brought us Sarah Palin, how could one look at this, amid McCain’s declining polls, as anything but another shrewd political move?
Another cheap political stunt. He was Chairman of the Commerce Committee for 6 of the last 8 years. Where has he been? Now, he wants to grandstand. Ron
I understand that this may be a campaign ploy. But quite honestly, I would like see McCain and Obama involved in this debate as Senators. On the surface, it appears that McCain is motivated to do the right thing, and has excellent leadership qualities. Something important to me as a voter. If I start to see his campaign people compare his actions to those of Obama, I’ll know he’s just looking for an opportunity to attack his opponent, not really help the American people.
So here we have McCain taking a ‘I’d rather lose an election, than the economy’ stand and you blast him for it… even though he insisted that Obama should be there too.
Some of you are really something…
The bailout is that big, but so is choosing our next president. We need the debate, delaying it is the wrong thing to do.
I think it would be a great idea to put it on hold. They are both congressmen that need to be present and informed of whats going on in Washington. Another reason they need to get involved one or the other is going to be elected and they will need to be much more informed to deal with the problems. I don’t think McCain is afraid to debate with Obama or Obama afraid to debate with McCain so why would it be a gimmick to get out of it. It seems much to much to expect a senator to be up on what is happening and trying to plan for a debate at the same time. Something is going to suffer. I would rather it be the debate. One of them is going to inherit the buy out problem so they need to have as much input as possible.