What McCain is doing is the exact same thing a basketball coach would do when the other teams get momentum: Call a timeout. Obama is starting to open a lead in the polls, and now McCain wants to slow down Obama’s momentum.

This ain’t basketball John. There are no “timeouts” in Presidential campaigns. Play the game go to MS and debate.

This is a political move.

We have to vote on a new president in a very short time. We need to hear the two candidates discuss their ideas in debate with each other, not in ads, or prepared speeches, or sound bites.

The country is not going to die this week, and I’m beginning to think the situation is not as dire as the Bush admin makes it out to be. Regardless, what could either McCain or Obama do, except add to the circus atmosphere?

If the vote is close, then yes, they should be there for the vote. However, I doubt there’s going to be a vote at the exact time they’re debating.

As for each candidate’s take on the current situation, let them issue their statements — it will still be up to Congress to make the final decision. They’re running for President, they aren’t president yet. And neither is an economic expert. Why don’t we let the economic experts in Congress hash this one through?

(And I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m really getting tired of the erratic nature of McCain’s campaign. Is this a demonstration of how he’ll lead? If so, we’re doomed if he wins.)

Let’s also not forget the expense and cost to the University of Mississippi, which has had to re-arrange it’s own business in order to accommodate the debate. Not to mention others who are attending who have purchased tickets, made plans, and that includes television networks.

These debates are arranged months in advance. The University did a huge amount of work in preparation. The campus has been disrupted in preparation. Re-scheduling isn’t like re-scheduling a press conference, where you can just hold a new one on the fly.

This was incredibly insensitive of McCain’s team. If they’re that uncomfortable participating in a direct debate, how the heck will McCain be able to lead?

Everything, I repeat everything that John McCain has done since South Carolina, 2000 has been political. Why would he change now?

Naked politics? Nope, beating someone to the punch…yes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080924/ap_on_el_pr/mccain

According to the AP, “Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement that Obama had called McCain around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday to propose that they issue a joint statement in support of a package to help fix the economy as soon as possible. Later, McCain spokesman Brain Rogers said in his own statement that although Obama called in the morning, he couldn’t reach McCain and did not leave a message about what he wanted to discuss.”

Rogers couldn’t reach McCain and he’s a campaign spokesman?

“McCain called back six hours later and agreed to the idea of the statement, Burton said, and McCain’s statement was issued to the media a few minutes later. But Rogers said it was McCain who “asked Senator Obama to join him in returning to Washington to lead a bipartisan effort to solve this problem.”

See, McCain had 6 hours to discuss with his lobbyists from Fannie, Freddie, et al and came out swinging later. See, it was HIS IDEA to do the bipartisan thing.

For someone who just a few days ago said the economy was sound only to reverse himself 3 hours later in a separate campaign outing…and Gov. Palin saying we could be heading to another Great Depression…well, I just can’t trust the Deregulator Guy.

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…

Tsquare–you’re joking, right?

Few people are THAT stupid to believe that John McCain would rather “lose an election than the economy.” This is pure politics–he’s dodging the debate because a) he’s behind b) he’s behind in LARGE part because of voters’ perceptions about him on the economy c) debates are not his strong suit–he loves the folksy town hall meetings with no moderators and no one to challenge him on his remarks.

Oh yeah–he accuses Obama of being weak on the economy, so why does he desperately need his help…and like anything magical is going to occur within 48 hours when this thing bail-out is being questioned by both sides.

McShame is a political whore of the worst kind. Whatever virtues he had 8 years ago have been sucked dry by his lobbyist staff and his insatiable desire to become prez before he dies…he will say and do anything to win this as has been proven by his repeated lies in his campaign ads, his refusal to answer policy questions from the media and the continuing efforts to keep Caribou Barbie (Palin) shielded from the press lest her Barbie doll circuity should malfunction and springs and wires start poking out from beneath her neck.

Obama shouldn’t let McCain have this one. Call his bluff.
Offer to suspend the campaign after the debate.

The deal is 98% done, moving the candidates to Washington will be more of a distraction than a help. Besides, aren’t Presidents supposed to be able to multi-task? If McCain suspends his campaign for this, how will he handle more than one crisis at a time in the White House, with a hand off to Sara??? This is a stunt to get into the news cycle when he’s got nothing else going for him. Pathetic.

I think that this is a great move that both candidate should embrace. This issue is bigger than a debate which can be rescheduled and to suggest that McCain is afraid of debating Obama…why did he invite Obama to 10 townhall debates of which Obama made it to zero?

After Obama called him privately to suggest a joint statement, and after he agreed to that, it was a dirty trick for McCain to go public with a suggestion to delay the debates.

Rather than look like a sincere, honest man, McCain now looks like just another politician with no integrity.