So, today brought another surprise from John McCain. Now, he’s going to show us how he’s large and in charge of Wall Street’s financial crisis. McCain announced that he’s planning on suspending his campaign to go back to Washington DC to help hammer out a bi-partisan resolution to the proposed financial bail out. And oh, by the way, unless a deal is reached before Friday (mere hours from now) he’s saying he’s not going to debate Barack Obama after all on Friday night.
Here are my immediate impressions:
Is it me or is a lot of the Republican campaign this year based on just not being around? First, you have Sarah Palin’s refusal to talk to almost any reporters. Always a good sign when your future VP is thought so inexperienced that she can’t handle the press corps. And now, McCain has figured out a way to duck Obama perhaps not so coincidentally just as the polls were starting to head back in Obama’s favor.
The right is calling it putting country first and believe that after 26 years of pushing for deregulation that he’s now committed to being part of fixing a mess (he helped create in some part in my opinion) over his ambition to win the White House. The left is calling it a cynical move for a failing candidate who is looking for headlines as his poll numbers are falling. Frankly it could be a bit of each.
But that said, I am struck by the McCain campaign’s seeming lack of faith in their candidates. Between hiding Palin, then dumbing down the debate format for her and now John McCain suddenly bailing on the first debate, it sure appears like there’s a lack of confidence in what they’re selling.
Whether that’s true or not, I think it’s now beyond debating that John McCain does have an impulsive maverick streak in him. He’s a risk taker. He took a gamble when he went with Sarah Palin. Now, he’s taking a risk by rushing to DC and bagging out on the first debate. You may not agree with John McCain and you may not believe that his maverick-ness wil lead him to change the culture in Washington, but you just can’t deny a McCain presidency would certainly have entertainment value. We’re seeing John McCain’s decision making process. There’s an impulsiveness and he clearly enjoys the big surprise move (but who doesn’t?). Whether that makes him best suited to lead our nation we will each have to make our own decision on.
Finally, I think McCain is out to get this blog. Seriously. He’s forever throwing a wrench into my plans. I had my DVR all set and was certain I wasn’t missing a minute of Friday’s toe to toe match up. It clearly was going to be a big moment in the campaign and I wanted to be able to spout off on all of it, the drama, the good lines the lines that didn’t work, who did what right and who did what wrong.
Now, of course, I’ll be busy trying to scrounge up some topic or other to ramble on about. It might even be good. Check back on Friday to be sure!
But, it won’t be the same…
Now, it
