"Better to be thought a fool, then show up at a debate and remove all doubt."
From today's papers around the nation:
Can McCain pull this off - persuading the public to forget how he and his fellow Reagan Republicans changed the nation's economic rules in ways that allowed Wall Street to run amok, and refocusing its attention on his decisiveness at this moment of crisis? I doubt it. McCain's ploy was transparent. - Washington Post
Democrats accused Mr. McCain of pulling a stunt to halt a slide in the polls. They also tweaked him for declaring the economic situation so dire it requires suspension of his campaign, a week after he declared the fundamentals of the economy are sound. Some independent analysts agreed. "It is a stunt. It is a ploy," said David S. Birdsell, dean of the school of public affairs at Baruch College in New York, an expert on presidential debates. He called it a "very high-risk strategy" for Mr. McCain to take responsibility for brokering a solution to the economic crisis. "He's not president yet," Dr. Birdsell said, adding that pulling out of a debate is unprecedented. "That notion that we take one of the most sacred obligations and rituals of American politics and suspend it because there's an urgent national question is highly problematic." - Dallas Morning News
I like this one, you OC wingnuts should get your panties wadded with this one:
If Winston Churchill could leave London in December 1941 and travel to America to address a joint session of Congress even as British troops in the Far East were reeling under Japanese attacks, somehow we think John McCain can make his way down to Oxford, Miss., for a debate Friday evening without imperiling the future of America. In this case, Barack Obama is right. -Rocky Mountain News
Still, there's an old saying in politics: Think political, but never look political. Given McCain's timing, this seems more political than altruistic. "It looks like a desperate stunt," said another GOP political consultant who worked for a McCain primary opponent. "McCain could have bailed out of the debate a week ago if this was really about the merits." -New York Daily News
And if the wingnuts here want to dismiss all these as too lefty, because they aren't Faux News, then how about the Wall Street Freakin Journal for ya?
Last we checked, the President of the United States was still George W. Bush, the Secretary of the Treasury was still Henry Paulson, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve was still Ben Bernanke, and Congress still had 533 members not running for President who are at least nominally competent to debate and pass legislation. So count us as mystified by Senator John McCain's decision yesterday to suspend his campaign and call for a postponement in Friday's first Presidential debate so that he and Barack Obama can work out a consensus bill to stabilize the financial system. This is supposed to be evidence of leadership? - WSJ
Looks like Dago is the only one who thinks McCain is showing leadership.
All the rest of us think he's a coward unfit to face the people he wishes to lead.