McCain suspends campaign
John McCain has temporarily suspended his Presidential campaign to return to Washington D.C to help broker a solution to the economic crisis that has engulfed the US - citing no consensus over the Bush administration's proposals as evidence that crisis talks were required.
McCain has also called on Barack Obama to delay Friday's Presidential debate - stating that they need to rise above party politics to see this crisis through.
It is a shrewd move from McCain - who has lagged behind Obama somewhat on economic issues. If Obama rejects his suggestions, it looks like he'd rather be talking politics than sorting out the economy. However, if he agrees, it looks like McCain is the leader, and he is following.
Apparently, Obama suggested that they issue a joint statement about it - and 5 mins later McCain announced the suspension of his campaign...
So... I think McCain wins the smartness/ shrewdness battle.
Though... if you are an Obama supporter, you're probably criticising McCain for politicising the issue and/or mad that Obama didn't do it first.
[Edit - ignoring the BBC's as usual unbiased reporting, it is still clear that McCain is getting whacked for "forgetting" to mention that Obama called him about this before he made his own statement... which is something of a key detail and now makes his call look like a gaffe. On the other hand, calling for the campaign to rise above party politics was a shrewd move - and if Obama ends up debating himself, it will look like he's the only one thinking about politics in these uncertain economic times, something that could go either way.
I think the spin involved has made what could have been a good, shrewd move turn against him... who knows - this might be the turning point Obama has needed.]
3 comments:
Nope, it's got to be a politicised issue, that's not the complaint. And I would have been disappointed if Obama had suggested something so pathetic.
The thing is that Presidents have a lot to do, a lot of multi-tasking, and if Grandpa Simpson's not up to that, he should just pull out now.
Not wholly surprised by that comment, James. And I guess it is fair.
But I wonder if there won't be just a few Americans that look at this and think that fixing the economy trumps a campaign - and respect McCain a bit more for doing so.
Also, now McCain can legitimately tell Obama that if he wants, he can debate himself on Friday - McCain has more important things to deal with.
I think there will be more than a few Americans who look at this & wonder what the hell McCain is doing.
Dashing round the country suspending your campaign (well, not the negative parts) whilst your 40 days away from an election in which many are still undecided. Does that really look presidential? Does "forgetting" to reveal that Obama had called him earlier to discuss a joint statement, or invoking 9/11 for no particularly obvious reason? Mavericks don't look presidential, they look unstable. Not good when key swing states are swinging towards Obama.
The other thing to remember is that the main reason McCain needs to burnish his economic credentials is because voters consistently believe Obama would do a better job of handling the financial crisis. Not surprising when McCain still thinks he can extend Bush's tax cuts (despite a probable $700bn extension to the already massive budget deficit), not to mention his campaign's links to the out-of-control mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
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