Is McCain "suspending" his campaign as a convenient excuse to skip the debate with Obama?

Whether he is or he isn’t, it sure LOOKS that way.

Yes. It is political posturing.

If you’re a Republican, he’s doing it for Love of Country.
If you’re a Democrat, he’s pulling a fast one.
If you’re one of the people who are going to decide this election, I hope it’s pissing you off.

From what I understand he wants to put aside the campaign and fix the economy NOW. Why? Because the economy is what is keeping him behind Obama. If he fixes it now, it could give him a big step above Obama. As far as I’m concerned this is all a ploy to win the election. When I feel that he actually gives two shits, that is when I will start taking him seriously.

The problem is that he’s politicising the process and making it more difficult to come to a resolution.

If he had met with Obama, and they had come into accord and dropped everything to work on the problem together, it would have been a golden moment in the history of American politics.

As it stands, it looks like a terrible attempt at one-upmanship. A big stinkeroonie.

Here’s Bill Clinton’s take on it.

Let me understand this – this man wants to be the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and he’s telling the whole world that he’s not capable of focusing his attention on two different issues at once? Seriously?

Of course he should go to Washington and do his job as U.S. Senator, and help resolve the financial crisis. But to suggest that doing the job for which he was elected makes him incapable of participating in his campaign for the presidency is beyond absurd.

A candidate for the President of the United States should not be an average man with average limitations. The President of the United States needs to be better than the average person. Needs to be able to handle more than one thing at a time. McCain has just told everyone that he is not that man.

Let me understand this – The guy that wants to be PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is going to go and do what HE’S BEEN ELECTED TO DO? Which for you Obama supporters is not campaign. I know it’s hard to believe since he’s done more campaigning than actually being in Senate, but man isn’t that something? Seriously? I don’t see the issue. Regardless of the position he’s applying for, he still has a duty to his state and the people of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA to do what he was originally put in office to do. Obama should be doing the same damn thing.

I think I might agree with tWrex. But here’s HuffPo’s opinion: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/here-is-why-mccain-wants_b_129048.html (disclaimer: I hate HuffPo).

McCain hasn’t been to the Senate since April. Why all of a sudden does he need to cancel the debate to go and “work” on the financial crisis? Because he doesn’t know how to answer the questions with anything but generalities! Because he speaks of solving problems but can’t provide solutions. Our country can’t afford another 4 years of this kind of leadership – our reputation and our infrastructure have been destroyed and we’re all afraid for our future. We need someone who is a little more aware of what is really going on and can utilize innovations and new technology to be a part of the growing globalized economy and culture.

He has nothing to do with the commitee that is assigned to hash this out. He will sit there and make noise and make this a political thing. He will get in the way.

tWrex – Obama IS going to the Senate to do his job, along with McCain. My point is that they both SHOULD be doing their job. That they have’t been should be a federal crime.

What is ludicrous is not that McCain is going to Washington, it’s that he’s telling the nation that he can’t do both that and campaign at the same time. Obama can, apparently.

If he can’t run for President and do his job at the same time, did he suspend his pay as a senator too? Actually, he could probably afford to do that. His wife will pick up the tab.

I think he’s more likely trying to get this debate to happen at another time and will try to have it or one of the others replace the VP debate. I really like that someone finally said this.

@Mritty Point taken. =)

Well, the bailout deal has succumbed to partisan bickering, so I guess I’ll be watching Tivo tonight. At least some good shows premiered this week.

Sooo… did he end up “suspending” anything in the first place? I’m confused what the “suspension” meant. He was still taking donations. He travelled to Washington with his campaign staff. Palin was still campaigning. His campaign staff were still issuing press releases. It seriously sounds like the only “suspension” he intended was to not go to the debate. And now that that’s blown up in his face, he’s decided to do it after all?

Kudos, I suppose, for deciding that maybe he can do two things at once, but two thumbs way way down for 1) telling us he can’t, and 2) being misleading about what his “suspension” actually meant.

He also pulled his campaign ads and said that Obama was irresponsible for continuing to run his.

The real issue is that this Foreign policy debate was supposed to be where McCain could shine and show off his credentials, but now that this is the big news there would have to be a lot of attention paid to the economy.

Since the economy is an arena where Obama will fare better, McCain would rather hold off the debate.

I’m still not sure exactly what McCain is supposed to be doing right now anyways. Is he calling the House Republicans who are not gong along with the plan that was presented yesterday? If he’s not calling on them personally, there is no reason why he shouldn’t have some time in his Friday evening.

fireside, no he didn’t pull his ads:
‘Suspended’ McCain Campaign Still Churning Along
“Contributions were still being collected on the McCain-Palin website, local campaign offices remained open and attack ads continued to air throughout the United States by midday yesterday”

GA for Mritty – guess I should have actually checked into it.

It does look like they made an effort to pull the ads.

I know that ad schedules are usually finalized for the week by Friday at 4pm. Most of the stations probably weren’t interested in pulling the ads because they didn’t want to run into an issue of the campaign asking for reciprocal time later.

Many times when ads don’t get run, due to the station’s error, the advertiser is entitled to have those ads played at a later date. I don’t see how that would be the case here, but why risk it with costly political ads.

Plus, telling all the stations that they needed to redo their airing schedules late Wednesday is no guarantee that they had the ads to fill the spaces purchased by the campaign.

Don’t get me wrong, it is disingenuous to say that the campaign needs to be suspended a month before the election, regardless of the reason. That’s like admitting that you can’t handle the extremely complex job of being president. It also makes me think that McCain may try to take a Presidential working holiday every August like Bush did to decompress from the pressures of office.

I had read, and am trying to find the link, that he had said he would pull his ads if Obama agreed to do the same. I believe this came after Obama’s reaching out and asking to make a bipartisan statement.

This whole thing just makes me wonder what happens if Kim Jong Il decides to fire some missles our way while, say, a hurricane is damaging Louisiana. Is he going to call Jong back and say “I’m sorry, I’m already dealing with something at the moment. I’ll get back to you when that’s been dealt with.” ?

Yes, I realize that’s taking this whole thing to an absurd extreme, but I just can’t get my head around it. To say that he is going to stop doing one incredibly important thing so that he can focus on another incredibly important thing….? I don’t get it.

@bri_l, I believe this is the story of which you are thinking :0)

Woo Hoo
Its on

@ Marissa – actually I had not seen that link. That reports the info differently. Until that link I had not heard that McCain claimed to be working with anyone on the crisis at that time. I was referring to a link that quoted his campaign stating they would cut their ads if Obamas would.

Thanks for the link though. New info!