During the past 24 hours we've seen one candidate engage in a political stunt, jumping into the middle of ongoing negotiations affecting the future of the country as if only He can save us (clearly hoping to get credited with whatever the President and the leaders of the House and Senate come up with). We've seen him refuse to go to a debate that has been scheduled for almost a year, even though there are myriad ways he could still participate (whether by hopping on a campaign plane that could be in Mississippi in a couple of hours, or via satelllite hookup) in a debate in which millions of Americans, still unsure who to vote for, want to see the candidates answer some tough questions.
We've seen the other candidate not lose his cool, come to Washington when the President asked him to but also make it clear that he is prepared to work on the bailout plan AND debate.
What's more, this has been the pattern of the campaign. Obama rarely gets rattled, and doesn't go into crisis mode at the drop of a hat. For McCain, who has weathered numerous changes of his own doing during the campaign (at least two financial crises and several staff shakups) it seems like everything is a crisis all the time.
I know that for the next President I want the guy who won't blow his stack or run off and feel he has to do something rash instead of taking a few minutes to talk about it.
I hate to be so cynical, but I'm not convinced that the "call to the White House" was not a political move to justify McCain's cold feet. The two senators have been absent for campaigning for the whole summer, and there's certainly no necessity for them to be there to run the debate. They may have been Senate leaders, but now they must be presidential.
ReplyDeleteThe Presidency going Democratic this time will surely result in the undoing of a lot of Republican mischief from the last eight years; how far should we expect them to go to preserve their setup?
I'm with you: the debate must go on.
Well, it did go on.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was pretty happy with how it went. Obama looked Presidential and that was what he needed to do. Counting the point that Obama scored before the debate because of McCain's bizarre behavior this weekend it's pretty clear that Obama came out ahead.