Sep 24th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Did Someone Call for a Presidential Candidate?
Did the President of the United States ask John McCain to suspend his campaign and come to DC to help hammer out a deal? Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson? Fed Chair Ben Bernanke? The Speaker of the House? Majority Leader of the Senate? Chairman Dodd? Chairman Frank? Anyone? Or did McCain just decide on his own that he was so indispensable that the distraction of debate preparation would prevent him from butting-in in some kind of crucial way, even though none of the key players felt that way?
50 Responses to “Did Someone Call for a Presidential Candidate?”
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September 24th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
maybe Joe Lieberman called on the MavPhone
September 24th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
McCain is being advised by a burning bush.
September 24th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Kevin Drum points out that postponing the debate for a week would wipe the vice-presidential debate right off the schedule. Hmmm…
September 24th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Are you trying to tell us in some kind of code that Mc Cain is hightailing it back to DC to work out a real plan to solve our financial crisis? Ya see, I don’t know since I haven’t looked at the news feeds in a few hours & you don’t explain to us the background.
Actually, since we are paying him to be a US Senator, that is where he should be, right? Who knows? Maybe he will actually cast a vote for the first time since April 8. Then again, he didn’t bother to the last time is was in town.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Well… I called on McCain earlier today to come to Washington. I sent an e-mail to his website. I think that’s what this is all about. Sorry for all this chaos.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Obama’s response to this has been perfect so far. Yes, this is exactly the moment the country needs to hear from the candidates.
At this point, though, I don’t see that McCain will go through with the debate Friday. He’ll look stupid if he does it. Even stupider than he already looks. Which is already pretty stupid.
The guy has a knack for the dramatic, but this stunt, like the Palin pick, is sure to backfire.
I really don’t see how his campaign recovers. This could be one of the worst campaigns in modern presidential election history.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
He’s more experienced: Keating Five.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
h/t to Andrew Sullivan.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/24/mccains-call-to-cancel-debate-met-with-resistance/
Here is the link Matt Y should have left all of us to explain what he was talking about. Now that I know more of the story, I retract my supporting statement for John Mc Cain. As usual, he is playing sleazebag politics again.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Seems kind of, well, arrogant for him to assume that all of a sudden nothing can get done in DC without him, eh?
September 24th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
I really don’t see how his campaign recovers. This could be one of the worst campaigns in modern presidential election history.
That’s my gut feeling too. But hey, I thought he was done when he announced Palin and that worked out aweso-…wait a sec…
Seriously, this just seems like a childish effort to change the subject and a bizarre ploy to get out of the debates. I have to think most (not all, but most) people will just be baffled by this. It’s just really weird.
I mean, can you imagine four years of this erratic wag-the-dog nonsense? What a drama queen.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
McCain is being advised by a burning bush.
He thinks he is the burning bush.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
As the de facto leader of his party, I’m sure Congressional Republicans would appreciate some guidance on where he stands. But of course he isn’t needed. I don’t really see the point though. All the commentary on the liberal blogs is something like, “oh my God, this is such a cynical political ploy.” Well no shit, that’s how you win elections. Unfortunately for McCain, it’s a pretty inept cynical political ploy.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Yes, this is exactly the moment the country needs to hear from the candidates.
Important point here: Obama thinks that campaigns are a substantive, rational process of engagement with voters, while McCain views campaigning as bamboozling voters, scaring the shit out of them, pushing their buttons, etc. Campaigning as hucksterism is implicit in the time-out request.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I’m calling this McCain’s “Rose Garden Strategy.”
I’m not sure which of his houses has a Rose Garden, but one of them must.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Hey Matt, take it easy on the guy. He’s showing leadership and being decisive. I don’t know about you but I am thrilled to know that we have a real “Decider” riding into town to flog the participants into shape before he rides off into the western sunset towards Mississippi where he can put that uppity nigrah in his place.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
George Will, yesterday:
Point proven, I think.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Is the McCain campaign in possession of some super secret polling data showing Obama way out in front? All the polls I’ve seen show a pretty close race. What is the purpose of these bizarre hail mary stunts when it looks like McCain still has a shot by just slugging it out in the traditional campaign trenches.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Oooooh Matt, donchaknow, Sedona is in Chicago’s OODA loop.
OOOOOOOOOODA.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Toady, he’s in possession of the same data you should be looking at instead of paying attention to meaningless national tracking polls.
Obama is going to win every state Kerry won. He’s also going to win Iowa, without question. This gives him 259 electoral votes. He only needs 11 more.
There are 8 conceivable ways for him to get these:
1. Winning Colorado and New Mexico
2. Winning Colorado and Nevada
3. Winning Indiana
4. Winning Ohio
5. Winning Florida
6. Winning Virginia
7. Winning Missouri
8. Winning North Carolina
Again, it’s not all of the above. It’s any one of the above.
Conversely, McCain either needs to upset Obama in Michigan (not gonna happen), or successfully defend every one of the above states.
No wonder they’re desperate.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Yes, as George Will suggested yesterday, McCain is a divo.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I had the same question as Toady. I think TH makes sense, but still, is it really already desperation time? It’s not 4th down and thirty. It’s maybe 3rd and 8. Try one short pass and one short run, not a Hail Mary. Like, say, try to lower debate expectations and prepare well and come off as knowledgeable and competent. Or come up with better attack ads. Am I still missing something?
September 24th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Well, I think it was a great idea.
If nothing else, it means he Won The Week*.
*if you’re Mark Halperin.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
McCain is proposing that he and Obama both go and participate in the negotiations. Seems useful to me to have the input of the next President of the United States when we’re considering spending 7 hundred billion.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
re: 23 – Yep, Obama would probably be helpful. McSame – not so much…
September 24th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
If he “decided on his own that he is indispensable”, quite likely a lot of voters will decide he is.
Again, as Jon O points out, the Republicans “Win the Week”.
Keep “Winning the Week” and you win the election.
McCain – or more precisely the assholes who are behind him – is eating Obama for lunch. By this time, Obama should be ten to twenty points ahead of this senile old fool. Instead, he’s only eking out a four to ten point lead aided primarily by the economic issues taking center stage in the past week or two – traditionally a Democratic strong point.
Bush has an “October Surprise” in store to return foreign policy to the center stage – and erase that lead.
Meanwhile, everybody – including Matt – is distracted by McCain’s antics, and this stupid bitch from Alaska.
Suckers.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
McCain is proposing that he and Obama both go and participate in the negotiations. Seems useful to me to have the input of the next President of the United States when we’re considering spending 7 hundred billion.
Maybe they could, like, do a little negotiating on national TV, and then we could vote for the candidate whose input we like best.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Orrin Hatch was just on TV claiming that Reid and Pelosi asked John McCain to suspend his campaign, which likely means that McCain has suffered a small stroke.
.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Obama has been part of the negotiations since Friday. McCain has been trying to blame the crisis on Obama, only to have his Fannie Mae accusations blow up in his face.
No wonder he’s calling time out.
.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
McCain – or more precisely the assholes who are behind him – is eating Obama for lunch.
What PLANET are you living on?
September 24th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I smell a trap. If I’m Karl Rove, I have the following script in my pocket:
First, Bush on TV tonight: “Most of all, my fellow Americans, I feel confident we will have an outstanding solution to the fiscal crisis now that the great statesman Sen. McCain is here in Washington, unlike some presidential candidates who think politics is more important than our country’s economic future.”
Walnuts does a photo-op in D.C. on Thursday while he’s hailed by GOP teammates for his heroic leadership nailing down a breakthrough bailout that will turn America into a flowery Eden of unicorns (or trying manfully to find a Real Solution despite those treasonous Democrats) right about Nov. 5.
In time for the 11 p.m. news Thursday, he declares the campaign back on, and arrives in Mississippi Friday ready to debate with a Presidential Medal of Freedom ribbon around his neck. “If I’m not at my best tonight, my friends, I’m sorry,” he begins. “I was busy doing the nation’s business, unlike my opponent. Now go ahead with your questions, you America-hating media weasels.”
September 24th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Wonderpet McSame: We ah coming to save you corrupt Wall Stweet CEOs and companies!
September 24th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
No. 25. Given that 40% of the electorate will vote for the Republican candidate and another 40% will vote the Democratic candidate even if the parties ran bricks, double digit territory is hard to come by, and I think many in the middle 20% are not yet paying careful attention.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
It is actually looking possible this was all about getting Palin out of her debate. Which is the closest I can come to understanding what they could be thinking–not that it was a good idea, but I could see it striking that crew as terribly clever.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
It appears that McCain’s gambit of forestalling the campaign and debates has no historical precedent–not during the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Great Depression, or World War II. The claim that the present financial problems necessitate the suspension of the campaign when these far more emergent past circumstances did not is without merit. But I suppose when McCain sizes up the past week or so, what with his plummeting poll numbers, his mute running mate’s continued avoidance of the press, the emerging details of his campaign manager’s Fannie Mae connections, etc., circumstances around McCain camp HQ must take on the feel of the cataclysmic.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Anybody want to know how helpful McCain would actually be in delecate negotiations? Well, last may, McCain descended on Washington to help out with the immigration bill:
At a bipartisan gathering in an ornate meeting room just off the Senate floor, McCain complained that Cornyn was raising petty objections to a compromise plan being worked out between Senate Republicans and Democrats and the White House. He used a curse word associated with chickens and accused Cornyn of raising the issue just to torpedo a deal.
Things got really heated when Cornyn accused McCain of being too busy campaigning for president to take part in the negotiations, which have gone on for months behind closed doors. “Wait a second here,” Cornyn said to McCain. “I’ve been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You’re out of line.”
McCain, a former Navy pilot, then used language more accustomed to sailors (not to mention the current vice president, who made news a few years back after a verbal encounter with Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont).
“[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room,” shouted McCain at Cornyn.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Hack is right. Obama’s caution and affected centrism prevents him from pulling away.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Talk about presumption! Until one of them gets elected, they’re still doing their old jobs.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:21 am
I think the purpose of McCain’s most recent stunt is to trick us all into calling it an act of desperation, thereby greatly lowering expectations for his debate performance. If he comes across respectably in the debate, it’ll provide the basis for an anti-media narrative about how the liberal press unfairly counted him out prematurely.
September 25th, 2008 at 4:04 am
I’m on THIS planet, where things are going exactly as I predicted some weeks ago – Obama is NOT clearly winning, no matter how many Democrats think he is.
A four point lead is nothing, especially when Republicans control the voting machines and Bush controls the US military. Even a ten-point lead now for Obama would be suspect. If he doesn’t pull a rabbit out of a hat, he’s a goner when Bush and Cheney and Rove and McCain gangbang him in October.
September 25th, 2008 at 7:32 am
No, no, Obama needs a FIFTY point lead to survive the October Surprise! He doesn’t have a FIFTY point lead, so he is a SUCKER! You are all SUCKERS! I am the only not-SUCKER in the world! I am crushing your head! Crush, crush!
September 25th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Yeah, DTM and I’ll remember you said this after November when McCain is elected and you’re on here whining about it and saying “We should have picked Hillary”.
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