Suspension of Disbelief
John McCain is so committed to putting politics aside and focusing on the financial crisis that he even went through the trouble of typing up some talking points for surrogates and volunteers to use in order to better exploit the decision for political gain. It’s the maverick’s credo — engage in constant, crass political stunts all the while maintaining that they’re anything but crass political stunts.
Meanwhile, one wonders what it really means to suspend a campaign. Will McCain surrogates not be going on cable today? Are campaign offices around the country closed, with volunteers told “thanks, but no thanks?” Is staff being given a holiday? Or is the candidate just taking an afternoon off to rest up before the debates (not a bad idea for either candidate) and interested in trying to score some political brownie points while he does it.
47 Responses to “Suspension of Disbelief”
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September 25th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Obama should point out that John McCain’s only had 26 years in which to fix the problem — and 20 years since the Savings and Loan blowup in 1988 cost the taxpayers $180 Billion.
What’s the hurry all of a sudden?
September 25th, 2008 at 8:18 am
As progressives, we should whole-heartedly endorse McCain’s suspension of his campaign.
It’s the coming-back, if he ever does, which I oppose.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:18 am
How did that Republican Senator describe John McCain’s last minute intervention in the immigration debate? That he “parachutes in at the last minute”?
heh heh heh
September 25th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Obvious political stunt. However, I wouldn’t mind if both McCain and Obama actually go to Washington once in a while to fulfill the responsibilities that the taxpayers are, you know, paying them for.
Either that, or maybe we can convince the entire Congress to run for president so they won’t have the chance to continue to screw things up.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:24 am
This is ridiculous. Unless McCain no longer intends to stand for election his campaign has not been suspended.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:24 am
I liked the part in the Memo ,accidently sent to the media, which said “Please do not proactively reach out to the media on this.”
If McCain, by divine intervention , was elected I envision US Diplomatic Memos in the future being sent to Chinese and Russian Ambassadors with the caveats “PLease do not let the Ruskies and Chinks know that we are SO screwed”
September 25th, 2008 at 8:24 am
And as Josh mentioned in his (atypical) morning rant, somehow, someway, nearly half of the population will view this obviously cynical and desperate ploy as a bold, deciscive, mavericky, country-first, attempt at bi-partison leadership. Mind boggling.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:25 am
I like that he still has time for speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative but none at all for debating. Can you imagine what the response would be if Obama had pulled a stunt like this? The “liberal” media would be all over him for chickening out and would wonder if this was how he planned on dealing with hostile leaders. Maybe if John McCain had announced the suspension of his campaign sometime within the past ten days, I’d be more inclined to believe him. But ten days ago wasn’t the “economy fundamentally strong”? And what is his position on this bailout?
September 25th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Does this mean he will not pay for ads scheduled but not run? Can he legally do this? Won’t TV stations be irate about this messing up their schedules?
Is the the type of steady at the helm leadership we could expet in a financial crisis? If so, better put your money into gold or maybe Chinese stocks for sure.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Talking Point 5 suggests that ‘no consensus has emerged’ and that the bailout was unlikely to pass. and yet most reports were that yesterday they were pretty close, with Paulson caving the less important CEO pay provision and the more important equity-purchase provision. So it sounds to me that McCain’s goal here is actually to prevent a quick solution that he and other Republicans either had nothing to do with, or have to vote against to please the right.
Or maybe he’s just drunk.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Suspending an election campaign for a crisis sounds uncomfortably close to suspending an election for a crisis. The whole thing has a vaguely authoritarian air.
As if the political party holding the Presidency does not think the country can handle a hard fought presidential campaign right now, what with these perilous economic times.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:32 am
I’m really looking forward to those cold days in Jan./Feb. curled up by the fireplace reading the great articles that will be written of McCain’s campaign aids ripping each other for how the campaign was run. I think I’ll go stock up on hot chocolate now.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Well, I live in VA and his ads are still running here. So much for “suspension”, huh?
September 25th, 2008 at 8:37 am
My guess is that Obama’s refusal to suspend his campaign will be used as justification for more sleazy ads — just as Obama’s refusal of the “ten town hall joint appearances” was the excuse McCain gave for going negative in the first place.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Brilliant choice to post image. The header says it all. If you’re still sending out “Talking Points,” by definition you have not “Suspend[ed] the Campaign.”
September 25th, 2008 at 8:41 am
I’m going to start calling him Johnny-come-lately from now on. If he’s not behind the curve on a lot of issues, he’s flip flopping. But notice how he tends to glom on to whatever happens to be the popular opinion?
September 25th, 2008 at 8:59 am
McCain: John McCain is calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership of both houses of Congress, including himself and Senator Obama.
Bush: In that spirit, I’ve invited Senators McCain and Obama to join congressional leaders of both parties at the White House tomorrow to help speed our discussions toward a bipartisan bill.
Which is it?
Posted on this here:
http://alchemytoday.com/2008/09/25/who-called-on-whom/
September 25th, 2008 at 9:04 am
If the president can take the time to go on TV, John McCain can take the time.
BTW, the latest I’ve heard is that they want to postpone this debate and reschedule it to replace the VP debate, which would then be cancelled. Why would they want to do that?
September 25th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Just saw his ad on the Today Show at 8:03 am. He’s a weasel.
McCain and Bush running around with their hair on fire. That’s what I call leadership in a time of crisis!
September 25th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Supposedly McCain instructed his campaign to pull its ads, although it might be hard to tell since RNC ads would presumably keep running.
Generally, though, I agree it just isn’t possible to completely suspend a campaign unless you actually quit the race.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:08 am
“Won’t TV stations be irate about this messing up their schedules?”
Ask David Letterman. He seemed, shall we say, a little bit miffed last night that McCain had cancelled.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Ticker Bounds is now able to pursue the porn career that his name has, as the structuralist Marxists say, “overdetermined” him for.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:27 am
1) I think John McCain should be beaten like a rented Mule over the fact that this crisis arose because he’s spent 26 years in the Senate kissing rich men’s butts and supporting the Republican line “Get the Government off the backs of the [crooked rich] people”.
2) At the same time, I think Obama is ALSO making a severe mistake — spending time in Debate camp and then cavaliarly dumping at least $1.5 TRillion of debt onto US households.
Without making any attempt to see if the bailout is necessary and ,if it is, to force measures into the Bailout law that will keep the cost off of the ordinary citizen and dumps the cost onto those responsible for the trainwreck.
3) That behavior will be portrayed by the Republicans as severe Narcissism — a Harvard grad grooming himself in the mirror as the city burns down.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:30 am
@Don Williams
You must’ve missed the memo. Obama’s off to DC today to meet with GWB on the economy; no debate camp. McCain’s the one who spent yesterday morning bitching about polls, meeting with Lady Forester de Rothschild, and unveiling new ads all utterly unrelated to the economic crisis until he decided to shit his pants and call for a do-over.
September 25th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Like you, I am trying to understand what “suspending the campaign” means.
McCain flack Nicole Wallace was on “Today” and “Morning Joe” this morning. Why? If McCain suspended his campaign on principle, is he not then required to cede the field entirely to Obama, no matter the consequences?
September 25th, 2008 at 10:57 am
As UncommonSense mentioned, toxic McCain spokeswoman Nicole Wallace was all over NBC this morning, spewing snark and bromide. At one point she even suggested that Obama take one of his styrofoam pillars to Mississippi and debate it.
When Joe Scarborough (really working hard to carry the McCain Water today) finally brought in Robert Gibbs to engage her, Nicole just laughed at him and shouted over him, until an exasperated Gibbs proclaimed, “Well, the campaign that has stopped won’t let me get a word in edgewise.”
Suspended campaign my ass. Even Politico reports McCain staffers are working away this morning, sending out their hourly emails and snark points.
September 25th, 2008 at 11:00 am
No doubt McCain will put the doubters to shame by removing his name from the ballot and endorsing Obama for the sake of national unity.
September 25th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Of course he suspended his debate not yesterday, but today, after a major campaign event. He got Bush to schedule a meeting this afternoon. I’m sure there will be cameras. Then tomorrow is debate day.
The whole thing is a trick to pull Obama off debate preparations and get him to fly back to Washington for the Bush bailout dog and pony show at which they will hopefully announce the compromise legislation the house and senate have been working on all week.
Then McCain can heroically resume his campaign just in time for the debate.
September 25th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
You were right at 8 am…his surrogates have been on TV at least 5 times today.
Ads are reportedly hard to pull, but I bet if you asked stations (and if they could answer…) they’d tell you that buying continued today.
He did not, in any functional way, suspend his campaign.
But he’s a liar, so what can we expect.
December 15th, 2008 at 7:19 am
Fans cheer at the last Georgia-Auburn game at Memorial Stadium in 1958. Jimmy Griggs reached his seat in the Memorial Stadium pressbox. He checked the microphone in front of him. He prepared his papers. From his perch up high, he watched
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