UPDATE - reports are coming out that McCain will debate tonight.
Okay, this point may be moot by tomorrow. However, here it goes.
Does McCain actually think backing out of the debate tomorrow is a good idea?
Has he lost his freaking mind!?
Now, I am not one to give campaign advice to John McCain, however in this case, I think it is in his best interest to reconsider. Skipping a presidential debate is really stupid. Maybe if he hadn't missed nearly every single Senate vote this year, and he actually was considered a leader in the Senate, his "concern" over the economy might have passed as sincere. However, since he has been missing in action for so long, I think John McCain isn't needed in the Senate to solve any crisis.
More below the flip
In an election this tight, this is a huge gamble. Bill Clinton made a good point on Larry King the other night. The nation is divided about 45%-45% Republican-Democrat, with about 10% in between that can swing either way. However, to win, you still need 5 of those 10. So, why would John McCain plant more doubts in those 10% of swing voters by rolling the dice?
He already rolled the dice on Sarah Palin, and now he's hiding her and keeping her from interviews. Does he really believe that suspending his campaign and skipping the debate will change his fortune? It makes him look like he is scared of Obama. It makes him look un-Presidential. Obama on the other hand, comes off like a leader. A leader is present at all times, calming the crowd, and trying to maintain order.
Say what you want about President Bush, no matter how much of an ass he made of himself, he never backed down from a debate to deal with a National crisis. For one thing, his Presidency has BEEN a National crisis.
Well John, it looks like you are 0 for 2 in dice rolling. How about another roll? Say, get rid of Palin and go back and get Romney. Or maybe learn how to use e-mail. No, too hard.
Or how about stand up for your principles and talk about the issues most important to you and why you will fight for them? Oh wait, you haven't done that in at least four years.
"John McCain...
missed 412 Senate votes....
no show for the debate....
John McCain....
Missing in action.
Not even four more years of the same.
Is this another attempt to make the Wall Street meltdown into a game changing shock and awe disaster ("Straight Talk McCain wouldn't do this if this wasn't appocalyptic") and then Bush declares marshal law? All we need is another terrorist attack or credible threat while our leadership appears in disarray. Incredible. Once McNuts floated the idea of postponing the debates, I predicted he would go romping off being interviewed, grandstanding to grab the spotlight and short circuit Obama's surge (as he has done before). It's like a "B" grade movie.
Is this another attempt to make the Wall Street meltdown into a game changing shock and awe disaster ("Straight Talk McCain wouldn't do this if this wasn't appocalyptic") and then Bush declares marshal law? All we need is another terrorist attack or credible threat while our leadership appears in disarray. Incredible. Once McNuts floated the idea of postponing the debates, I predicted he would go romping off being interviewed, grandstanding to grab the spotlight and short circuit Obama's surge (as he has done before). It's like a "B" grade movie.
This is bonkers:
...a new video of Sarah Palin experiencing a laying of hands at her church in Wasilla shows Sarah Palin's preacher telling the congregation - with Palin present and about to join him on stage - how Christians need to take over control of the business world, especially banking, just like the Jews (Israelites) have done. He then goes on to say that the fact that non-Christians are running the banking industry is the cause of all of the recent scandals. Hmm... so, Palin's solution to the economic crisis, run the Jews into the sea?
McCain's high-wire intervention in the financial crisis is his latest showstopper move - and his riskiest. He might succeed, but the candidate's penchant for the dramatic has also raised anew potentially damaging questions of his age, executive abilities and, most of all, his temperament."He has been pretty erratic - there's no other way to describe what we've seen out of this guy in the last week," an Obama aide said of McCain's conduct during the financial crisis.
Another Democratic official cited McCain's "erratic, all over the map response to the economic crisis."
[...]
Questions about McCain's temperament - some overt, some not - have long been a feature of his political career. He's gotten into profanity-laced shouting matches with fellow senators and other officials, and he jokes that nobody's ever suggested he should get a prize for congeniality.
Yeah, just the kind of guy we want with his finger near the nuclear "button." God help us if that ever happens.
I just got an email from my very Republican mother that says that if he doesn't debate tonight, she won't vote for him. I mean, it's suicide.
I'm hoping for no deal + no McCain showing up -- it would be the best of all worlds.
Brimur is right in his blunt statement
"Worst strategists ever. Wants to skip the debate on foreign policy when he's losing on the economic debate? What an idiot."
Sadly, McCain is still polling better on Iraq, but he hasn't gotten a chance to perpetuate the lie about the "surge is working" for almost a week and a half. This debate is his only opportunity to remind America that he is a "war hero" and we are in two wars, and try to spin that desperately in his favor. Pat Buchanan said that McCain is betting his campaign this moment right now, with his campaign suspension to "help" with the bailout. This will likely backfire.
Not to mention Sarahs continual meltdowns aren't helping.
Well, the ones I know that have not rejected McCain are mighty quiet. They know their candidate behaved terribly.
Oh, and many stopped defending Palin as well.