On CNN I just heard Dana Bash suggest that McCain wants to cancel the debate on Friday if there is no deal for the crisis:
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign to return to Washington and focus on the “historic” crisis facing the U.S. economy.
Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama said at a news conference later Wednesday that he and McCain had spoken by phone and had agreed to issue a joint statement about shared principles in the approach to resolving the economic crisis.
But he disagreed with McCain’s call for postponing Friday’s first presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi.
“It’s my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person will be the next president,” Obama said in Clearwater, Florida. “It is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once. It’s more important than ever to present ourselves to the American people.”
Additionally, McCain has suggested that he and Obama could debate next Thursday instead of the VP candidates.
Let me unpack this for the rest of you retrograde morons out there who are still undecided and can not figure out whether you will vote for Obama or McCain. And no, I am not with the Obama campaign on any official or unofficial level, so I feel perfectly comfortable calling you a total moron if you are an undecided at this point.
1.) McCain is not putting politics aside. He is injecting a massive dose of politics into this debate. Now, when the negotiators stick on points over the next 36 hours, they will have to wonder if it is being done in bad faith in order to suspend the debate.
2.) Sarah Palin is clearly not ready to debate next week, and the McCain campaign is desperate for a way to postpone her appearance.
3.) McCain is giving you another glimpse of his temperament. Obama quietly, without alerting the press, approached McCain. McCain staged a media stunt. Wait till you all hear the statement from McCain to Katie Couric in which he derided Obama’s attempt to issue a joint statement.
4.) If you want some moron to run around like his hair is on fire in a time of crisis, McCain is your man.
My god, this is the easiest choice in an election in my lifetime.
*** Update ***
Jonathon Martin figures out the gambit with the debate suspension:
This would also buy Palin some more prep time.
scarpy
wait, what’d he say to couric??
ye ye ye
and yet Ohio continues to go Red.
Can we just fucking throw them out of the country? pleasE?
b. hussein canuckistani
Who wants to bet that if the VP debate takes place, Palin calls in sick, or has to go to an uncle’s funeral?
cleek
if this works for McPOW, i’m moving to Canada.
liberatemeiexinfernis
what matters to the close to 45% of the American people, despite all evidence that the GOP leadership misled this nation into a deep deep military and economic abyss, who are still bumblefuckety enough to vote for the GOP, is “can they have a beer or go moose hunting with Sarah Palin?”
that said, I learned one this this week so far that may negate my thesis enough: Dont fuck with the American man’s (or woman) money. Even KKK will vote for Obama if anyone fucks with their money. Seeing GOP card carrying Social Security depending senior citizen’s revolt against McCain is truly a sight to behold
demkat620
I’ll take Jamaica. Canada is too cold. Sorry, Krista.
D. Mason
Chris Matthews just announced that the debate commission has said the debate will go on as scheduled.
strawmanmunny
If this works, is there any doubt left as to why this country is in the situation it is in?
I mean, really, after a while, people have to be held accountable and the people that continue to vote for the same morons get what they ask for.
My empathy for places like Ohio and the South(and my home state of Kentucky) is gone for good if McCain wins. I’ll be the one fiddlin’ while Rome burns.
strawmanmunny
If this works, is there any doubt left as to why this country is in the situation it is in?
I mean, really, after a while, people have to be held accountable and the people that continue to vote for the same morons get what they ask for.
My empathy for places like Ohio and the South(and my home state of Kentucky) is gone for good if McCain wins. I’ll be the one fiddlin’ while Rome burns.
b. hussein canuckistani
If McHindenburg wins, it’ll be too crowded too.
strawmanmunny
Just to be clear, lest somebody sends the CIA after me, I’m not advocating any type of violence in holding people accountable….I just mean, it’s time we just told people, “Sorry, you lost your home, your job, your teenage daughter is knocked up and you have no income, there’s the street and the bed you made, lie in it”
LiberalTarian
I got a big fat dose of batshit crazy from a neocon today. I mean, I’ve read about how these people perceive the universe, but I’d never actually been exposed to it. If they go for McCain, where will we be able to hide from their dumbassery? What country will not be plunged into financial chaos along with the US? Hang on kiddies, it’s going to be a rough ride.
Comrade Napoleon
Hey, I am from Ohio. Just toss everything south of I-70 out and that will do the job. Its basically part of the south anyways.
The Moar You Know
O RLY?
Gosh, how convenient is that?
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Details?
Jake
I just can’t get over how much McCain’s campaign resembles a bad reality TV show.
And this fucker wants to be President. This fucker could be President. I don’t want him anywhere near the Oval Office. The guy walks around with his zipper down all day. No thanks.
Comrade Scrutinizer
Re: McCain’s right eye. Dunno what’s going on there. My wife the nurse practitioner was talking with me on the phone tonight, and said, “Damn, McCain really looks sick.” She was looking at the eye and the lack of affect on that side of his face, and wondered whether he had something neuro going on. She thinks he’s dropping the debate because of health, not because of politics. We had a long conversation on what would happen if McCain became incapacitated between now and the election.
Greg
I hope the debate occurs regardless. Let Obama get up there next to an empty podium. Jim Lehrer will mention how McCain was invited but pulled out, Obama will spend a few minutes talking about why it’s important to continue regardless (basically rehashing his press conference today) and then let’s have 90 minutes of Obama and Lehrer discussing his foreign policy vision, with maybe a few questions about the economy thrown in.
Ted
It really is. Reasonable people could weigh the choices carefully in Carter/Reagan, Bush/Dukakis, Clinton/Bush, and even Gore/Bush II (before anyone knew how much of a fuck up W is). I can’t believe the polls are as close as they are on this one. But I said the same thing about Kerry/Bush, so what do I know.
Jake
Courtesy of Hilzoy, this gem:
Salty Party Snax
Great line from Obama: “It is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once.”
Sounds to me like Obama, using the most polite language imaginable, just called Crash McCain an addled old fool.
Studly Pantload
Chuck Todd is reporting that the McCain camp is stating, “No bailout resolution, no debate.”
Why do I smell a pocket veto in the offing?
But, hey, if McCain wants to make Friday night a 90-minute Obama infommercial, I guess I can’t complain…
dmsilev
Check out Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric:
YouTube
Epic FAIL.
-dms
Ted
That same plan would work for Missouri as well.
Alvin
McCain’s talking points gets mistakenly leaked to media:
http://coloradoindependent.com/9151/oops-colorado-mccain-camp-sends-internal-e-mail-to-reporters
“Shut up! Shut up!”
Paul L.
The One/Obama would never skip/duck a debate.
dadanarchist
Holy shit, you’ve been on fire all day John!
I submit that John Cole turning his righteous fists of fury on the GOOPers is at least one good thing that has come out of the Bush years.
Comrade Josh Vondoktorpepper
Paul L., having punctured his blow-up sheep and now in search of any kind of attention, posted:
=========
The One/Obama would never skip/duck a debate.
…Earlier this summer, a consortium of veterans’ and military groups proposed a forum near Fort Hood, Texas. CBS agreed to televise the historic event, which would have been the first “debate” on military issues, with questions posed by members of the armed forces, their families and veterans.
The forum was scheduled for 11 August, but Mr. Obama took a pass, citing scheduling conflicts. Organizers offered to move the forum to another debate, but the Democratic nominee declined. Senator McCain was firmly committed to the event, but the debate was eventually cancelled, due to Obama’s non-participation.
=======
The difference is that MCCAIN IS PUSSING OUT ON A DEBATE THAT HAD ALREADY BEEN AGREED TO AND SCHEDULED MONTHS IN ADVANCE
AkaComrade
This has absolutely nothing to with McCain’s falling poll numbers. Pure coincidence. Country first. POW.
Steve V
It appears Obama has been summoned to the White House tomorrow. I expect Bush and McCain will attempt to physically ambush him at this meeting.
Nikolita
@ Alvin – Shit, I laughed so hard at that. “Please do not reach out proactively to the media” and they went and sent it to the media. Totally figures.
SGEW
I smell something clever brewing.
Everyone (correction: all reasonable people) are viewing this latest McCain stunt with the derision and scorn it so rightly deserves. Sound familiar? This is how we treated Gov. Palin’s introduction, which only strengthened her support among the whackjob demographic.
So the question is: what demographic of teh stupid hoi polloi is he targeting now? The “maverik” believing morans? The “I cans be a billionaire too” crew? It could work (and then we’ll all decry the idiocy).
I don’t think “flailing” is the right word. These moves are carefully thought out, and are intended to have specific effects (in this case delaying the V.P. debates until she’s “ready” (if ever), and putting the foreign policy debate towards the end of the schedule, which might help McCain). The effects of some of the moves (see, e.g., Palin) appear to be back-firing, but maybe they think they can keep snowballing everyone with a blizzard of bullshit, and not have any of it catch up to them until Nov. 5th.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
What Obama and Biden should do is to announce, unilaterally, that he (Obama) will be in DC on Friday attending to the issue of the Wall St. bailout legislation.
Nevertheless, the debate will go on as scheduled. Joe Biden will take Obama’s place, showing the American people that he (Joe Biden) is ready to step in at a moments notice if something were to happen to the President. That is what the VP must be ready to do.
Obama and Biden will both state that they expect that Sarah Palin will also show up in place of John McCain, assuming she is ready for the task.
The subject of the debate will be foreign policy, as previously scheduled. When a VP has to step in for a President, they don’t get to pick and choose the time or the subject at hand. They have to play the cards already dealt.
[comment also posted at ObWings]
Comrade PeterJ
I really like your idea, especially since it seems more and more likely that this is all about postponing the VP debate.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
whoops – so much for originality. I see that Lee and others all had the same idea in the “Of Course He Did” thread.
Great minds think alike, etc…
Comrade PeterJ
Obviously a sign that it’s a great idea. :)
Comrade Tax Analyst
If they find out this is all just a phony-assed political ploy my dreary old ass is toast.”
jcricket
Fuck-en-A. Just when you think McCain can’t sink lower, he does. If the Republicans do manage to hoodwink us yet again, I think the Palin/McCain Depression will be significantly than the last one.
And as others have said, that 40% continue to vote Republican because to them all that matters is opposition to abortion, lower taxes, hatred of gays, war war and more war, or whatever the pet issues of Republicans are these days makes me deeply, deeply sad.
I’d be fine if the Republican voters consisted solely of the KKK, or Norquist’s merry band of thieves. But the high percentage is truly depressing.
comrade chopper
word is the dems have gotten the WH and treasury to agree to provisions. the bill is about 98% done.
so mccain is going to suspend his campaign, turn around tomorrow and fly into washington on a white horse only to find the whole thing already done when he gets there.
this, my friends, is an epic fail in the making.
seriously, i’m saying screw it, i’m buying a full-on popcorn machine.
Komrade Kain
I’m not sure I agree. I think it’s LDS. Liberal Derangement Syndrome. These people have been completely trained to hate and not trust liberals. It’s just a knee jerk response. They will vote Republican all the way up to the point the feds take away their houses and maybe after that because they’ll somehow think it was the liberals fault somehow.
We need to hit rock bottom before the healing can begin.
cain
JackieBinAZ
Just tidied that up for you a little bit.
Comrade Trotsky
I suspect that the WH will stall the final negotiations just long enough to give McCain a reason to avoid the Friday night debate. As for Graham’s offer to “postpone” the VP debate, I can’t imagine, after watching that trainwreck of an interview with CBS, that a few more weeks of debate preparation will make any difference. So if their plan is simply give Sister Sarah more time to prepare, why are they even bothering? Wouldn’t it be better to take the hit now and get it out of the way?
Just Some Fuckhead
I had a guy like that in my office today. Absolutely incensed at Bush and all the Republicans – including McCain – that drove us off a cliff in the last years. But absolutely would not even consider voting for Obama. I asked him what his plan to hold Republicans accountable was and he said outside of sending the RNC a nasty note in response to their last fundraising letter, he didn’t have one.
Comrade Tax Analyst
I saw Ben Stein on CNN a few nights ago. He was saying how horrible McCain’s economic plans were and just flat out said, “McCain has the wrong set of advisor’s…I really wish he had Obama’s advisors”, to which the other party being interviewed (it was either Rubin or Reich, I can’t remember that at the moment) suggested that perhaps Ben ought to be endorsing Obama. Stein did not even blink and said, “I’m supporting John McCain”. Which he again reiterated at the end of the interview.
Jess
A while back Tim F. reported on the fear factor of the conservative psyche, but there’s another typical characteristic; extreme loyalty to their tribe, from which too often follows an obstinate hostility to those outside the tribe, just about impossible to overcome. I have to admire the unconditional loyalty of some of the conservatives I’ve known, but every virtue has its its vice.
TenguPhule
I would like to sell him a bridge to Alaska.
Shade Tail
Buy her prep time? Nonsense. They’ve been spending the last nearly three weeks trying to prep her by keeping her out of public view and giving her intensive briefings, and she’s still looking like an utter hack and loser.
They’re not trying to give her more prep time, they’re trying to prevent the VP debate from ever happening. And no wonder, considering how big a fool she made of herself in front of Katie Couric. After Joe Biden gets through with her, “fool” will be an inadequate description of Sarah Palin.
emme
I’m thinking they might actually be meeting Obama to surrender and tell him he can have the Presidency. McCain knows he can’t handle it he’s old and mentally slow and Sarah Palin is mentally slow too. At least McCain has the excuse of being old.
Brachiator
This shit will backfire on Bush, McCain and the other stupid mofos if Obama shows up. Photos of Obama at the White House will get holdouts used to the idea of Obama as president.
of course, I assume that Bush and the Decepticons will go out of their way to give McCain all kinds of presidential aura, and will try to withhold the same from Obama. But if anything slips through, Obama can only benefit.
comrade chopper
according to the times, its mccain who didn’t prep for the friday debate and is looking for a do-over.