Tag Archives: mccain

^ Blatant Political Ploy of the Week ^

The New York Times is reporting that John McCain is seeking to postpone the debate because of the financial crisis.

Senator John McCain said Wednesday that he would temporarily suspend his presidential campaign on Thursday to return to Washington to deal with the financial crisis and the $700 billion bailout package now before Congress. Mr. McCain said he told Senator Barack Obama that he was asking the Commission on Presidential Debates to postpone the debate scheduled for Friday night.

“I am calling on the president to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself,” he said. “It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.”
By Elisabeth Bumiller

I think this is a savvy ploy by the McCain campaign to avoid having to debate Obama so soon after this crisis broke and before a definitive plan has been established. I’m not sure how the Obama campaign is going to respond to this, but it puts them in a hard position: Say no and Obama risks looking like he isn’t doing enough about the financial crisis. If he agrees to postpone the debate he may be missing a golden opportunity to attack McCain directly as his poll numbers are falling and he’s vulnerable. It will be very interesting to see how the Obama campaign responds to this. I for one hope that he says he will not agree to postpone the debate, forcing McCain to chose between not appearing or appearing while he is weak.