So now John McCain is taking credit for this credit "deal" and now says that he's back in the debate. At this point, I'm not even sure what to think of this. First he makes a big deal yesterday about suspending his campaign so that he can go beyond partisan politics to deal with this economy crisis. He "races to the airport" heading to Washington, D.C., though oddly finding the time to be interviewed by Katie Couric on the way. Today, he gets into Washington, sits at a table to talk about the bailout deal along with a big photo op, claims credit for the deal and now says he's back in the debate.
I'm at a loss to figure out what the big idea is behind this whole act. Why would McCain, who hasn't voted on anything in the Senate since April, suddenly suspend his campaign two days before the first debate of this historic election and threaten not to show up at the debate, when this country is in the middle of a crisis that should be the most important thing for the candidates to be debating about right now. Was he trying to respond to low poll numbers by doing something to make himself look "presidential"? Was he trying to get the debate postponed, but then changed his mind when Obama didn't take the bait? Or is he just doing a big stunt with all of this just to get some free publicity (which is just what the multi-headed hydra that we call the 24-hour cable news networks feed on constantly)?
Help me out on this one. I just can't follow the McCain campaign's logic anymore. Needless to say, tomorrow night's debate is certainly going to be more interesting than I would have thought it'd be at the beginning of this week.
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I think it is a clearly transparent ploy for attention and support. The country is all of a sudden supposed to think "look at that John McCain, he put the economic welfare of this country ahead of his own personal ambitions... he's the kind of leader we need..." (of course, politicians have a much smaller effect on the economy than they like to think, but that's a topic for another post) But one would think he'd at least try to keep up the charade for a week at least in order to lend it some semblance of authenticity. He managed to save the economy from "cratering" in a mere two days? That's so unfeasible it's rediculous...
I definitely think that McCain's suspension was a political ploy. And frankly, I think was scared of a debate with Obama. McCain has so much working against him because he supports Bush, the man who got us into this financial crisis, and was afraid, maybe subconciously, but nontheless, of being clobbered by the strength of Obama's economic debate.
And conveniently, his suspension made him seem more concerned and concentrated on the economy than Obama, when, in my opinion, it was him trying to avoid the subject altogether.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/110782/US-Leaders-Getting-High-Marks-Crisis.aspx
As evidenced by those polls, even this ploy to boost his approval ratings over his economic dealins failed miserably...
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