Delay Down

Say what you want about the politics of McCain's gamble to head back to D.C. and his attempt to get the debate moved...

but the suspending his campaign thing, that's just a little bit much, no?

Time's blog Swampland makes a great point- some states ARE VOTING ALREADY. By the time of the 2nd debate, even more states will have voters sending in ballots. All while those voters have never had a chance to see the two candidates speak back and forth on substantive issues on a non-managed stage.

Why pull your ads? Why say you're "suspending the campaign"? Isn't that somehow an insult to the people working day and night to get you across the line on election day? It is not as if McCain did this a few days ago, you know those olden days when the "fundamentals were strong"? No, he's doing it now, two days before the debate, after his poll numbers wilt and after Congress is nearing a slow-moving solution.

While the entire gamble itself seems more than poised to backfire, I believe the concept of "suspending" your campaign almost 40 days before election day is the most offensive to Democracy. It's a rhetorical over-reach. We have not been attacked on our own soil. Wall Street just got really greedy and messed up and wants bailed out by taxpayers. That's a big darn difference.

System fail.

Also: maybe McCain's "suspension" would have made more sense after President Bush's address tonight? I don't think most Americans understand what makes this crisis so far reaching and immediate. A post-speech McCain action might have seemed less, well, weird and self-servingly impulsive (which it purely is, from any standpoint).

But even then, injecting yourself as a Senator into the debate is not possible anymore.

McCain is a Presidential nominee for the Republican Party. Every act he takes has added consequence and would slow any solution. I don't suspect Harry Reid wanted McCain to come to D.C., but simply to tell his fellow GOPers to pick a side and work on it. The GOP is all over the place on this "bailout." McCain has not led them in any measurable way. A suspension won't ameliorate that.