What's next? McCain calling for postponement of the election until he can win?

His campaign is in full death spiral.

He is simply hiding from the debate. He's a kid pulling the fire alarm because final is coming up and he hasn't studied.

Oh, I doubt that very much. Barry is the one that will be cramming. McCain has lived through most the issues and already has a good handle, not to mention an actual record.

More likely McCain sees political advantage in actually going to the Sentate and...you know....and being a Senator in this uncertain time.

The Democrats--including Obama--were clear: they weren't going to vote for any plan that didn't have McCain's support. In a time of crisis, when the nation needed leadership, the Democratic party, including Obama, turned to McCain, and he is responding with leadership.

This debate was supposed to be on national security. The McCain camp should have just called on Obama to switch it up to domestic issues, then McCain gets to bang the podium in the last debate on his supposed strength.

Nate Silver talks about how the debates don't really shift public opinion much though you can get a little bump at the end possibly, for the debate closest to the election.

I understand the McCain camp is shitting their britches lately, but I think this just reinforces the "on-the-ropes" narrative. They'd have maybe had better luck going ahead with it.

"More likely McCain sees political advantage in actually going to the Sentate and...you know....and being a Senator in this uncertain time."

Well, he seems to have a pretty mysterious instinct about these things, since this will be the first time he's showed up to work in several months.

Maybe Obama should suggest that Friday's debate be about economic issues.

McCain has lived through most of the issues

This is true, which is why it is so telling about McCain that he has little grasp of the issue, doesn't know the difference between Sunnis and Shi'ites, and has no interest or understanding of policy issues. He had all that time in Washington and spent it just soaking up the atmosphere and playing "maverick" at opportune moments when he could get attention out of it. The only issue he ssems to really care about is military equipment procurement.

This is a tricky, potentially brilliant ploy by McCain: Freeze the campaign before Obama's numbers rise further, and set up a scenario in which McCain gets to play heroic free-market holdout while Obama caves to a socialistic consensus.

Obama had better hold McCain to the joint statement, be damn careful about how it's phrased -- and be ready to nail McCain for bad faith and gumming up the works, which you just know is coming.

allbets, you know, Obama is brilliant and a great leader, so he could try coming up with a brilliant solution and leading on this issue. Or he can follow the leadership of McCain, as he has done so far. Maybe Obama will appoint him to the cabinet if he's elected.

I want to know if McShame will get back in time to give Bush a big ole hug after his speech tonight?

This is a tricky, potentially brilliant ploy by McCain...

I agree, but for different reasons. I believe this is an opportunity to show leadership in uncertain times on the economy which is not his strongest area.

Just as important, if he shows up, he will vote and that will force Barry to show up and vote. I believe Barry doesn't want to take a stand on this and McCain is holding his feet to the fire.

Missing from the discussion here is the fact that Obama reached out to McCain this morning on a possible joint statement concerning the bailout. McCain spent six hours huddled with his advisors trying to figure out what to do and then turned around and stabbed Obama in the back.

What a maverick.

I do have to admit that this is the precise sort of situation McCain excells in: Congress is being hoodwinked into latching on to a bad idea. There's a lot of disarray and disagreement over competing proposals. McCain gets together with Lieberman and a few other people and herald it as a "bipartisan compromise", threatening to hold the rest of congress hostage until everyone coalesces around their bad idea. The problem ,of course, being that McCain doesn't even understand the various merits of the idea. He just wants to be the hostage taker who gets to collect the ransom who basks in the glory.

Yes, NCProsecutor, I heard the same thing on the news--that Obama called McCain early this morning and suggested a joint effort, as senators, to return to DC and work on this crisis. Then, hours go by, and lo and behold, McCain claims the idea was his and oh, by the way, let's suspend the debate.

As my friend TRex said, "The dog ate my schoolbooks and I couldn't study!"

Thomas - let's see the quote from the Obama Campaign saying they wouldn't vote for anything without McCain's backing.

I don't agree with Ezra's post though. The candidate who's behind is the one who wants to debate, and as someone else said, all the prep work was for foreign policy. I think McCain's suggestion may actually make sense, for whatever reason.

This is the exact same thing McCain tried to do with the hurricane a few weeks ago. He wanted to stop everything, including at the time the convention, so he could stop everything, roll up the sleeves and do some real governing. Of course, thankfully, the Hurricane didn't kill us all so that initial move didn't really go anywhere because things went back to normal pretty quickly. He wants to do the same thing here, use a crisis as a jumping of point to conduct a political stunt. Political stunts should be expected at this stage of the game but its extra annoying that this particular political stunt is cloaked as the exact opposite - "suspending" politics to do some governing, when its so clear that the act of doing so is inherently political.

I'm not sure what to make of all this, it's been one of the strangest campaigns in my recollection and probably the most difficult to analyze since Bush/Clinton/Perot. This has been like watching two bad poker players continually overplaying their hands as soon as they get an advantage; Obama through the primaries picking at Clinton when the result was a forgone conclusion, Obama with a strong summer ending with his disastrous Europe trip; McCain capitalizing on the Europe blunder and seizing the momentum from his convention and Palin pick and then immediately losing it with unecessary ads attacking Obama and stretching the truth a bit and now getting blindsided by the market turmoil and his generally incoherent response. Now Obama has the upper hand, but can easily lose it in a second play it badly if the financial crisis really does take down a real live bank or two and he catches the blame.

It's the curse of living in interesting times; I wouldn't want to be running anyone's campaign right now, things are so fluid.

Any body else reminded of this Time Out?

"This is a tricky, potentially brilliant ploy by McCain..."

Keep telling yourselves that, just keep doing it.

Sorry for going off topic, but

"Obama with a strong summer ending with his disastrous Europe trip; McCain capitalizing on the Europe blunder",

what the hell are you talking about? In exactly what way was Obama's Europe trip a blunder? Seems like a smashing success to me.

Granted, McCain jumped with a ridiculous "celebrity" attack. That did provide him some short-term political benefits, but it cant' compensate for Obama's opportunity to look presidential and work with major international leaders.

So...how exactly was that "disastrous"??

Of course they could just move the debate to Washington and both roll up their sleeves as Senators.

The McCain campaign's daily stunts show a level of desperation. Today's move is an attempt to distract voters' attention from his significant slip in the polls, Palin's support eroding, and the embarrassment of Rick Davis's shady lobbyists dealings. McCain's two lap dogs, Lieberman and Graham, were standing by, ready to tout McCain's maverick bipartisanship efforts. Cable news played McCain's announcement more than half a dozen times while it waited for Obama's response. A Karl Rovian maneuver if there ever was one. Obama is too smart to let this interfere with his momentum.

McCain has lived through most the issues and already has a good handle, not to mention an actual record.

Sadly, Free Silver is unlikely to play that much of a role in this election.

If you think if they were to do it all over Obama would go to Europe, your nuts. In terms of campaigning, it was a stupid, unnecessary move and a clear political minus and thus a blunder, especially given his positive poll position at the time. The only people who thought it was great were people like you who are for BHO anyway, regardless of the underlying merits.

Can Obama still "take the debate." It's not like these things usually involve direct opposition. I think he should take the air time. This also seems to kill McCain's argument about Obama refusing the town hall meetings....even if that wasn't an effective argument.

Actually, can we agree to call this "Pulling a Perot"?

Obama should go anyway!

Indeed, whatever happened to McBush's solemn plea for frequent "town hall" meetings to help inform the voter in person and unguarded?
Will the senate even remember who McBush is when he gets there? He's played hooky from the Senate since before his campaign got a pulse.

@ Scott - I would say the Obama trip to Europe was a wash overall. It helped Obama by making him look presidential, but by being absent for a while, he opened himself up to the McCain celebrity attacks. The initial polls during the trip were very high - it was only after the negative McCain ads that Obama's numbers started to fall. So, it's really hard to say the trip was a blunder, unless by blunder you mean "anything other than optimal" rather than "fiasco".

Just yesterday conservative columnist George Will wrote that McCain does not have the tempermant to handle the Presidency. Today, McCain admits Will is correct.

At face value, McCain admits that he can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

The bi-partisan proposal McCain has announced is a basic admission that he doesn't have a clue how to lead so he needs a committee to do it for him. Or worse, he admits only Obama can solve the problem.

This looks like a game ender for the fellow I supported in 2000.

The debate should go on with Obama, Bob Barr, Ralph Nader, and an empty chair.

that's the tag line:

"You don't get to call time out when you're president."

Most of what I heard on Matthews today was fluffing on McCain's position...

I suspect by tomorrow, when Chris actually realizes which way the wind is blowing...

He will do a big turnaround and mock McKrusty...just wait and see...

Why is Obama so scared to cancel the debate?

(psst... to the other pro-McCain trolls - how do I collect my goodies for these posts?)

You brought back McCain making the crazy face at Chris Matthews! Alright! I called for this weeks ago. If he's going to act so unhinged you can portray him as such with out feeling like you have done something unethical. Long live McCain making the crazy face at Chris Matthews!

It's a feint. I'd watch out for the sucker punch. All right, McCain is an old man so it won't be that hard of a punch, but if you can stagger your opponent it's worth a snicker.

Problem is, during rehearsals, McChicken kept opening: "Who am I, and why am I here?"

ummm... the debate is Friday at 9pm. You're telling me McCain can't jump in his jet after he does his Washington work?

This is BS. McCain's afraid that the debate will be about the economy and he's not ready to debate that yet. He also wants to push the debate to the day of the VP debate... possibly trying to cancel Palin's exposure.

It sure looks like a political stunt to me.

You can't call time out when your President. A guy that can't face Larry King or David Letterman is going to face terrorism and the world's problems?

It just looks like McCain is running away, who care what his real motive is. That’s what is going to stick in people’s minds.
Appearance of faint-heartedness will dog McCain, not some noble attempt at bipartisanship.

As far as I can tell, the argument is that this is simply not a moment when the American people can afford a discussion of the issues.

Ain't that the truth. It's an ill-considered argument. It's clearly a politican stunt, and a very bad one, because it immediately looks like a stupid political stunt and played by an over-reaching political neophyte. I don't know who came up with this strategy in the McCain camp, but they were out of their gourd.

If they are trying to limit Palin's exposure, McCain is just that much more of an idiot. Palin's been burning it up on the stump. Her answers to questions have generally been better than McCain's. If McCain needs to limit anybodys exposure, it's his own. And stupid ploys like this.

Appearance of faint-heartedness will dog McCain, not some noble attempt at bipartisanship.

You got that right, Riker. What the hell was he thinking? Stupid, stupid, stupid. And for what? The most noble explanation there can be is that he thinks the best thing for this crisis is that as many bureaucrats be in Washington as possible. Or that nothing can happen without his presence.

In any case, this is just nuts. The best thing he can do is flip-flop on it, but then that will expose it as the transparent political stunt it is.

Idiot.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/260271#atab=1&newsindex=&events=

This article puts it best. As President would John expect other countries to take a timeout so he can focus on one thing at a time. "Vladimir, Kim, and your other feelows, would you be so kind as to suspend all activities while I work on deregulating the medical industry the way I did with banking a few years ago? Oh, thank you so much."