September 24, 2008, Bluff called; hail mary ruled incomplete
An amazing day of political posturing by Team McCain, which, ahead of collapsing poll numbers (both broad-based and in key swing states) and Friday night's first debate in Oxford, MS, to be hosted by the-not-brazenly-biased-like-Bob-George-W.-Bush's-Best-Friend-Forever-Shieffer-and-the-other-MSM-whores Jim Lehrer, attempted to cast himself as the savior of the nation by McCain's magnanimously insisting that he would "suspend his campaign" to return to Washington to concentrate on the Wall Street fat-cat-bailout... Al Giordano (who else) explains it all for you...
Team Obama, demonstrating the earlier mastery by which the O Team ultimately outlasted a diehard Hillary Clinton campaign hellbent on destroying its own party's candidate if it wasn't Hillary, handled this one brilliantly, basically calling McCain "a big fat whiner" and noting that Presidents must be able to do more than one thing at a time, that "the sky is not falling." and at a moment like this, the American people need to see their candidates. Even if Obama had swallowed the mickey offered by McCain... "it's still about the economy, stupid," is it not?
That shiny new penny named Sarah Palin is getting tarnished as the weeks wear on, and indeed, should be especially troubling as questions about McCain's health (and after today's events, we must seriously include his mental health) keep abounding. In short, in calling a hail mary pass on first down, just to try to avoid a potential knock-out-blow by Obama in the first debate in McCain's supposed strong area, McCain has signaled weakness after weakness, and his disingenuous intention to return to the legislative chamber from which he has absented himself since last April is nothing short of astounding.
Indeed, it seems, as noted by Al Giordano, even Fox News has just about had it with McCain for this debate fiasco, and for its inane handling of Sarah Palin, refusing to make her available even for friendly reporters' questions. This one could soon become the laugher that, by rights, it should have been all along. Cautionary note: THAT IS NOT HOW YOU BET. But it would still be nice.
Update: Honest Jon Swift humbly suggests that Honest John McCain is on to something here, and that Sen. Obama should just agree to suspend the entire election to give Sen. McCain the time he needs to solve all of the nation's problems; a few weeks should be enough.