McCain calls for a time out - no word on a nap

John McCain is suspending his campaign (and likely Friday’s debate), thus allowing him to rush back to D.C. and, using his tremendous power of Maverickness, singlehandedly cobble together a super-awesome bailout plan, thereby saving the Republic from economic collapse or something. Anyway, it is going to be so fucking sweet…

Or complete bullshit, depending on whether or not you are a sucker. I think Barney Frank described this new strategy best saying,

"It's the longest Hail Mary pass in the history of either football or Marys."

Pure and simple, McCain is trying a desperate, high-risk, high-reward stunt that may, if it works, accomplish a few things at a shot.

First, McCain looked completely clueless when he stated that the fundamentals of the economy were sound at the very same time Lehman Bros. was failing and this latest round of upheaval started. Obama has been beating the shit out of him for it since. McCain has to revamp his economic profile from oblivious neophyte to Decisive Man of Action or Obama stands to bury him. In fact, polling in the battleground states has clearly swung in Obama’s favor and McCain needs to do something dramatic to change the subject. So he is attempting to steal the limelight, rewrite the media narrative, and demonstrate to the country that he is “doing something” on the economy.

Second, this looks like a bank shot to overcome the Palin Problem, namely that Joe Biden is going to mop the floor with her in a debate. After her dismal performance with Katie Couric yesterday, it is abundantly clear Palin can’t even handle herself with the soft touch news anchor types. Team McCain cannot afford to have a tough as nails policy wonk like Biden pillory their VP candidate for 90 minutes on national TV. Sideshow Sarah has become enough of a drag already. So to avoid that very public flogging, McCain’s campaign wants to cancel Friday’s debate, use the VP debate slot as a substitute and offer the “reschedule” the VP debate. I think it is pretty obvious that by reschedule they mean never, ever see the light of day again and thus spare Palin and themselves a humiliating ass whipping.

Last but not least, this was a trap for Obama that he has thus far avoided. If McCain had succeeded in getting Obama to agree to reschedule the debate, he would have begun to dictate terms in the race and establish an aura of dominance over the younger Obama. Thankfully, Obama has stuck to his guns and not rolled over on this point. In fact his response was just about perfect.

Explaining his decision to reject Mr. McCain’s call to postpone their debate in Oxford, Miss., Mr. Obama cited the gravity of the nation’s financial crisis.

“It is my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who, in approximately 40 days, will be responsible for dealing with this mess,” Mr. Obama said. “It is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once.”

[Snip]

Mr. Obama stopped short of suggesting that Mr. McCain was playing politics by calling for a delay in their first presidential debate, and he continued with the same low-key tone he has employed throughout the financial crisis. But Mr. Obama did say with a glint of humor that both he and Mr. McCain were capable of engaging in the debate and negotiations in Congress at the same time.

“If it turns out that we need to be in Washington, we’ve both got big planes — we’ve painted our slogans on the sides of them,” Mr. Obama said. “They can get us from Washington, D.C., to Mississippi fairly quickly.”

Ka-pow. Score that round for Obama.

So where does this leave us? To be honest, I am not sure. If Congress manages to work out a plan or appears to be close even, I think McCain has to debate and most of this is mute. If there is no deal and no real prospect of one, I don’t see how McCain can debate without looking like a wishy-washy sap. One thing I am sure of; this isn’t a football game. Presidents do not get to call time out and neither do campaigns. To assume one can is ridiculous, unrealistic, and unpresidential. David Letterman brought that point home last night.

"What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We've got a guy like that now!"

Indeed we do.