We’ve come to that point in the game. There’s 7 minutes left in the 4th quarter, and team Obama is up by 10 points. It’s Obama’s ball, fourth down. It’s a little long, but a field goal is within his reach. If Obama makes the points, the game is pretty much over; it’s just not that likely that McCain could come back with TWO touchdowns, let alone one. So, stopping the Obama momentum is key. So what does John McCain do? He does the only thing he can–calls a time out, to ice the kicker.
Today McCain magnanimously announced he planned to stop campaigning as of tonight, urging Senator Obama to cancel Friday’s big debate, and to join him in a Kumbaya with President Bush and congressional leaders to get agreement on the stalled out bailout package, and get it through Congress this week. [Nevermind that Senator Obama called Senator McCain at 8:30am to (according to the Obama campaign) seek a joint statement from the candidates, outlining principles and must-have’s to get the bailout package moving, or that Senator McCain didn’t call Senator Obama back until 2:30 this afternoon, minutes before announcing his bold new idea.]
On the face of it, this seems like classic McCain- in a good way. When he sets his mind to it, he gets in there and brokers a deal. Notably, he was one of the Gang of 14 in the Senate in an endrun around then-Majority Leader Bill Frist, who was threatening to change longstanding Senate rules to ram judicial nominations through the chamber (without the 60 votes normally necessary). McCain likes a good fight, which is why he can be an effective negotiator. Of course, he doesn’t win every battle (immigration reform), and he infuriates a lot of people with his belligerent manner (Senator Thad Cochran once said it sent a “cold chill” up his spine to imagine McCain with his finger on the nuclear button).
But classis McCain behavior is shaping up to be something other than the morally uncorruptible (since repenting his role in the Keating Five scandal) maverick the media loved so well eight years ago. As loyal Reaganite conservative commentator George Will put it in yesterday’s Post:
For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are “corrupt” or “betray the public’s trust,” two categories that seem to be exhaustive — there are no other people . . .
. . . the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either . . .
. . . It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency.
You might extend Will’s Queen of Hearts metaphor and call him a drama queen. But his drama schtick didn’t stick over the last 10 days. In fact it has backfired. He’s come off as bobbing, weaving and raving, while his opponent, in comparison, kept a cool head. After McCain ran an ad that falsely describes former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines as an Obama advisor, his sudden offer of a bipartisan truce during the financial crisis rings hollow.
Senator McCain wants to drop everything for a couple days because he doesn’t want millions of Americans to turn on that television Friday night and take the measure of the men on a stage together at the end of what has to be McCain’s worst week since the near-death of his campaign last summer. As Jonathan Capeheart writes, McCain desperately needs to change the subject. Obama is up by 9 points in the Washington Post/ABC poll released today. And while his campaign has, predictably, been trying to raise expectations that McCain needs to deliver a knockout punch on Friday to gain back the momentum, camp McCain might be worried about taking that punch itself.
UPDATE: According to Ole Miss officials, the show will go on. Around 4pm today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid waded in (after which Obama also made a brief statement and declined to postpone the debate, noting that now more than ever, Americans need to hear from the candidates who will inherit the crisis just 40 days from now):
This is a critical time for our country. While I appreciate that both candidates have signaled their willingness to help, Congress and the administration have a process in place to reach a solution to this unprecedented financial crisis.
“I understand that the candidates are putting together a joint statement at Senator Obama’s suggestion. But it would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations and risk injecting presidential politics into this process or distract important talks about the future of our nation’s economy. If that changes, we will call upon them. We need leadership; not a campaign photo op.
“If there were ever a time for both candidates to hold a debate before the American people about this serious challenge, it is now.”
Inform Your Consent 