McCain Suspends Campaign
John McCain has announced that he's suspending his campaign, is asking to cancel Friday's debate, and is suggesting that both campaigns suspend political advertisements in order to deal with the financial crisis.
Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me....
We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved. I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night's debate until we have taken action to address this crisis....
Following September 11th, our national leaders came together at a time of crisis. We must show that kind of patriotism now. Americans across our country lament the fact that partisan divisions in Washington have prevented us from addressing our national challenges. Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country.
Obama and McCain spoke earlier this morning, and plan to issue a joint statement later today.
Discuss.
Update. Obama says this is no time to cancel debates:
It’s my belief that this is exactly the time the American people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible with dealing with this mess. In my mind, actually, it's more important than ever that we present ourselves to the American people and try to describe where we want to take the country and where we wnt to take the economy as well as dealing with some of the issues of foreign policy that were initially the subject of the debate.
What I think is important is that we don’t suddenly infuse Capitol Hill with presidential politics.
Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time. It’s not necessary for us to think that we can do only one thing, and suspend everything else.
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Sept. 24, 2008
Posted in in the news. |
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1:23 p.m.
Sep 24, '08
What grand-standing nonsense. McCain trails Obama by 9 points in the most recent ABC poll, so he decides to duck him and posture, instead of debating on the issues or letting the public sees their policy differences.
1:33 p.m.
Sep 24, '08
It is complete nonsense of course, but kinda reminds me of Obama not wanting to debate during the primary?
Sep 24, '08
Oh, it's a new rule in a presidential campaign. When you're behind you get to call a time-out and cancel the debate. No way is Obama buying into that head-fake. The debate goes on, the campaign goes on. The Bush/McCain regime is not going to push through a bad bail-out.
Sep 24, '08
McMeathead and his buddies caused this mess. The BEST thing he can do for the country is keep campaigning and stay the hell out of DC.
1:41 p.m.
Sep 24, '08
Katy, For the love of Pete, are you and Bill Clinton working in tandem to cut the legs out from under Obama?
Sep 24, '08
I think he has become bored with his traveling and wants to do something unconstructive with his idle time.
1:56 p.m.
Sep 24, '08
Oh c'mon, I was making a comment on BO! You really think that's gonna change the outcome of the election? It was just an observation for crying out loud.
2:10 p.m.
Sep 24, '08
I think Rove's on a roll.
McCain gets to dodge losing a debate with Obama.
His excuse amounts to suggesting debating the Predidency not as important as serving in the minority of the senate to discuss an issue that you admit readily that "I know a lot less about the economy than military or foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated."
Roll tape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1X3efvVTLA
Sep 24, '08
First Palin, and now another potentially brilliant campaign move by the Repubs. The debate will damage McCain by highlighting his advanced age and his support of the same old Bush crap. By using the "economic emergency" to postpone the debate, McCain gets to look patriotic and he now puts Obama in a tough spot - if Obama refuses the postponement, I assume McCain will accuse Obama of placing politics over the good of the country. Hope Obama's advisers are clever enough to deflect this cynical move by the Repubs.
2:19 p.m.
Sep 24, '08
This feels a lot like the Palin pick. This is a deeply cynical campaign that continues to view Hail Marys as its only path to victory. For context, it was only last week that McCain called the economy "fundamentally strong."
It's exactly the opposite of what it appears to be. In an effort to appear "above politics" McCain is ironically playing politics with the financial crisis. The last thing the actual negotiations need is more campaign stunts by John McCain.
It was the philosopher George Bush who once remarked of McCain, "You can't take the high horse and then claim low road." Or something like that.
Sep 24, '08
“John McCain's campaign manager and Freddie Mac had what amounts to a secret half a million dollar lay-a-way plan. For almost three years and as late as last month, Freddie Mac made secret, monthly payments of $15,000 to Rick Davis’s firm for a no-show job, apparently in exchange for providing special access to a future McCain White House,” - David Donnelly, director of Campaign Money Watch.
Sep 24, '08
Is McCain still a Republican? He's changed his tune so significantly that I'm starting to get him confused with Lieberman. I think he may be wondering who he is right now too.
The most serious issue is that the Reich is unable to fathom making compromises, even two years after they've lost the congressional majority. They just can't seem to acknowledge that both Democrats or Republicans are Americans. Somehow you cannot be one and the other at the same time. They're hot wired to loathe liberals and that prejudice prevents serious discussion.
The republican sensors go off when there's talk of government involvement. This absurdity is baffling the American people at this point because the people they elected are there to be the government, but Republicans have been about dismantling the government. It's a paradox lost on the people who elected them. We need help and it's tearing them apart to realize they, teh government, are the ones who can do it. Warren Buffet got his, but as for the rest of them, there's no hands left to save them, or us, from pending disaster, except the government.
2:38 p.m.
Sep 24, '08
"Following September 11th, our national leaders came together at a time of crisis. We must show that kind of patriotism now." He forgot to mention that they came together and invaded the wrong nation. And he left out "POW". What a total blowhole! Suggesting that Obama is not patriotic because he doesn't need an after-lunch nap to make it to Letterman. Just when I think this clown and his empty-suit co-clowns can't insult me any further, they deliver!
2:59 p.m.
Sep 24, '08
Katy, It is a blog comment, yes. That's why I answered it!
Sep 24, '08
If McCain does indeed suspend his own political advertising, I think Obama should suspend his attack ads and go to a pure "positive campaigning" mode as long as McCain sits it out. Otherwise, let McCain do as he pleases. He wants to get off the campaign trail to get some photo-ops on the Senate floor, let him. He wants to dodge a debate ... well, he can cancel the debate by simply announcing he won't show up.
Sep 24, '08
If the debate is not postponed, the terrorists will have won.
Sep 24, '08
Katy--Obama didn't want to debate during the primaries? Which ones? On Mars? I watched him and Sen. Clinton debate at least three times.
Sep 24, '08
Poor Mister Magoo. You really stepped in it this time.
Sep 24, '08
Wasn't choosing Palin McCain's first suspension of his campaign?
3:11 p.m.
Sep 24, '08
This is pretty amazing stuff. Josh Marshall and Ben Smith are both doing pretty good coverage. Apparently David Letterman was mocking McCain earlier (via Drudge):
3:14 p.m.
Sep 24, '08
Is suspending a campaign anything like suspending a democracy? Maybe he's just practicing?
Sep 24, '08
Maybe we should just suspend the election until the economy recovers so the voters don't rush into any hasty decisions.
Sep 24, '08
McCain suspended his campaign?
How could you tell?
Sep 24, '08
Well, considering that the country has managed to suspend disbelief while watching the Rethuglicans ever since Reagan, why not?
4:42 p.m.
Sep 24, '08
SUSA has a snap poll out already on the issue and it doesn't look good for McCain. Though the methodology may be open to debate, with results this lopsided, they've got the be second guessing that decision.
H/t Mapes on Politics
Sep 24, '08
Obama should arrive at the debate location with a ventriloquist's dummy. When it is time for "McCain" to speak the dummy should just say, "My friends, I'm a patriotic American who spent five years in a prison in Hanoi and I want to clear out all the insiders and get rid of the lobbyists in Washington except for those running my campaign to bring change for the people. Then we'll bomb, bomb, bomb Iran and dig a deeper hole in Afghanistan and achieve victory in Iraq and balance the budget."
Sep 24, '08
EYaw, Winter - a prelude to "postponing" the election.
Sep 24, '08
"..who spent five years in a prison in Hanoi... "
That's 5 years longer than you'd have lasted.
Sep 24, '08
That's 5 years longer than you'd have lasted.
How do you know that, Buck? Or do you just "know" the same as Sarah Palin "knows" about creationism, foreign policy (even though she just got her first passport last year), and that John McCain is the best choice for president (even if she doesn't know what his record is)
And how long do you think you would have lasted, Buck?
Sep 24, '08
Randi Rhodes just made a good suggestion. Since the Presidential candidates will be indisposed working on the country's economic crisis, the VP candidates should step in and debate....
Sep 24, '08
Not saying I'd last that long, but McCain tried to kill himself several times in captivity... made a "hostage" tape, etc,... Not exactly movie material.
But he made it out alive, yep, dumped his wife, married Cindy, the richest pill-poppin' blonde babe in the state, got real dirty with the Keating Five, and, day in and day out is angrier than Ernest T. Bass on crystal meth.
I guess I'd be angry too if the enemy took away my life. Or head.
Sep 24, '08
That's 5 years longer than you'd have lasted.
You never can tell how a person could handle a situation such as McCain (and hundreds of others) experienced as prisoners of war in Vietnam. I've seen situations where people figured one person would be a sure bet to meet a challenge only to be proved wrong and on the opposite side believe someone wouldn't cut the mustard but who came through like a champ.
In another situation I worked with men who had long histories of standing up to and coming through very tough challenges while in another circumstance they ran and hid from another problem they couldn't understand or cope with.
Sep 24, '08
This was another attempt at "re-set". This campaign has been in a death spiral this week, and Palin's troubles only continue, as she looked like the amateur off the street in her CBS interview with Katy Couric. That and her escalating Troopergate problems and circulating witchdoctor videos undermine McCain's judgment even further. 59% of respondents in the NBC poll today say she's unprepared for VP. She's the number one butt of jokes on the late shows, after McCain.
Sep 24, '08
Someone needs to remind me why getting shot out of the sky and then getting tortured in a prison qualifies anyone for anything.
Oh shit, I actually wrote that! I've dishonored John McCain's heroic service to the nation.
Sep 24, '08
Someone needs to remind me why getting shot out of the sky and then getting tortured in a prison qualifies anyone for anything.
Oh shit, I actually wrote that! I've dishonored John McCain's heroic service to the nation.
Sep 24, '08
This is not the time to suspend our national process of election. Let the electorate make their choices while reality is in their faces but good. McCain hopes to stall until some kind of "fix" is in and the People simmer down into their accustomed grumbling stultification. Don't let it happen! This IS the time to vote - when there is ferment, and debate and unrest. When the People are stumbling up out of stupors and have had their belief systems shaken up. We all may be clinging to our poles, but we none of us know what to make of what is happening now. We are all of us asking questions. As an electorate we might even stand a chance of seeing a media who forgets where the payola comes from, since the backwash is going to hit every last one of us. This is the time.
This is also the time for the gloves to come CLEANLY off. Obama: what do you have on whom? Talk substance in these debates. NO MORE GENERALITIES. McCain: you got some hidden? Bring it out now.
Maybe this time we see some executive perps busted down, WITH their wives and children, to coldwater flats and a hotplate. Let me tell you, that $6300 per household they just put on us IS on hundreds of thousands who are ALREADY living in coldwater/hotplate conditions.
My god, when I think of the people who were never gonna see out of there anyway, just buried deeper...
Sep 24, '08
I did not turn on the italics. Could some one please help?
Sep 24, '08
Getting really tired of hearing: POW & 9/11 references to get our sympathy vote.
10:57 p.m.
Sep 24, '08
"This was another attempt at "re-set""
Tweety called it "razzle dazzle" today and I agree completely--he does something mavericky, gets a little short term buzz because it's so mavericky it totally derails the conversation, but it's ultimately a poor long term choice, and so deeper he falls. He then repeats this process.
I surmise therefore that in about a week McCain will suggest that the election be replaced by a spell-off between he and Obama. Michelle Obama.
Sep 25, '08
I think McCain just want to shield Palin for a little longer.By suspending campaign he is gonna try to get extend her crash course in politics.
12:17 p.m.
Sep 25, '08
I surmise therefore that in about a week McCain will suggest that the election be replaced by a spell-off between he and Obama. Michelle Obama.
Surely you meant to say "Sarah Palin" and not "Michelle Obama"?
Michelle would crush him. He might have a chance against Palin.
1:35 p.m.
Sep 25, '08
I think McCain just want to shield Palin for a little longer.By suspending campaign he is gonna try to get extend her crash course in politics.
Yeah, this one bears watching. Olbermann and Letterman were playing around with debate dates available last night and wondering whether, if one of the debates had to be cancelled in all of this proposed rescheduling, it might just be the Veep debate........
Sep 25, '08
Perhaps McCain is just a little too visibly ill...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/25/16948/4443/863/610372
Sep 25, '08
Yeah, they really do need to get back on message and suspend the Constitution. It ought to be easy after the last 7+ years of BushCo doing it with hardly a peep from the Democrats in Congress.
Sep 25, '08
actually he has NOT suspended his campaign. John McCain is such a pathological liar - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/25/mccain-campaign-still-act_n_129327.html
Sep 25, '08
Yeah, they really do need to get back on message and suspend the Constitution. It ought to be easy after the last 7+ years of BushCo doing it with hardly a peep from the Democrats in Congress.
... or the American people.
Sep 26, '08
How come the only outspoken people on these comment sections are angry be-littling demo-liberals?
Sep 26, '08
How come the only outspoken people on these comment sections are angry be-littling (sic) demo-liberals?
<h2>How come there aren't more Americans angry with the entire Congress?</h2>