In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Someone’s looking a little scared…

Jill

McCain seeks to delay the first presidential debate between him and Obama because, apparently, the financial crisis needs all of his attention.

I’ll just quote my mom:

Did you hear McCain is calling to call off the Pres debate this Friday? He is trying to be a leader and show compassion and leadership to Americans – but….I KNOW he is a chicken shit and knows that Obama will blow him out of the water and get people riled up against Republicans by association with Bush.

Yep, that’s basically it.

28 thoughts on Someone’s looking a little scared…

  1. i actually think this is pretty clever political maneuvering by mccain. he’s essentially forcing obama to choose between taking part in a major vote or continuing his campaign which would appear selfish and aloof to voters. i think obama should just ignore the request to suspend the campaign, but still go and vote anyways. that way he isn’t following mccain’s lead but still can’t get hit for ducking out of the bailout package.

  3. Of course, Obama still needs to vote. But I think it would be awfully rich of McCain if he blasted Obama for not voting, since McCain has missed 60% of Senate votes this year. I’m just glad that Obama didn’t go along with this charade. McCain has been trying to call the shots for far too long, what with demanding over and over that Obama should do these town hall meetings and consistently blaming Obama’s refusal for his own negative campaign. This stunt of indefinitely suspending the debates is just more of the same. McCain is a control freak, and if he can’t do two things at the same time (i.e., run a campaign and frame legislation), then he’s not qualified to be president.

    Speaking of multi-tasking, does anyone think that the McCain will spin this to prove Palin’s competency? “Sarah Palin had to juggle being governor and being a mom, so she can definitely fill in for McCain if needed at any time.”

  4. It kind of seems like a temper tantrum.

    And yes, of course Obama needs to cast a vote on this, and I fully expect him to since he’s been talking a lot about it and sending out emails and such about how the Bush plan is complete and total bullshit. He has to vote on the package. But he doesn’t have to play McCain’s games, and I’m glad he’s not. If McCain wants to waste precious time by suspending his campaign, great.

    Oh, and I don’t think that Palin is going to take over — right, isn’t that what a “suspended campaign” means? Not just that McCain is going to go off the trail for a while, but that campaigning will cease entirely? That’s certainly what it sounds like anyway. Which kind of shows me yet again that Palin can’t handle any of this stuff without someone holding her hand.

  5. I think that Obama will vote against any idea put forth by Bush.
    One Trillion dollars!?
    The tital credit card debt for ALL Americans is $960billion. (according to an ABC News report) The $40billion left over could be spent on giving every American $100.00. No CC debt and an extra hunny in my pocket instead of Wall Street’s – sounds good to me.
    Or – 4 million people have lost or will lose their homes (from 07-09). One TRILLION dollars would put $250,000.00 towards each of their debt. 250k would buy many of the homes.
    The Bush/Wall Street plan stinks.

  8. My husband and I were disagreeing on this one tonight. He thinks it’s a great idea to cancel the debate and stop campaigning for a while, so they can focus on solving this problem. I still think they can do both. Go to the vote, meet with President Bush, since he’s asked them to, but get right back on the campaign track.

    Being President is a tough job, and sometimes you’re going to be juggling priorities. This problem is not going away in a few days, so now is the time to show they can do it.

  9. At this point I don’t think the American people want to hear ‘oh, we’re thinking about it’. They want to hear answers. Have I heard any answers at all from the McCain campaign? At all?

    This is not a new problem.

    Not to mention that Palin has been dodging actual questions for a while now–I’m guessing this is trying to dodge her lack of preparedness and they just took whatever was conveniently a problem. Oh, economy, okay, let’s use that!

  11. Pingback: Just how stupid does McCain think we are? « Natalia Antonova

  12. Oh–please!!

    What is more important: taking care of our country’s business when in a crisis or going on with the demeaning, political selfishness campaigning?

    After all they are both senators and this is their JOB!!

  13. BWB, do you think McCain runs the Senate? There is absolutely no reason to cancel a ninety minute debate.

    If you want a president that runs around like his hair is on fire during a crisis, McCain is your man.

  14. Morningstar, McCain is trying to make it seem like campaigning would be “selfish and aloof,” but the polls show people aren’t buying it.

    This is just the logical endpoint of the idea that politics is totally separate from governing — which is a sick right-wing idea, that “government” and “politicians” are set apart from, and in opposition to, policy that affects everyday life. In fact, I’d really love to see a debate right now. I want both candidates to be questioned on exactly what their plan is. What do they think went wrong? How will they deal with the economy if they are elected? I think this is a golden moment for getting real answers. You find out what people are made of in a crisis. Frankly, it looks like McCain is made of chickens**t. Why won’t he face the American people and talk to them about this?

    Oh, it doesn’t excuse them from voting. But they can figure it out.

  15. If McCain can’t campaign during an economic crisis, what’s he going to do if this country ever gets itself into two WARS? Oh, right…
    What a cheap stunt. Just when I think I can’t hate him any more than I already do…

  16. I agree with your mom. And, on top of what is so obviously political posturing by McCain, several other senators have basically said they were doing just fine without McCain and didn’t need him to come to DC and muck up the progress they’ve already made.

  17. “Being President is a tough job, and sometimes you’re going to be juggling priorities. This problem is not going away in a few days, so now is the time to show they can do it.”

    Well, this whole scenario reminds me of the Terry Schiavo mess…remember that when bush STOPPED what he was doing to legislate for that? We all know what a stellar job Bush has done, so why should his apprentice fare any better?

    People need to remember McCain – if elected – will be the one with his finger on the proverbial red button. He demonstrates more and more each day, he is incapable of holding that position.

  18. The credit crisis is huge and will transform all of our lives. Changes to one of our national birthrights- election year entertainment- is the least of our worries.

  19. Letterman was right on the money. You don’t get to suspend being president when something bad happens, why should a candidate get away with suspending things?

    Not to mention that McCain suggested moving the Presidential debate to Oct. 2… which just coincidentally, is when the VP debate was scheduled.

  20. Though I see a minute few commenters were taken in by the pseudo-highminded choice of choosing to suspend democratic election processes to “serve the country”, why can’t Senator McCain and Obama do both?

    This is not an either/or choice…….they can and should do both. This type of crap wouldn’t fly at most professional workplaces where one is EXPECTED to multitask….why should McCain be any different in that regard?!!

  21. This is nothing but old school politics at play and Obama has yet to figure out how to play the Washington game and what his next move should be. I’m almost certain had Biden been the Dem presidential nominee, he would have been on the Senate steps calling McCain out instead of making “joint statements” and saying the he and his GOP rival “agree in prinicple” that something needs to be done about the bailout issue.

    Not only did McCain catch Obama off guard, he made him look like he can’t think quickly on his feet very well. His “rebuke” of McCain was downright awful. He missed a very good opportunity for a solid attack. Had McCain pulled this will Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan, they would have politically sliced his throat and kept on going.

    Ya know, the old dude is gasbag and the young dude ain’t got no gas at all.

    I think I need an emesis bag, this going to be one long sick ride.

  22. What is more important: taking care of our country’s business when in a crisis or going on with the demeaning, political selfishness campaigning?

    He can campaign and take care of business.

    He isn’t on any of the relevant committees either – wherein a stay in DC might seem more imperative.

  23. If the crisis and bailout issues in D.C. are so all-fired important that McCain cannot attend the debate, then perhaps he should send Sarah Palin to debate in his stead?

  24. As I said at Hoyden About Town, having seen a clip from the latest Palin interview, I can see why they’re doing this stalling stuff. It is painful.

  25. This is phrase that will probably be a stale journalistic cliche by mid-October, but the wheels are coming off the Straight-Talk Express. This is a “you’ve got to be shitting me” to cap off weeks of “what the fuck?”

    And, frankly, I think Obama looked Presidential in his press conference.

  26. The McCain suspension was probably at least in part a stunt, but really little different than Obama canceling Saturday Night Live for hurricane Ike. It’s not like he was out piling up sandbags. In each case they were just trying to look “serious.”

    The notion that Obama will blow McCain out of the water is ridiculous. Obama is notoriously bad at unscripted appearances, which was the reason that McCain was after him to do town hall meetings all summer, and the reason Obama refused. Plus, having the debate a week later isn’t something that McCain would do if he thought Obama would trounce him — he’d rather have more time between the embarrassment and the election in which to recover.

  27. RA, you really don’t see the difference between canceling an appearance on a comedy show because of a natural disaster, and suspending your presidential campaign because of an economic disaster?

    Yes, Obama was no doubt trying to appear serious when he cancelled SNL — as he should have. But a serious presidential candidate should be able to run his campaign while he deals with the nation’s various issues. Being able to maintain your position of leadership through crisis is kind of a requirement for a president.

  28. Jill, if there is a difference it’s one that cuts slightly in favor of McCain. The hurricane was not something that was particularly in the domain of either candidate or even Congress. The economic crisis, however, is plainly something that needs immediate Congressional attention. I thought both candidates looked pretty irrelevant out on the campaign stumping about tax cuts and avoiding comment on the bailout while negotiations continued in Washington.

    McCain didn’t indicate he was suspending his campaign forever, but just for the duration of the immediate crisis. Apparently both he and Obama discovered that their presence wasn’t particularly welcome, and have returned to campaigning. I agree that McCain comes out looking a little stupider over all. But I still doubt that McCain announced the suspension due to an inability to multitask or for the purpose of avoiding the debate. It was mainly a stunt to show he was more serious about the economic crisis.

Comments are currently closed.