McCain Suspends Reality

What is John McCain thinking? He was hoping to project a noble air when he suspended his campaign for president yesterday, but I think he went a bit too far.

The reasoning he gave for his surprise announcement was that the current economic crisis is too important for the future of the country for him to have any of his focus on his campaign. But is it too important for his campaign staff to maintain any focus on his campaign? What are they going to be doing while John is in Washington leading the charge to find a solution to the crisis? Are they all going to be meditating and focusing their energies on boosting his mental capacity to a point that he can have an "Aha!" moment?

Dave Letterman, with whom McCain cancelled a scheduled appearance yesterday, pretty much roasted McCain for this drastic move. Dave's no professional pundit or analyst, but he's no dope either. His observation that Palin should be keeping the "Straight Talk Express" moving forward is spot on.

What McCain did removed all doubt that this is a political move, to increase his capital with the American public, who are now sure to see him as a candidate who really is committed to putting "country first." He could have stopped short of complete suspension of all campaign activities (ads, fundraising, printing signs...EVERYTHING) and asked for a postponement of the debate which is scheduled for Friday. This would have shown his dedication to his full-time job as a U.S. Senator in this time of need and also allowed the also-important task of informing the American public about their main choices for the next presidency.

Well, one might say, he doesn't want the American public distracted from this crisis by the presidential race. Similarly, what is the public going to do? Channel their energies into their representatives in Congress? No, all they can do is pretty much play a waiting game while the same folks who created the mess try to fix it (but I digress).

Barack Obama's reaction to McCain's overture to suspend his own campaign as well was a bit overstepping and inaccurate. He stated that a president should be able to do two things at once. No one can do two things at once, and expect them to be done as well as if those two things received focused attention separately. Besides, what's Obama been doing the past couple days anyway? He's been holed up in his hotel practicing for the debate (getting used to the idea of being without teleprompters), popping out every now and again to feed the press a few more soundbites.

I don't care what other Congressmen or Congresswomen say, both Obama and McCain should be in Washington trying to first understand the economic mess that we're in (yeah, good luck with that) and trying to formulate solutions. If no solution is found come Friday, the debate should be suspended. But there's absolutely no reason, short of political posturing, to suspend either of the campaigns.