McCain “Suspends” Campaign, Calls for Debate Postponement in Order to Deal With Economic Crisis (Updated)

Via CNN:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign to return to Washington and focus on the “historic” crisis facing the U.S. economy.

McCain said it was time for both parties to come together to solve economic crisis.

The Arizona senator called on his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, to do the same. He also urged organizers of Friday’s presidential debate at the University of Mississippi to postpone the event.

“I am calling on the president to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself,” McCain told reporters in New York. “It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.”

Obviously, John McCain isn’t really interested in “focusing on the economy.” He’s interested in looking like he’s focusing on the economy so that he can change the dynamic of the campaign in the wake of increasingly gloomy poll numbers.  There’s nothing he can do in Washington that he can’t do elsewhere (except vote). 

And by the way, since he knew this was coming all along, wasn’t the time to “focus on the economy” months before it melted down? If he’s such a vital component to Washington’s solution and he always puts country first, why didn’t he drop out of the race long ago or forgo this run all together so that this crisis could have been avoided in the first place?

Obama is obviously going to reject McCain’s gimmicky call for postponement of the debate, probably with a statement like this: “Senator McCain has had 26 years to learn about the economy. He admits he doesn’t know that much about it. Now we see the proof. He doesn’t need another week, America needs a change from the Bush/McCain policies that got us into this mess.”

Since the McCain campaign presumably gamed this out, what’s it planning in response to Obama’s rejection?  Presumably nothing, since his campaign has been “suspended” and all.  

UPDATE:

Janice suggests that Obama agree to postpone the presidential debate so that he and McCain can focus on the economy.  She says that since both are ready to assume leadership of this country on a moment’s notice, Obama recommend that Joe Biden and Sarah Palin have their debate on Friday instead. 

UPDATE TWO:

What’s McCain thinking? Let’s stipulate that he’s not interested in focusing on the economy. If you believe he is, go back to watching Mayberry R.F.D and stop reading my blog.

He had to know that asking to postpone would be viewed negatively (and it is): 

America’s First Reaction: Friday’s McCain-Obama Debate Should Still Be Held On Friday, But Perhaps with New Focus: Immediately after John McCain’s announcement 3 pm ET today, Wednesday 09/24/08, that he was suspending his campaign and seeking to postpone Friday’s schedule presidential debate, SurveyUSA interviewed 1,000 adults nationwide. Key findings:

A majority of Americans say the debate should be held. Just 10% say the debate should be postponed. A sizable percentage of Americans, 36%, think the focus of the debate should be modified to focus more on the economy. 3 of 4 Americans say the presidential campaign should continue. Just 14% say the presidential campaign should be suspended. If Friday’s debate does not take place 46%, of Americans say that would be bad for America.

So why take such an enormous risk so close to the election?  Either McCain’s got something up his sleeve, he knows another shoe is about to drop (Rick Davis?), or his internal poll numbers are even more dramatically bad for him than the ones the public sees. What are the other possibilities?

UPDATE THREE:

McCain was scheduled to be on David Letterman tonight.  He cancelled and Letterman is pissed:

David Letterman tells audience that McCain called him today to tell him he had to rush back to DC to deal with the economy.

Then in the middle of the taping Dave got word that McCain was, in fact just down the street being interviewed by Katie Couric. Dave even cut over to the live video of the interview, and said, “Hey Senator, can I give you a ride home?”

Earlier in the show, Dave kept saying, “You don’t suspend your campaign. This doesn’t smell right. This isn’t the way a tested hero behaves.” And he joked: “I think someone’s putting something in his metamucil.”

“He can’t run the campaign because the economy is cratering? Fine, put in your second string quarterback, Sara Palin. Where is she?”

“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!”