As you all know the stock market has recently experienced a major set back. Washington Mutual has gone bankrupt and now the government must come up with some sort of solution to this national crisis From this crisis we have seen two opposing view points on the state of the presidential campaigns. Obama has been clear it that he plans to continue with his campaign and not with hold the debate schedule for Friday. McCain on the other hand has planed to suspend his entire campaign and focus on the economic issues. McCain has received stiff comments from American critiques about his recent decisions. My question to you is this; do you feel that McCain’s decision to postpone his campaign was a matter of “Politics or Priorities”?
I personally feel that it was admirable for McCain to be willing to suspend his campaign to focus all of its energy and resources on fixing a national problem. He justifiably feels as though the U.S. needs to see politicians who put politics to the side and focus on the main issue which affecting America. However it is going to be hard for him to stray away from the idea that he was attempting to run away from yet another public engagement. With his constant last many cancellations, voters are going to grow suspicious of a candidate who cannot follow through on his word. Also the ability to handle multiple responsibilities is going to be an important quality for the president to have. Voters may see this decision as a representation of how he will handle multiple problems as president. Not being able to handle more than one emergency may prove devastating for him. Tell me what you think?
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In my opinion, McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign to focus on improving the economy is an unfavorable move on his part. Before watching the David Letterman show, I had thought McCain’s statement was sincere, but was proven wrong after realizing that he canceled the show so last minute to be on two other sets that did not involve “dealing with the economy”. Suspending the debates, and more importantly, suspending his campaign makes me wonder whether or not McCain is ready for the presidency. Can he focus on two things at the same time? A good president cannot just cancel something he or she things is trivial, nor can a president focus solely on a single matter during his or her presidency. After delaying on public appearances, one has to wonder: does Obama’s skill at speaking intimidate McCain? If so, an undeniable flaw has appeared on the hero and maverick John McCain. These questions, and many others, have emerged out of his stunning statement and have given McCain probably more bad press than he anticipated.
And even though Letterman may have overreacted to a show cancellation, what he speaks is true, and I believe John McCain has been comically and justly reprimanded.
Before McCain's suspension of his campaign, there were 98 senators, 435 congressman, the entire West Wing as well as the entire Department of the Treasury working to fix the economic crisis. McCain's rash, and purely political move, only served to inject political politics into a very serious problem. Operating under the guise of bipartisanship and "Country First," McCain selfishly used the economic crisis to attempt to shake up the presidential election.
First of all, the claim that McCain is tossing asided partisan politics is a lie. McCain and Obama spoke and discussed making a joint statement in support of the bailout. During this discussion, McCain also suggest suspending both campaigns and postponing the debate. Obama said he would think about it. The next day, without consulting Obama, McCain announced he was suspending his campaign to help work towards a resolution to fix the economic crisis. How is that for partisanship?
Also, the negotiations were actually noticeably void of partisan politics until McCain decided to pull his stunt and suddenly the bailout and the presidential election were intertwined. This suddenly renewed partisanship was clear yesterday when negotiations devolved into what has been described as a "shouting match."
McCain should have known better than to pull a stunt like this. The old McCain, the one who served in the Senate for so many years, would never have done this. But honestly it does not surprise me, because McCain has consistently shown throughout this campaign how willing he is to transform himself into a Rovian Republican in order to claim the White House.
In McCain's mind I think that he truly believed that doing a serious NBC interview would be better for than appearing on Letterman; however, it is obviously not wise to cancel on someone with such an influence as David Letterman when his forte is comedy and he's going to embarrass you. As far as McCain proliferating partisan politics, I believe that Jake's stance is too harsh. Obama does not get a say anywhere in McCain's campaign. Obama has his own campaign that he gets to run. That's the way it is supposed to be. They're not supposed to be two men helping each other along into the presidency because the reality is that only one will take the oath of office come January 25.
I cannot say explicitly that McCain's decision was admirable or not because he did choose the admirable reason to support suspending his campaign, but there must be many more that contributed to his decision. Katherine makes a good point about Obama's charisma, but I would hope that a presidential nominee would have enough belief in himself to have a discussion about anything. That is after all why a candidate runs for the presidency: because he believes he has the best answers to the country’s problems. I believe the worst thing for McCain would be that he ends up doing the debate because then that just shows him as someone who can’t make up his mind or take a firm stance on something. Now that he has begun this path he must stick to it to keep his credibility as a presidential candidate.
I don't know every little detail to why McCain considered canceling the debate. However, I admire him for trying to work on the rescue bill. The debates are little more than a show put on by the candidates writers and the media in order to allow people to think they know the candidates better. In the end, the only conclusions that one can draw from the debates is who has the better writers. The debates are meaningless yet many clueless voter think they are a big deal. That is why I admire McCain for considering not appearing at the debate. Although I do not support the "rescue bill" at all, I think it is better for a senator to work on a bill rather than speaking at a rehearsed show. McCain has nothing to gain by missing the debate, so I don't know why anyone would accuse him of "chickening out" or anything like that. He would be better off showing up and losing to Obama's writers than just completely not showing up.
I think McCain is trying to postpone the debate because McCain wants to demonstrate how he puts country first before anything. He tries to show how he takes initial action when there is a major crisis as a leader. Since Obama is a better speaker than he is, McCain tries to illustrate how he is proactive and responsive before the debate. However, his act of procrastinating debate and abandoning his campaign set up an opposite image of what McCain intended to make. McCain introduced himself as an incompetent leader. As Obama said, the potential president need to be qualified to do more than one thing at once when there are series of issues and crisis. Economic crisis is defiantly an impending issue; however, there are so many other troubles and crisis need to be taken care of. It is also bad for McCain because he seems like a person who makes promise but doesn’t follow what he had said. On the contrary, Obama emphasizes how he is also part of solving the economic issue by talking to the congress people everyday. Obama foreshadows how McCain is not the only one to fix the problem because he devotes all his energy and time to rescue economy. Obama goes on saying how McCain’s act of putting off the debate is nonsense because “it is the exact time when Americans need to hear” on how the next president will solve such issues.
John McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign and return to Washington to help solve our nation’s economic debacle seems purely political. First of all, McCain hasn’t yet taken an official stance on the 700 billion dollar Wall Street bailout plan. He and Obama both accepted President Bush’s invitation to meet and discuss the bailout plan, but McCain did not put forth his opinion. I think that it was a smart and appropriate move on McCain’s part to suspend his campaign and champion a bi-partisan initiative to solve the crisis. However, I believe that it would be wise for McCain to make a decision on whether or not to support the bailout. Otherwise, it becomes much easier for critics to question his intentions for suspending his campaign. By taking a stance, McCain can show his commitment to solving the economic crisis and not just to winning political points.
Based on this years election, I believe that McCain's temporary choice to suspend his campaign was both selfish and a media ploy. I agree with Katherine in that McCain has received the embarrassment from Letterman that he deserves. A President is a person who is supposed to and expected to stick to their word; how can we expect great things when this nominee cant even stay committed to Late Night interviews? Additionally, what Jake says is very true about the "New McCain." The original maverick would never have even attempted to back out of a battle against his opponent. His decision showed both weakness and a lack of responsibility.
I feel that the debates are perhaps the most important part of the election process. It gives Americans a chance to see both candidates in one room under pressure to impress and succeed. For McCain to back out shows little dedication although, "As the hours ticked away, senior aides to Obama were increasingly confident that McCain would show up."(The Washington Post)
Although McCain's intentions initially seem to be good, the decision to suspend his campaign is ultimately a bad choice. As Jake mentions, there are already enough capable minds in the varying branches of government who can work on the economic issue. John McCain is running a Presidential race and his number one goal should be to win the Presidency so that he can be in a better position to implement a greater influence. If his intentions were to help the country, the better decision would have been to continue campaigning.
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