McCain's Latest Trick - Cancel The Debate

After reading the press release about McCain's call for the canceling of the debate this Friday, I find lots of holes in his logic. Here are the first few lines of the notice:

In a statement, McCain said he will stop campaigning after addressing former President Clinton's Global Initiative session on Thursday and return to Washington to focus on the nation's financial problems.

The Republican presidential hopeful called Obama before he made the statement and told him he was going to suspend his campaign, according to a McCain senior adviser.

According to the source, McCain wants to create a "political free zone" until a deal is reached on legislation for a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry.

Here is my problem with it.

The comment about McCain wanting to create a “political free zone” is a bald faced lie. This is a political trick and it is intended to try to change the narrative that has taken root right now. The press and public see McCain as part of the problem. This is intended to show him as “working for a solution”.

In fact his presence in Washington will have little or no effect on the discussions going on, it will only serve to give him a soap box to stand on to further his presidential ambitions.

Luckily early reports show that the public isn't buying it either. Just 10% of American's say the debate should be postponed. That is pretty obvious that people see this issue as important, but the election as more important.

So far the Treasury Secretary and President Bush have made a very poor case to the American people that this bailout proposal of theirs is the right move. After all this is the president who lied about WMDs, lied about Iraq's involvement in 9/11, lied about not torturing prisoners....

Bush has cried "wolf" once too often for people to take him seriously on this, even though I believe some sort of financial rescue effort is needed. I think Congress will work out a solution. Already Secretary Paulson has agreed that some sort of oversight is needed. More comprimises will undoubtedly ensue.

Meanwhile, what is McCain trying to hide? He can debate Obama and still get to Washington to vote for the bailout.

Update:

Statement from Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton:

At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama’s call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details.