"Walking and chewing gum at the same time is part of the president's job."

[elfs]

John McCain today offered to "suspend all campaigning" in order to give the two candidates time to deal with the economic crisis, if Barack Obama did the same thing. He also suggested "delaying" the debates.

As Matthew Ylgesias says, "I think walking and chewing gum at the same time is part of the president's job." Recovering our financial footing, whatever state its in, does not hinge on our two presidential candidates spinning their way back to Washington to have their discussions with colleagues behind closed doors.

If Obama's smart, he'll do two things: he'll say that he's perfectly capable of assessing the issues on the merits from wherever he is in the United States. This is, after all, the Era of the Internet. And therefore, he's perfectly capable of sustaining a political campaign and fulfilling his responsibilities as a congressman; after all, the duties of a president are just as demanding.

The Obama campaign has responded with this statement:

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.

Note the timing. What this means is that Obama reached out to McCain, McCain made Obama think he'd taken the bait, and then he switched the whole deal around with this bizarre move.

Harry Reid pointed out that the Banking and Finance committees were doing just fine without McCain or Obama "injecting presidential politics into the process." Obama has apparently figured out that his job is to assess the situation and respond accordingly, not pretend to heroic. He'll show up at the debate, alone if need be, and debate the once admirable, now completely gnomic, John McCain or whatever surrogate McCain sends.

That's what I want in a President.



Oh, and my love affair for the Madness that is Kathryn Lopez (of National Review Online) goes on! She says: "Since Obama seems to want to go on with the debate. Many readers relay that they'd like McCain to just offer Palin step in for him." Yeah, right. The woman hasn't answered a single unscripted question from a reporter yet, but now maybe she should go up against Obama.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Obama responded in exactly the right way. He managed to take the high road while still calling McCain's bluff, and looked awfully presidential in his press conference. Some snap polls about this issue show that pretty much everybody recognizes McCain's request to postpone the debate as a cheap political stunt.

In fact, I don't want to join the tinfoil crowd camp, but I'm starting to wonder if McCain isn't dealing with a serious health issue right now. I've noticed that his left eye appears very droopy in his appearances today. I can't imagine that his campaign staff is so dumb that they didn't see how people would react to him suspending his campaign. It makes me wonder if the whole "focus on the economy" thing isn't a smokescreen to cover for some kind of health crisis, along the lines of "spend more time with my family."

And asking why Palin can't fill in for him in the debate is a perfectly legitimate question. It would never happen, of course, for obvious reasons, but the mere question underscores the absurdity of McCain's assertions that she's qualified to fill in for him as leader of the entire country.

Anonymous Blog Reader #127

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, his reply just came across my news feed. That is what bottom-up campaigning looks like.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

I would love to see Palin show up to the debate instead of McCain. That would be the political version of placing a live and armed grenade into your mouth and then running headlong into a fireworks factory.

Only the completely insane Republicans would vote McCain after that, methinks.