>>John McCain announced yesterday that he is suspending his campaign to help deal with the financial crisis. He said he would not participate in tomorrow night's scheduled Presidential debate if the Senate has not passed a bill in response to the administration's bailout proposal. Barack Obama said he wants the debate to proceed as scheduled.
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>>Thoughts?
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>It's all politics.
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>McCain has taken a notable hit in the polls in the last 2 weeks and has lost the post-Palin/Convention momentum due to the financial crisis. He needed another big moment to regain ground. Obama has provided it by stumbling through his response to McCain's decision and then reversing his decision about returning to Washington. In the end will it matter? Not likely. This race is down to the debates.
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>Frankly, I think the debate topic should be changed from foreign policy to finance and go forward.

Amazingly enough, we are on the same wavelength. (Not so amazing really). There's a lot of political posturing going on. McCain's is easy to see, trying to take the high ground of putting the country first when actually this addresses the recent poll drop you mention, specifically the perception of his ability to handle the economic crisis. I gave him the benefit of the doubt until I found out he announced his campaign suspension unilaterally, after he and Obama had discussed it in vague terms.

Obama and his forces are playing it, too, in reaction. They have a point -- why don't you want to debate? -- but it's going to be lost in the helicopter whir of a campaign in its last few weeks. The election is sucking everything around it, even a(n) historic financial crisis, into its own vortex. Whoever wins is going to get a nasty surprise when he is handed the reins.

Call me a sap (sap!) but I genuinely hoped this campaign, between these two men, would be conducted on a higher plain. Maybe one of them will surprise me yet.