John McCain Quits..."Suspends Campaign"

Last updated: 24 September 2008

John McCain has surprised most of us by suspending his campaign. Now, the world is wondering whether the Republican campaign has been suspended over its own crisis rather than the wall street crisis. The next President of the United States will have to deal with various crisis. Will McCain just quit? He should be able to multitask, shouldn't he? Or at least, delegate. Where is Sarah Palin? Couldn't she carry on campaigning while McCain is in Washington? Isn't it the reason why she is the VP? Without a doubt, the majority of Palin/McCain supporters will defend the decision and claim that McCain is patriotic. But let's face it, his presence is not needed in Washington...As Colby political scientist Sandy Maisel said "my instinct is that this was a desperate move by McCain's staff to gain some traction from a situation in which he has clearly been slipping--and desperate moves rarely work."

According to Bloomberg, McCain advisers, wouldn't say how long the candidate would put his campaign on hold. The goal is to finish a bailout plan ``before markets open on Monday.'' (mmm) So basically, avoid the debate? Can't McCain spare few hours on Friday to debate? It seems to me that once again, McCain gambles in effort to regain the offensive.

And David Letterman agrees with me (watch video below):

Debate organizers said they were continuing with preparations for the debate despite Mr. McCain's declaration.

Other reactions to McCain's move:

Daily Kos: Interesting. McCain doesn't really need to "suspend" anything to go back to Washington and do his job. In fact, while campaigning, Barack Obama has managed to show real leadership during this crisis, lay out an economic plan outline, work behind the scenes with leaders in Congress, and still continue to campaign as a presidential candidate. History of the crisis - by Barinder Sharma

Sherrod Brown, called McCain's move "a bit of a gimmick," noting that the Arizona Republican had "never weighed in on these economic issues in the past," and asking, rhetorically, why a presidential candidate couldn't multi-task.--"This country is faced with enough crises, both foreign and domestic that they should be able to continue with this debate," Brown told MSNBC.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement that McCain's move would actually impair negotiations over the bailout by introducing politics into the equation.

Does John McCain really care about the economy? If so, why did he miss 412 Senate votes (64.1%) during the current Congress: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/m000303/

McCain's campaign cessation and skipping the debate Friday is a cynical and perhaps desperate stunt. People, this economic mess didn't happened overnight, but over 2/3 of U.S. Senate business and voting have been blown off by John McCain. He wasn't in the Senate chamber to cast many important votes at all. McCain didn't care about the economy or his Senate role before, why should anyone believe him now? - Mark (email forwarded to me).

Wall Street Journal: "Mr. McCain has a special advantage to bring an investigation of Wall Street - many of the relevant witnesses are friends or colleagues of his. In fact, he can probably get to the bottom of the whole mess just by cross-examining the people riding on his campaign bus."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122221440058969313.html

McCain "cuts and runs" to Washington, well not quite yet. But why?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/24/mccain-wants-a-time-out_n_128991.html

Washington Post: McCain wants meeting in D.C. with Obama to try to show they have the same economic policies since the public has shown a huge preference for Obamanomics.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/24/AR2008092403918_pf.html

TIME: A list of past Presidential and Vice Presidential debates along with various national and international crises at the time. Guess how many were canceled?

1960 DEBATES
Sep 26, 1960
Soviets announce ready to put first astronaut into space
Oct 7, 1960
Cuba accuses US of links to invasion
Pentagon curbs spending in light of trade imbalance
Oct 13, 1960
KRUSHCHEV BANGS SHOE ON DESK
Bomb injures 33 in Times Square in 3rd explosion in 11 days
US embargo on Cuba announced
Oct 21, 1960
KRUSHCHEV SAYS USSR HAS NUCLEAR SUBS
Gold price problems in world markets

Full list available here: http://thepage.time.com/obama-campaign-release-on-debate-day-history/

McCain campaign manager on the run after revelations of his and McCain's lies about his Lobbying fees and ties to Freddie Mac.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/09/john_mccain_campaign_manager_r.html

More on McCain's transparent plot.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/here-is-why-mccain-wants_b_129048.html

Wall Street Journal: Must read! Excellent historical tale of how we got here: "Once upon a time, in the land that FDR built, there was the rule of "regulation" and all was right on Wall and Main Streets. America's Hobbits lived happily in homes financed by 30-year-mortgages that never left their local banker's balance sheet, and nary a crisis did we have."
http://wsj.com/article/SB122204078161261183.html

British Daily Telegraph: Even our Allies know corruption when they see it! "It's hard to believe that America might actually be even more dishonestly, ineffectually and ideologically governed after January 20, 2009 than before it. But the Palin/Troopergate story, like so much of the tone and tenor of the McCain campaign post-nomination, offers ample evidence for just such a nightmare scenario."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/sep/24/sarah.palin.troopergate