This is going to backfire on McCain. Obama should remain focused on the campaign and somewhat mystified that McCain suddenly feels such urgency. Obama is aware of the issues, and it is McCain who is out of touch/losing control. The show should go on. This is what governing is about. The political process is not under attack. You don't get to call timeout when you're president.

Awesome. Once again, Obama comes out as the grown-up.

A grown-up as president. I can hardly wait.

McCain has two options come Friday night
1. show up and look like a hypocrite for showing
2. dont show up and give BO 1 hour and 30 minutes of free press.

John McCain will debate BO on Friday.

"I believe we should continue to have the debate," he just said. "I believe it makes sense for us to present ourselves to the American people."

Balderdash. An economic crisis means we no longer need information about the two people who could potentially take over this country.

Assuming Obama sticks to this, I really wonder what McCain is going to do on Friday now. If he shows up at the debate now, he is going to look like even more of a colossal idiot.

Bravo, Obama.

McCain is a back stabber -
who cares more about politics then policy -
hardly surprising -
The thig is is that he stabbed the American people in the back as well -
-
country first indeed -
liar

McCain is just a dildo. My God how I want to crush these bastards ...

The only thing that canceling the debate would do would be to keep the voters even further out of the loop.

It is simple. For a deal of this magnitude the American public has to be on board. Canceling the debate only keeps us in the dark and enhances our mistrust of government with its back room deals.

Mr McCain didn't get his studying done for the big test on Friday and now he's hoping its a snow day.

Pathetic.

Keep being the grown-up Mr. Obama. Keep showing that you are organized, pragmatic and thoughtful.

Of course he was blindsided....intentionally.

And it has blown up in McCain's face.

Somebody cue up Gob's chicken dance from Arrested Development.

The suspension gambit is just weird. It isn't as though this is 9/11 and thousands have been killed.

The abrupt, weird and nearly inexplicable change of course reminds me of the weird quality about John Edwards' abrupt exit from the Presidential contest earlier in the year. I am now convinced that the problematic situation that Edwards admitted to recently must have played some role in his decision to withdraw from the campaign as he did.

Perhaps, just perhaps, something else beyond the obvious panic and fear of the campaign given the turnabout in public opinion is going on behind the scenes?

"Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time," he says. "It’s not necessary for us to think that we can do only one thing, and suspend everything else."

Debate commission just confirmed that the debate will go on.

Will McCain be a no show?

I can't imagine anything more important or critical than picking the next POTUS. That he would run away when the election is so close at hand is stunning. Only slightly more stunning than his belief that he can be helpful, given his selfproclaimed lack of knowledge on the economy. Is this what he's going to do as President when things turn against him - run and hide trying to look like he's doing something important? Yes, the crisis is important, and we are all focussing on it. But, can't he participate while campaigning? Is not smart enough to do that? Can't his handlers keep him informed?

White privilege: You can call for a last minute delay in the debates without being called weak.

This is what happens when you have a craps player's mentality.

McCain totally miscalcuated on this... It was another gamble, like the Palin pick, only in this case it took less than an hour for it to boomerang back and hit him in the butt. If Obama had agreed to the delay of the debate, he would have surrendered the initiative to the old man. But BO just played it cool.

Option #4: Suspend his campaign for good. Give up already. I'm really sick of McNuts' crap right now.

mcLame cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.

DISQUALIFIED!!!

So what does McCain do next? He goes to Washington tonight and tomorrow, gets some video that makes it look like he's dealing with a crisis. If there's an agreement, does he take credit: even though most Americans will hate the idea of paying for a Wall Street rescue? He doesn't show up Friday, which is a potential disaster for him, or not?

STUNT! Grasping at straws!
Way to handle the curveball, Barry.
GoBama: http://tinyurl.com/6xr3b7

Oh he's learning how to blink all right.

once again now we're seeing who the true leader is today,also mcbush been talkin all that greasy shit about 1907 town hall meetings but now he backs out of this debate tryin to use the financial crisis as an excuse,oh btw that slogan he been using country first or obama first really whut hes sayin is white man first or obama first!!!

Everyone BUT Obama should accuse McCain of being political. It's CLEARLY OBVIOUS McCain did this to look like a statesmen.

I have a question - from just reading the cable nets headlines, McCain is pushing for a bailout deal

well what happened to yesterday's plan by all the Republic back benchers who told Cheney to get bent ? thought the plan was to get Dems to go for it so they could campaign against it

didn't he just screw his Party out of Mr Ruffini's 'gift' ?!?!?

Now, more than ever: McCain is a LIAR, HYPOCRITE and a FRAUD.

If Obama shows up in Mississippi by himself, THAT will look like a political stunt -- especially with McCain in D.C. having photo ops of him busily "solving" the financial crisis in a bipartisan spirit. Obama will look small and mired in politics while McCain will look like he's setting aside his political ambitions and putting his country first. Excuse me while I vomit. This shit works.

If you ask me, this is looking like another brilliant McCain distraction stunt -- just like the Palin nomination. (Whose problems by the way are suddenly off the front pages.) Team McCain scares the living shit out of me! They are definitely thinking and acting outside the box.

"we've both got big planes, we've painted our slogan on the side of them," Obama also said. "They can get us from Washington to Mississippi pretty quickly."

Come to think of it, mentioning that you have your own plane probably isn't the best way to identify with people during a financial crisis...

McCain will debate only if there is pending legislation before Friday.

Tonights speech by Bush will have all the clues needed.

BTW, don't the campaigns have these phone conversations recorded?

Osama bin Laden contacted the McCain Campaign and agreed to suspend his plotting against the United States while McCain grandstands during this Economic Crisis.

Breaking news - Iran has said it will suspend any attempts to acquire a nuclear weapon until after the United States solves it's economic woes.

McCain is a very RASH decision maker. I totally agree with George Will that McCain does NOT have the temperment to be a good president.

McCain's stunt is the most crass example of political grandstanding I've seen in a long time - and he isn't fooling anybody. This was reinforced when I heard that it was Obama who first reached out to McCain to approach the banking crisis in a bi-partisan manner. So what does he do? Jump in front of the cameras and pretend that it was his idea. That was his first instinct. Obama was right to stick to Friday's debate. If McCain does't show, he'll look like the clueless ass that he is. Obama should also remind McCain that like it or not, we only have one president at a time - and it isn't him. And never will be. As if what Washington needs right now is more political posturing from McCain.

Yeah, let's postpone until we're more prepared. Maybe we can put off the election until this whole financial thing clears up. That way Sarah can put more "solutions" on index cards too.

Reminds me of the high school kid who phones a bomb threat in to the school rather than take an exam.

You know if you keep this up, someday you may bore us.

Whoever wins the election will be prez for four or eight years. As awful as it seems, this financial crisis is going to be resolved. Or if it isn't, then it doesn't matter who's president, because we're all fucked. But just in case we're not going to be eating each other and living in cardboard boxes, we need to hear what the candidates say on a wide range of issues. Kind of like the debates were going to be in the first place. Yeah, that's it, let's just have the frickin' debates without changing the focus or anything. I don't want to listen to a lot of blathering about something neither of the candidates is an expert on, making promises about a landscape that hasn't taken shape yet. Debates as planned!

Damn, the debate will now be a game of "who blinks first" Either McCain will blink, go to the debate and look like a hypocrite or Obama will blink and not go to the debate thus ceding the leadership to McCain. Or McCain could not go and Obama would just be asked questions by the moderator to answer, HOWEVER that could backfire and make him look to political while McCain is "working" on the bailout plan. Very interesting developments.

I'm happy. Gobama!!!

I hope McCain agrees to one debate...I want to see McCain's reaction when Obama responds to a McCain character attack with a description of the "Keating Five."

I sense that Obama is keeping that ammo in his pocket for just the right moment to nail him in front of the world.

McCain will either a) Get the Deer in Headlights Look, b) Collapse and fall off the podium, or c) charge at Obama will his arms raised as high as he can...a la Frankenstein's monster.

I am hoping for c.

Yeah, another day, another stupid McCain antic. We can't get this election over, and Obama in office, soon enough. I'm sick and tired of McCain and his histrionics. This was clearly engineered to try to make Obama look bad, and all it did was make McCain look bad. If he put as much time into actually trying to do something productive, instead of using all his time playing games, he might actually deserve to be taken seriously. As it is, he just sounds like an idiot.

McCain's nasty campaign has finally caught up with him and cost him the only thing he had going for himself. His reputation. Now he knows he is going to get beat and wants to take his ball and go home!

McCain desperately wants to vote against any bailout bill, so he can reclaim his maverick status. The whole timeout business is meant to give him cover; "I've done everything I can to work out a deal, but I can't support this bill." Of course he wants it to pass so he won't take the blame for any more damage, but then he gets a club to wield against Obama.

mcsenile has gotten today's version of his economic policy from the following, per Boston.com
today:

Meg Whitman - Former friend of Romney's from Bain Capital (the ship jobs overseas specialists) and also former CEO of Ebay (She was involved in a highly suspicious sale of Ebay stock just a few weeks before she resigned as CEO but the SEC never investigated her for insider trading)

John Thain - Who just sold Merrill Lynch to Bank of America

John Chambers - CEO of Cisco Systems

Fiorina was absent.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/09/mccain_meets_on.html

There are photos of the meeting available - and isn't a picture worth 1,000 words - We all know who mcsenile's advisers are and what they will do for middle class America - nothing.

"Big planes with our names on the side". Like he's talking to an effing five year old....

Thats because our nation has been run by grown men who act like a couple of five year olds!

I'm surprised that McCain didn't go all in and propose that Obama agree to postpone the elections until the economy, the war, etc. improves.

This is not about McCain...its about Palin. Now McCain is trying to bump her debate, and have his debate next week instead. She is still not ready for prime time next Wednesday.

Dems don't fall for this distraction...

(CNN) — McCain surrogate Sen. Lindsey Graham tells CNN the McCain campaign is proposing to
the Presidential Debate Commission and the Obama camp that if there's no bailout deal by
Friday, the first presidential debate should take the place of the VP debate, currently
scheduled for next Thursday, October 2 in St. Louis.

In this scenario, the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin would be
rescheduled for a date yet to be determined, and take place in Oxford, Mississippi, currently
slated to be the site of the first presidential faceoff this Friday.

If McCain really believes the argument that he needs to be in DC because he is a Senator, then he should not mind flipping the VP and 1st Pres debates. Palin should debate Biden on Friday in Oxford, Miss. If she's ready to be one heart beat away, then she should be ready for the debate. On the question of moderators, I'm not sure whether it would be more advantageous for Obama-Biden to keep Lehrer for this Friday or have Ifill stay with the VPs.

I hope you guys are right. But we all know who you're voting for already. It's the people who (bizarrely) haven't made up their minds yet that matter here, and I don't know how great of a move this is for Obama.

I agree with you on how stupid this was on McCain's part. But the mainstream media is right there, as always, to spin things for him in ways that may seem absurd to all you political junkies out there, but that will play well with the "regular folks".

Check out Cnn.com's headline on this now:

"McCain: No bailout deal, then no debate Friday"

Subheading: he is "suspending his campaign to deal with the nation's economic crisis".

As crazy as it sounds, if this is how it gets played, that's going to look pretty good to a lot of people.

Obama's going to have to play this right -- and even then it might not matter, as all the main news outlets just might spin it against him.

"I believe it makes sense for us to present ourselves to the American people."

McCain would rather lose an election than a debate.

Does suspending the campaign also extend to the GOP suspending its efforts?

After all, the GOP has one heck of a fund.

Wouldn't it be wild if Georgie goes off script tonight and sticks it to McSlime? McInsain's descent to deeper madness has made everybody forget about Good Old Krazy George.

By now, George probably hates everybody around him; blames them for duping him into becoming the worst POTUS in history. The thought of handing over the Presidency to the undeserving ass-kisser who he trounced 8 years ago might just push Old Reliable over the edge.

Yep, this could be the night when George leaps off Dr. Frankenstein's operating table and chokes him to death.

Why does it seem like Bush is trying to bandwagon McCain. That is........interesting.

According to Chuck Todd and Firstread, McCain's camp is saying if there's no deal by Friday evening he won't be at the debate.

Such a strange, illogical, deadbeat ploy, but it looks like he's going to stick to it.

this could be a major populist move for Obama. State that this personifies the big difference between him and Mc: he prefers to air this all out with the people rather than hatch something out with the "elites" in Washington, probably behind closed doors. Make a Jimmy Stewart move, Barack! Call for what people want: serious regulation and transparency, an end to Wall St. lobbying RIGHT NOW! Just larding the bailout with Demo pork and some crap about restricting exec pay in lieu of driving a very hard bargain and putting the cop on the beat will not cut it!

Now Bush has called Obama to go to the White house to attend a meeting on the bailout plan. Since the President has called him, Obama has agreed to go but he says the debate on Friday should still happen.

NO VP DEBATE !

McCain should be tarred and feathered!

She is so not ready! Watch video of the interview with Katie Couric and view transcript

Here's another angle: McCain is playing politics with probably the worst financial crisis in American since the Depression. By saying that he won't debate until Bush's bailout/Wall Street giveaway is passed, he is putting his own political interests above those of the country. This is really outrageous, incredibly cynical, and Biden and all of Obama's surrogates should hammer him on it.

McCain's suggestion to suspend the debate is nothing more than political showmanship.

And Obama's numbers just keep climbing. Wonder what this is gonna do and where he'll be by the end of the week? Which of course we won't know until next week. Feel the Obamamentum!!! I mean the "Obama Fatigue"!!! ROFLMFAO Bwwwaaahaaahaaa

Apparently McCain wants to include his own campaign in the bail out.

McCain would like very much to eliminate the VP debate. My God -- could it be the woman is even stupider than I thought? And he thinks he can keep this from the American public?

Yesterday Barack Obama said it best: A President should be capable of dealing with several issues at once, and does not have the luxury of suspending one situation for another. I happen to agree with that. John McCain could easily go to Washington on Thursday (if it was really necessary), travel to the Debate on Friday evening, then immediately return to Washington on Saturday morning. But to freeze the entire campaign just to travel to Washington, especially in the day and age of cell phones, email, and yes the internet, this seriously appears like a "hail-mary" type political stunt.

THE LOGIC IN THIS STORY MAKES SENSE:
http://okwassup.blogspot.com

Obama needs to stop his wimpy attitude: instead of saying things like "I'm still inclined to have the debate" he should asked McCain to leave the race if he's not up to the challenges of the office. Speak a tough language that the simple man understands.

WEEKS ago I predicted that Palin would be a no-show for the debates (seemed obvious the way they were sequestering her), but I never thought McCain would try to pull it for the presidential debates.

If McCain is using the financial crisis as an excuse for postponing the debates, I wonder what he'd use for an excuse if there were no financial crisis and his poll numbers had dropped as much (or more) right before the debates?

Now I know we shouldn't get excited but O is shown to be up in NC for the first time THIS ENTIRE ELECTION. This is from RAM as well (the republican hackjob). So it's very telling.

I'm glad Obama came right out and said what really happened instead of hiding behind some political rhetoric.