mccain is suspending his campaign

[Troy McClure]

McCain was scheduled to be on David Letterman tonight, but not anymore according to Letterman's site. This surprised me since McCain is such a starfucker.

Basically McCain's campaign the last few weeks could be compared to a chicken running around with its head cut off. I'm not sure that McCain's presence in DC matters to the debate over the bailout because up until last week he was always against regulation.

I believe Obama is right to say that the Friday debate should still be held. A President must be able to handle multiple big issues. The debate is supposed to be about foreign policy, but the economy will probably be a big chunk of the debate. What better way for McCain to explain his ideas to a large TV audience?

Jason

[Troy McClure]

Just found a few links on Huffington Post and Drudge Report about David Letterman's taping for tonight's show.

Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/0..._n_128998.html

Drudge: http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3cbm.htm


Letterman:
"In the middle of the taping Dave got word that McCain was, in fact just down the street being interviewed by Katie Couric. Dave even cut over to the live video of the interview, and said, "Hey Senator, can I give you a ride home?"
Earlier in the show, Dave kept saying, "You don't suspend your campaign. This doesn't smell right. This isn't the way a tested hero behaves." And he joked: "I think someone's putting something in his metamucil."

"He can't run the campaign because the economy is cratering? Fine, put in your second string quarterback, Sarah Palin. Where is she?"

"What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We've got a guy like that now!"


Jason

[kagenaki koe]

this is the visual i had in mind of McCain's stunt (44 seconds in):



"I'm a soldier man, i've been trained for combat...."

[Sean]

Originally Posted by Deckard

If Obama and McCain get into a public feud over this, Obama is at a greater risk of losing the argument than McCain, because he can't possibly accuse McCain of using this situation to dodge the debate (if he did, he'd be bombarded by howls of sanctimonious 'How dare you', and that sort of response can carry a lot of weight).

Which is exactly why Obama will probably stick to his "being President will require multi-tasking, so we should be able to tackle the issue and still have a debate at the same time" argument. Don't accuse McCain of political posturing, just point out that he shouldn't have to suspend his campaign to deal with this if he's truly qualified for the job.

I've been unpleasantly shocked by how people react before, but I just feel like this is going to blow up in McCain's face a bit. It stinks of desperation. Although, case in point, so did his selection of Sarah Palin, and she brought him some additional support there for a while, so who knows?

And Troy McClure - you beat me to it. I was coming here to post the Letterman stuff. I can't wait to watch the show tonight....


EDIT - Hmmmm...and how convenient that this campaign suspension would also mean pushing the VP debates later. Does someone need a bit more time to study perhaps?

[cured]

A grouping of Letterman clips from tonight can be seen ehre:

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

I wish they've discuss what to be done with me.

Just kidding. lol

[kagenaki koe]

Obama should just show him up by going to washington AND going to the debates.

[gambit]

Originally Posted by kagenaki koe

Obama should just show him up by going to washington AND going to the debates.

Yep, he's going to do that. He accepted Bush's invitation to come back to Washington tomorrow.

[cacophony]

my gut tells me that obama's response was perfect. the line about being able to multitask is not only correct, but it's a fantastic soundbite. and the rest of the democratic party have gotten very in-sync with their messaging, using the phrase "injecting presidential politics" whenever discussing mccain's maneuver.

it's so strange to see the democrats so well coordinated. staying on message is usually the party's weakness.

also, here's a transcript of david letterman's response to mccain's cancellation. but it's not the transcript i thought was interesting. what i found interesting were the comments at the end of the article. usually what you'd have is extremely defensive and polarized trolling, sort of the "my guy rulez, ur guy sux" variety. instead there are clearly republicans responding negatively to letterman's rant, but showing some doubts about mccain's actions at the same time. more than one, "i don't agree with what mccain did, but letterman should shut up" kind of statement.

makes me wonder what he's just done to his base's confidence.

[Deckard]

One of the great tragedies of this presidential campaign has been to watch in amazement as John McCain turns into a great big laughing stock before the world's eyes. It's like he's gone off the rails.

It will be an even greater tragedy if he somehow manages to pull of an election after all this bullshit.