The shortest distance between two points is when there's just one point.
In his approach to the financial crisis, and with the pretended "suspension" of his campaign, John McCain makes a great to-do about politicians who put personal or partisan interests first, instead of "rushing to the aid of their country."
The problem here is that rushing somewhere implies that you were somewhere else at the time. I believe Barack Obama is actively and continuously engaged in aid of the country already -- all the time. Sure puts Obama at a disadvantage when the order of the day is to showboat one's sudden commitment to country.
In the same speech today, McCain pumped (pun intended) more vociferously than ever for a thorough energy plan, even connecting it to job creation as Obama has done for months:
As president, I will also set this country on the straightest, swiftest path to energy independence. As a nation, we will embark on the most ambitious national project in decades. We are going to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much. We will attack the problem on every front. We will produce more energy at home. We will drill new wells offshore, and we’ll drill them now. We will build more nuclear power plants. We will develop clean coal technology. We will increase the use of wind, tide, solar and natural gas. We will encourage the development and use of flex fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles. And in all of this, we will create millions of new jobs, many in industries that will be the engine of our future prosperity – jobs that will be there when your children enter the workforce.
Some still insist that we can achieve energy independence without more drilling and without more nuclear power. But Americans know better than that. We must use all resources and develop all technologies necessary to rescue our economy from the damage caused by rising oil prices and to restore the health of our planet. It’s an ambitious plan, but Americans are ambitious by nature, and we have faced greater challenges. It’s time for us to show the world again how Americans lead.
Of course he anticipates and defuses any complaints that he is merely riding Obama's coattails by saying:
I offer this not just as a campaign slogan, but as the way to solve our country’s problems. Instead of rejecting good ideas because we didn’t think of them first, let’s use the best ideas from both sides.
Then McCain probably won't mind sitting in the Senate during an Obama presidency, and aiding the country with his good non-partisan ideas and his can-do, maverick environmentalism.