When I heard this afternoon that John McCain had suspended his campaign and called for the cancellation of the first debate, my first two reactions were, “Huh?” and “He doesn’t really think this will work does he?”
Well, at least one person does (other than John McCain): Hugh Hewitt, the inimitable conservative commentator, referred to this as brilliant leadership that would make this look like Obama’s “Katrina moment.” I have one response for Mr. Hewitt: this is McCain’s “Mission Accomplished.”
“Mission Accomplished” is, in many ways, the epitome of the Bush administration, but above all things, it was a spectacle, and this is what the entire McCain campaign, and specifically this “decision” today, has been. First, we have McCain’s “celeb” ads and subsequent lies: no substance, all drama. “We are all Georgians”: no (or at the very least, scary) substance, all drama. McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin, no substance (as she proved in the Couric interview today), all drama. The infamous outrage over lipstick on a pig: no substance, all drama. The calling for the head of Chris Cox, head of the SEC: no substance, all drama. And today’s “suspension” of his campaign: no substance, all drama.
Why does his decision lack substance? Why wouldn’t a senator, especially the “standard bearer” of his party, be of use in any kind of negotiations? Well, for starters, over the last week and a half, McCain has stumbled to find an economic message that resonates with voters. He has repeatedly called for action, but has never proposed anything novel that would actually aid in the process. In other words, he’s been saying, “We need to do something, I’m just not sure what.” Thus, he’s bringing no new ideas to the table. Next, as Richard Wolffe of Newsweek said, a deal “probably would have happened anyway.” In other words, McCain was and is not needed to fix the problem; he just wants to be able to take credit for any possible solutions. Additionally, McCain doesn’t serve on the committee responsible for working out this problem, and he is not needed until a full Senate vote. No substance, all drama.
McCain’s decision to call for the cancellation of the debate also echoes “Mission Accomplished” in another key way: the desire for it, which is in this case the economic crisis, to be over. Friday’s first debate was scheduled to be on national security, but in the midst of this economic crisis (which took McCain awhile to acknowledge, as we all know), why wouldn’t there be questions on the economy, an area that is at the forefront of millions of American minds, and an area that all the polls show Americans favor Obama? Of course it would! And, as Marc Ambinder reported tonight on his blog, the candidates were informed last week that the debate would spend time discussing the economy. Thus, McCain would be forced, in front of a television audience of millions, to reprise his economic discussions of the past week and a half: in other words, he would look incoherent. But, if the debate is cancelled until after an agreement has been made, McCain would hopefully be able to avoid a very public discussion of the economy and instead pat himself on the back for helping to fix the problem.
But I’ve got news for Johnny Drama: your plan isn’t going to work. Time-in.