John McCain's decision to "suspend" campaigning in order to save Sarah Palin from having to debate change the subject from his imploding campaign come in at the last minute about a complex issue about which he admittedly knows nothing...god knows what may be "desperate and nuts," as one Republican strategist calls it. It may be impetuous and hotheaded. It may be an outrageously transparent political ploy. It may be "desperate and nuts," as one Republican strategist calls it. But one thing it most certainly is not: Democracy.
Think back to American history. Did Abraham Lincoln "suspend" his campaign for president in 1864, with the Civil War raging? Did Herbert Hoover "suspend" his campaign in 1932, during the depths of the Great Depression? Did FDR "suspend" his campaign in 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, or in 1944, as allied troops pushed into Europe and fought Japan in the Pacific? Did presidents "suspend" their campaigns during the Cold War, during the Korean War, during the Iraq War, etc?
No, of course they didn't. Why not? Because that is NOT Democracy. To the contrary, this is what tin pot dictators in banana republics do - "suspend" elections because of some "crisis" that requires their "urgent attention." This is essentially what the corrupt thug Rudy Giuliani tried to do after 9/11 in NY City, but he was rightly rebuffed. As the New York Times wrote at the time:
...While Mr. Giuliani has been a great leader during this crisis, the truth is that no one is indispensable. George Washington understood that when he rejected repeated attempts to keep him in office indefinitely. Washington was followed in the presidency by a long line of successors, some of them distinctly mediocre. But the country went on, because people put their faith in the democratic process and not in the strength of any one individual.
Today, John McCain is arrogantly arguing that his presence in Washington, DC (despite the fact that he has rarely been seen there during 2007 and 2008, and despite his admitted lack of expertise on the subject matter at hand - the economy) is more important than the democratic process. John McCain is essentially saying that this nation's greatest leaders were wrong when, during times of great economic and military upheaval, they made sure that Democracy proceeded without interruption. And the bottom line is that John McCain is demonstrating his frightening lack of judgment, his fundamental misunderstanding of what makes America great, in trying to arbitrarily set his own rules and skip out on a debate about our future that tens of millions of Americans want to see.
So, here's a message to John McCain: if you have such contempt for Democracy and the American people as you're demonstrating here, don't just "suspend" your campaign for a few days, "suspend" it entirely and give the nomination to someone who understands our nation's values, to someone who is not not a "desperate and nuts" old man.