If you think about it for a minute it makes great sense for McCain to "suspend" his campaign right now. It could be, and I want to stress the "could be", a way to save his presidential bid.
- The WAPO/ABC poll is Obama 52-McCain 43.
- Fox News (of all people) has it Obama 45-McCain 39.
- Obama is ahead in the latest polls for Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.
- Palin's favorables are dropping like a rock.
- George Will called him "unpresidential", (I know I nearly fell over too)
So McCain is down in every national poll and he looked like an old fool last week as the Wall Street mushroom cloud went up.
The ONE thing his campaign needs now is TIME, which he doesn't have. It keeps marching forward toward November 4. So they need the next best thing, BREATHING ROOM.
They need room for him to catch back up, mostly in "presidential stature", which they hope will generate an up tick in his poll numbers. If the could ONLY get the campaign turned off for a little while. Get the heat off them not only from the Obama campaign, but just as importantly from the press. The Obama folks have been pressing McCain so hard for the last 8 days that they haven't been able to get any political traction. It is mostly the fault of McCain, 'cause he's a geezer and just can't keep up. Well, that and his record as a deregulator and the Keating 5, and his campaign manager and Palin and...well you get the idea.
They need room to think and get their feet under them again. They need a way of distracting the Americana public from the fact that McCain doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground and that his campaign is coming off the rails.
If McCain suspends his campaign to go to Washington to work out this BIG PRESIDENTIAL SIZED PROBLEM in a bipartisan fashion (cough, cough) and Obama doesn't follow suit then he can wallop Obama for being unpatriotic and only caring about getting elected and not caring about the American people etc etc(barf).
If Obama goes along, then the McCain campaign gets the breathing space they so desperatley need. A suspension of hostilities, so they can regroup and let the dust settle. Sorta like getting the ref to count to 1000 instead of 10 when you are face down on the matt in the ring.
If McCain was so all fired hot to help his country in this time of CRISIS he would have suggested this yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that.
I think his campaign saw the numbers from today and decided it was going to try and call a time out, even though they've already used up all of theirs for this half.
All this will do is allow McCain to try and earn back some of his PRESIDENTIAL bona fides by playing bullshit politics.
I can tell you this, if John McCain says he is going to suspend his campaign for the good of the country, I can guren-dam-tee you that he is suspending his campaign for the good of John McCain.
This will be a very difficult call for the Obama folks, either way.