On Wednesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced that he would suspend his campaign. This of course comes just a few days before the first presidential debate to be held at the University of Mississippi on Friday, Sept. 26, which he asked to be postponed.
McCain’s reason for the suspension? According to an article in U.S. News and World Report, the senator’s reason is the “historic crisis in our financial system.” So now you decide that that’s a big issue and needs to be dealt with? Just now? This wasn’t happening before? Exactly.
It’s all about the political games. McCain is playing political games with economic crisis and stepping out in front of something that needs to be taken care of on Capitol Hill between members of the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee along with the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.
If Sen. McCain feels that the financial crisis is so important, shouldn’t he use the upcoming debate to emphasize that? What a great opportunity to let people know what you plan on doing to help. Apparently not so for this presidential hopeful.
Even Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) agrees. In an article in The New York Times, he is quoted as saying, “It is my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who, in approximately 40 days, will be responsible for dealing with this mess. It is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once.”
It seems that Sen. McCain is just looking for some more attention. He wants it to seem like he’s putting his country first. Yeah, right.
The U.S. News and World Report article also states that McCain mentioned 9/11, patriotism and partisan divisions that have “prevented us from addressing our national challenges,” when explaining his decision. Okay, so blame it on other things. That works, too.
What about the fact that Sen. Obama called Sen. McCain earlier in the day inviting him to issue a joint statement that would chart conditions that they would agree upon for the Treasury’s bailout proposal? Guess he thought that was a good idea and that he should go public with it. “Look at me! Look what I can do! I want attention!”
So if this campaign suspension continues, what is going to happen to the debate that is scheduled to take place next month here at the University? As long as McCain suspends his campaign, we have no idea whether the University will still host a debate nearly two years in the planning.