McCain bails on Campaign, now the debate?
Last time I checked, this was the same John McCain that wanted to have a town hall debate every weekend, right? With only 48 hours to go from the first big presidental debate, and McCain wants a time out from the entire campaign? His reason is because he wants to go back to Washington to help negociate the stalemate going on over that 700 billion dollar bail out for Wall Street. This coming from the same Senator that has been the most absent and missed more votes than any other Senator currently sitting in the house? The only thing that has changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling, and it’s not looking good for McCain or the Republicans. Right now all the polls are showing Obama in the lead, with some showing the Democratic nominee leading as much as 52 – 43, so it’s no wonder McCain is running for the hill.
This is also the same John McCain who is refusing to take questions from the Press and is refusing to let the media ask questions to his VP Nominee at all. Now he doesn’t even want to answer any questions at a debate. He’s not running to Washington to help Congress… he’s running scared. Just look at how McCain has gone out of his way to avoid the media when on the campaign trail and not answered any questions unless it’s in a closed environment, and Palin has only taken one interview since accepting the position, and now he’s trying to back out of the debate. The ‘No Talk Express’ is now using the economic mess as their golden ticket to back out of the debates.
Now there is word that McCain real intent is to use the delay of the first debate to cancel the VP debate. Finally we get the truth, he doesn’t want Palin to take any quesitons at all, not even during a debate with Joe Biden. This kind of sheltering of the VP Canidate should be very disturbing to the public, and very alarming to the media as well. If I were Obama I would under no condition accept any delay of any debate, especially the VP debate. Palin is gonna have to answer the big questions if she wants the job. The debates is the people’s job interview… and if she wants the job, she’s gotta do it.
Speaking of Sarah Palin, I was watching David Letterman last night, and man was he on fire. John McCain was supposed to be his guest that night and because of the whole ‘Campaign suspenion’ thing to fly back to Washignton, he cancelled on Letterman at the last possible moment. This left Letterman short one main guest, and had his people scrambling around for someone to take his place. Thankfully from across the street at the NBC building, Keith Olbermann was more than willing to run over and help out Dave at the last minute and fill in for the Senator from Arizona. Dave praised McCain for being a war hero and a true Patriot, which got applause from the audience, but at the same time… he openly bashed the Senator for suspending his campaign. ‘You don’t suspend the campaign, you run off to Washington to do your thing and you take your second string Quaterback off the bench to take over the Campaign while you’re away.’ Letterman was infact referring to his VP running mate, Sarah Palin… so he was suggesting somethign that again flew right above the mass media’s head: McCain had suspended his Campaign because he doesn’t trust or believe Palin is strong enough to lead the campaign on her own. If McCain himself doesn’t trust her to run a national campaign while he’s in Washington, should we consider that proof she’s unfit to run the country as well? Letterman hit the nail right on the head here, and since Olbermann was in attendence when he said it… I expect him to take the ball and run with it tonight.
Then things got really interesting when Olbermann was being interviewed. Letterman got word that McCain had not immediately left town as he told Dave he was going to (take off to save Washington, remember?). Turns out, McCain was in the building at that exact same time, in the CBS news room… being interviewed by Katie Couric. You could tell Dave was steamed to begin with but when he found out that he was ditched for Couric, that’s when he went for the jugular. When it seemed evident that McCain have it and even Olbermann couldn’t deny it when he said, “I think he ditched ya…” Letterman looked in the camera and said “The road to the Whitehouse runs through me.” And then he really let McCain have it. It was a one hour McCain bashfest, and I have a feeling the Senator from Arizona will not be getting an invitation to return…
Check this out:
Interesting stuff… and Letterman had every reason to be upset. The last time I checked, Letterman and Couric work at the same station so what gives her the right to steal his guests? If I was incharge at CBS, I would be calling her up and giving her a formal warning to not steal Letterman’s guest again or the the next time she won’t have a show to air the next day. That was completely unprofessional of Couric, and I hope the media blasts her for doing something that underhanded. Did you notice how Dave didn’t attack her and laid all the blame for this on McCain? Both him and Olbermann (who I have no doubt will talk about it tonight on his own show) both gave the Senator all the blame for ditching Dave and lying to him about the reason for it.
Any points McCain may have tried to get by flying back to Washington today might have been squandered by ditching Letterman and going to Couric even for a post ‘Suspended Campaign’ campaign interview. I’m just waiting to hear that the ads are still playing on television and that the campaign isn’t really suspended. Every word that comes out of that man’s mouth is a lie, so let’s see how much of this really is truth.
But everyone has to remember that McCain isn’t taking any questions from the Press, and I mean during statements or conferences. Sure, he’ll talk to Couric in a closed environment, but not to the press core. He hasn’t fielded any questions from the pit in over a month, where Brack did just that yesterday for for good while after making his statement. Now McCain wants to delay the debates. Not going to happen Johnny, because Barack has been quoted as saying that ‘the people need to hear from their leaders now more than ever’ and the venue hosting the debate (The University of Mississippi) said they cannot postpone the debate. They said any delay will result in a full cancellation of the debate, and that ‘would Be financially devastating’ to the institution. So for McCain to just toss that aside without considering something like that proves how selfish and self centered his decision making really is. He’s going to Washington to hide from the cameras, to get away from the campaign that is kicking his ass, and to take a time out from the polls that are dropping like a rock. I doubt he wants to be around now that a story is breaking that his campaign manager <a href=”http://www.newsweek.com/id/160713″>Rick Davis actually never left his lobbying firm and is still on the payroll to this day! So it’s no wonder McCain wants a time out right about now and get away from the campaign for a moment. He’s using this economic issue not to put country first but for his own political gains, and that proves to me what a snivelling little turd this Republican has really become.
The canidate who was calling on his opponent to do a town hall debate every weekend is now that coward who is running away from the big debate. So when Friday rolls around and McCain still refuses to show up for the debate … do you think Nader and Barr would be willing to show up and take McCain’s place??
Peter
I’m surprised by how on board all the right wingers are with this when one of their biggest scaremongering tactics in regards to Barack Obama is his so called “inexperience” and that therefore if a major national incident occured be it terrorism or tornado, he would crumble and not be able to respond. And yet John “the economy is fine” McCain suddenly wants to call things off. As President of theUSA he’s going to have to deal with numerous ongoing situations all the time. The Republicans can’t keep claiming they want a President who’s full of experience and on the ball and then suddenly !!!FLIP FLOP!!! and support a doddery old man who can’t cope with more than one thing at a time.
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I say, go ahead with the debate – the venue is paid for, the TV time is paid for, right? And then if McCain doesn’t show up, Obama has a couple of hours to address the people of the U.S. and explain his policies and views without any opposition. Stunned as he seems to be, I can’t see McCain allowing *that* to happen; Obama’s pretty damned charming when he starts to talk. Someone has to show up.
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you know, i wouldn’t be nearly as up-to-date with all this if it weren’t for your diary. it gives me something to talk about with my cnn-addicted mother-in-law.
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