As I’m writing this, I’m completely disgusted with the McCain campaign’s latest low move. On the surface, it may appear to be a genuine interest in helping the country solves its problems and do his job as a US senator, but if you dig deeper it becomes quite apparent that it is in fact nothing more than a political stunt intended to boost his numbers with only weeks remaining before the November election. It was just
recently announced that John McCain will be immediately suspending his campaign for president, including all TV advertising, so that he may go to Washington and "solve" our current economic crisis. Just when I thought the McCain campaign might be running out of tricks, they pull this one out of nowhere, and it might just work.
Outwardly, this move seems like McCain is assuming his responsibility as senator and putting our country first. This is exactly what they want you to think. However, this image is merely a construct of his campaign manager’s imagination and is in reality far from the truth. First, if John McCain really cared about the success of our country and fixing our problems, then why has he been so reluctant to show up and vote when a major bill came to a vote in the Senate? In an article written on July 11, 2008 for The Washington Post, Jonathan Weisman noted that Senator McCain had failed to vote in the senate since April 8th. We’re not talking about just minor votes here, either. John McCain, whose job as a US Senator includes crafting legislation, understanding legislation crafted by his colleagues, and voting on legislation, has essentially failed to do his job from April 8th to July 11th, or a period of more than 3 months. Presidential candidate or not, such behavior is not good. While I don’t have another, more up to date source, to my knowledge he still hasn’t shown up for a vote, and it’s now September 24th. Either way, this information makes it apparent that McCain has shown little concern for doing what’s right and voting on important bills that could significantly impact our lives as Americans. For him to suddenly drop everything and run to the Senate to finally do some work wreaks of desperation on his part.
As of late, it has become more and more apparent to even the casual observer that McCain is clueless when it comes to economic policy. Those of us who have been following his campaign for a while have known this fact for some time, but it is now apparent to even the most uninterested voter that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. In recent days, even as major financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers were crumbling, McCain continued to exclaim that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." While our economy certainly does still have a lot going for it, it’s undeniable that rapidly-inflating prices, stagnating wages, and numerous bankruptcies or other troubles for our major financial companies spell trouble for our economy. To me, all of those are major parts of our economy, "fundamentals" if you will, and they’re anything but strong. How anyone can take McCain’s economic wisdom seriously is beyond me, and that’s neglecting knowledge of his past actions that show his ignorance of the economy. His insistence in going to Washington to fix our economic mess will be trouble in every respect. First, since McCain has no idea how to fix the economy, it’s virtually impossible that his going there will do any good. If a person knows that his actions can do no good, then why do them at all? At best, he’ll be able to whisper his party’s line in the ear of those making the decisions. At worst, his presence will annoy or even hurt any possible economic fix, which even with the best people in charge will be difficult to execute.
McCain’s campaign suspension will only do good for one person: himself. By rushing to DC to fix an economy when he has no idea how to fix it, he knows that he can do no good. Such an action, however, makes it seem, at least to the casual observer, that he must know what he’s doing with the economy. After all, who in their right mind would try to fix something if they have no knowledge of how to go about fixing it? Also, this reinforces his fictitious image of being a good senator, a good patriot who puts his country first, and a responsible senator who cares about our problems. If he’s lucky, this stunt will make people forget his fundamentals-are-strong mantra and maybe even reassure them that he actually does have a clue when it comes to one of the most important aspects of being a president (sound economic knowledge and judgment). This alone is as great a reason as any for McCain to suspend his campaign, especially given the recent shift in voter preferences in Obama’s favor, largely due to Obama’s perceived ability to better handle the economy. This last effort might be the only way for McCain to plug the holes in his ship’s hull. The benefits to the McCain camp don’t stop there, though. By extending the invitation to Obama to suspend his campaign as well and travel to DC to fix the problem, McCain has handed Obama a no-win situation. If Obama says no, then he looks unpatriotic. People would think he’s unwilling to do his job, that he doesn’t care about them or their country, and that his words have no substance, especially his words about solving problems with both parties working together. If he accepts, then Obama will lose significant ground in the run up to the election. Obama needs every day he has left before November to campaign and show voters why he’s right for them. As was true in the primaries, Obama’s numbers tend to go up the more exposure he gets, especially after he visits a place and gives speeches. Stopping his campaign would halt his campaign’s momentum and keep his message away from prospective McCain voters who could likely be swayed by Obama’s words.
There really is no great option here for Obama. McCain’s latest move was unexpected, unwelcomed, and difficult to respond to for Obama’s campaign. No matter what they do, their actions can be distorted as a bad move. At the moment, it appears that the Obama campaign is making the only good move they have left. They will insist that they can fix the economy while campaigning at the same time. If it works out right, this could put Obama over the top by demonstrating that he truly is the only candidate with presidential material: the ability to handle more than one thing at once. I think it could work, and indeed I think it will generally work. No matter what some will say of their character and choices, the campaign certainly couldn’t risk suspending for any amount of time in this crucial period, so this is really the only sound choice left to them. I hope they can pull it off. I’m sure the McCain campaign won’t be happy about this, though. He was hoping to use this economic crisis to get around having to take part in this Friday’s debate where he was sure to get put in his place by Obama. To my relief, the Obama campaign won’t have any of this, insisting that they can debate with the best of them while fixing our economy at the same time. I look forward to seeing McCain squirm on Friday, assuming he even shows up.
