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'Suspended' McCain campaign churning along

SIRI AGRELL
From Friday's Globe and Mail
September 26, 2008 at 5:12 AM EDT
John McCain cancelled on David Letterman, but sat down with Katie Couric. He called off campaign appearances, but allowed his surrogates to appear on news shows.

He attended the Clinton Global Initiative, but said he was suspending his campaign and asked that the first presidential debate be delayed so he could turn his attention to the financial crisis.

Barack Obama, who refused to suspend his campaign, said it is the president's job to "deal with more than one thing at once." But the Democrat, too, was able to capitalize on the unexpected turn of events.

He had no major campaign events scheduled this week as he prepared for tonight's scheduled debate. And so he was able to join Mr. McCain in concentrating on the financial crisis, while promoting his ability to campaign simultaneously.

"I think this is a huge selling point for him: Hey, presidents have to do multiple things at once - I'm on top of this," said Renan Levine, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto.

And in what amounted to a presidential game of chicken, Mr. Obama effectively dared his opponent not to show up at the debate, saying he would happily conduct a town hall or sit down with moderator Jim Lehrer alone, if necessary.

Don Abelson, director of the Centre for American Studies at the University of Western Ontario, believes Mr. Obama has little choice but to push for the debate, or capitalize on Mr. McCain's absence from the televised forum.

"He's a skilled speaker, he's got all the catchphrases he needs, and he's likely hoping to knock McCain down early and keep knocking him down," he said.

But Mr. Obama must also make it look like he is part of the process dealing with the Wall Street meltdown, without aligning himself too closely with President George W. Bush or Mr. McCain.

"He can't appear to be left out of this, because that could do big things for McCain," Prof. Abelson said.

The Commission on Presidential Debates refused to reschedule the debate, but the McCain campaign said last night that there was still no decision on whether he would attend.

Critics, meanwhile, pounced on the fact that not all aspects of the McCain campaign had ground to a halt.

"The whole campaign, as far as I can tell, is not completely suspended, just McCain himself," Prof. Levine said.

Mr. McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, visited memorials to the victims of Sept. 11 in Lower Manhattan yesterday.

Contributions were still being collected on the McCain-Palin website, local campaign offices remained open and attack ads continued to air throughout the United States by midday yesterday.

The seeming disconnect between the word "suspended" and the Republican campaign's continued action led some to wonder whether the move was a crass political ploy to avoid the debate and resuscitate Mr. McCain's floundering reputation on economic issues.

"Are we suspending it because there's an economic crisis or because the poll numbers are sliding?" fumed talk show host David Letterman after Mr. McCain pulled out of a scheduled appearance.

It is not the first time the Republican politician has played the suspension card to a desired effect, and some think it might work this time, too.

Earlier this month, he toyed with the idea of suspending the GOP convention as hurricane Gustav threatened New Orleans. By demonstrating a willingness to cancel his prime-time moment, Mr. McCain appeared to prioritize the needs of real Americans.

The political blog Wonkette pointed out yesterday that Mr. McCain also suspended campaigning when he ran for president eight years ago.

"After telling the press that he was going to announce his run in March, 1999, he melodramatically 'postponed' the announcement because of the U.S. bombing of the Serbs in Kosovo," the site noted. The next day, Mr. McCain was booked on most major news programs in the United States.

Some believe Mr. McCain will get similar positive attention from dedicating himself to the financial crisis.

"One of the advantages he has over Obama is that he can say, 'I've had over 30 years of legislative experience, I know what has to be done to get the country back on track with respect to this particular financial crisis,' " Prof. Abelson said.

But Prof. Levine said that for this gamble to pay off, Mr. McCain needs to actually help broker the bailout package in Washington, a role that looked increasingly unlikely last night.

"If he could have gotten in there and brokered an agreement, and something that's not quite what Bush wants, and not quite what the Democrats want, he would have come off as a non-partisan hero on both sides of the House," Prof. Levine said

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26900453/?GT1=43001