Stop Right Now, Thankyou Very Much, I Need Somebody With A Human Touch
September 25th 2008 00:16
Playing politics or a genuine move of citizenship? That is the question that is flying around the Democratic and Republican camps today as they scramble to respond to calls by John McCain to suspend campaigning while the US struggles to cope with a complete economic crash. As you would imagine, it goes down partisan lines. Republicans say that it is a responsible thing to put the country first and not spend the time diverting attention from a crisis that needs to be put first. Democrats believe quite the reverse, as one would expect. They say that McCain is playing political games with the crisis and is using a halt of campaigning to ‘set Obama up’.
The tricky part of it all is that you can never really know why McCain decided to blindside Obama and make a public call to stop the campaign. It might have been politics like the Obama folk say. Stopping the campaign would undoubtedly put the brakes on Obama’s slow creep back into the front runner position, and would make McCain look like a real statesman showing Obama the ropes of how to act when a nation is in crisis. In that sense it would put him in the position of looking like a real leader and may sway some voters onto his side in the final run-up to polling day. On the other hand, halting the campaign immediately may work against McCain’s best interests. The debate on Friday night would have to be put off, and it is in this forum that he is expected to shine. The debate is specifically on issues of national security and foreign relations, an area that McCain is seen to have an advantage in over Obama and a forum where he can utilise his meetings with world leaders this week to illustrate that while Obama was preparing answers for the debate his team were actually on the ground having real discussions. To put off the debate would risk compromising the bump in the polls he might get from showcasing his international and security credentials.
There are a few different ways this one could play out. McCain has already suspended campaigning, regardless of what the Obama camp choose to do. If Obama keeps going on his own, he may look strident, or like he doesn’t care about the financial crisis that McCain deemed important enough to stop his Presidential campaign for. It puts Obama in a tight position. His hands are tied. Thus far his response has been to make out that McCain was doing it for his own benefit. As far as I can tell, if that is true then McCain has made a pretty severe miscalculation. It definitely wouldn’t make sense to give Obama more time to prepare for a debate on a topic that he has the advantage in. If anything it would be politically more beneficial to do the debate and then to call for a halt in campaigning. To do it now seems like he is politically vandalising his own campaign. That gives me the impression that McCain is genuine in what he is trying to do.
Obama has said that he believes that this is a stunt by McCain, who he believes is infusing the global economic crisis with Presidential politics. However, he also says that what the people need at this point is to hear from the people that will be leading the country in around 40 days time. The two points are somewhat counterintuitive. Obama is saying that halting the campaign is playing Presidential politics with the crisis, while at the same time saying that they need to be in the media talking about the crisis to inform people as to who would deal with the issue better. According to Obama, stopping the campaign is more political than pitching their different responses to the economic crash. It is spin at its finest.
The whole issue of stopping the campaign is truly bizarre. McCain wants to stop just before going into a debate that he could use to showcase his foreign policy advantages over Obama. And Obama wants to keep going, saying he doesn’t need the extra time to prepare and would rather keep the campaign going. Despite the fact that he has been off the trail for the past few days preparing for the debate while McCain and Palin were in New York City meeting with world leaders. It is rather confusing as to what the motives for each of the major players are.
I think the last word has to go to Joe Biden, who made quite a good point. He pointed out that the candidates need to be in the media, like Franklin Roosevelt went on TV in 1929 to talk about the Great Depression. Except, hold on. Roosevelt wasn’t in a Presidential race then. And he wasn’t President for another few years after that. And TV hadn’t even been invented yet.
Another Joe Biden classic.
The tricky part of it all is that you can never really know why McCain decided to blindside Obama and make a public call to stop the campaign. It might have been politics like the Obama folk say. Stopping the campaign would undoubtedly put the brakes on Obama’s slow creep back into the front runner position, and would make McCain look like a real statesman showing Obama the ropes of how to act when a nation is in crisis. In that sense it would put him in the position of looking like a real leader and may sway some voters onto his side in the final run-up to polling day. On the other hand, halting the campaign immediately may work against McCain’s best interests. The debate on Friday night would have to be put off, and it is in this forum that he is expected to shine. The debate is specifically on issues of national security and foreign relations, an area that McCain is seen to have an advantage in over Obama and a forum where he can utilise his meetings with world leaders this week to illustrate that while Obama was preparing answers for the debate his team were actually on the ground having real discussions. To put off the debate would risk compromising the bump in the polls he might get from showcasing his international and security credentials.
There are a few different ways this one could play out. McCain has already suspended campaigning, regardless of what the Obama camp choose to do. If Obama keeps going on his own, he may look strident, or like he doesn’t care about the financial crisis that McCain deemed important enough to stop his Presidential campaign for. It puts Obama in a tight position. His hands are tied. Thus far his response has been to make out that McCain was doing it for his own benefit. As far as I can tell, if that is true then McCain has made a pretty severe miscalculation. It definitely wouldn’t make sense to give Obama more time to prepare for a debate on a topic that he has the advantage in. If anything it would be politically more beneficial to do the debate and then to call for a halt in campaigning. To do it now seems like he is politically vandalising his own campaign. That gives me the impression that McCain is genuine in what he is trying to do.
Obama has said that he believes that this is a stunt by McCain, who he believes is infusing the global economic crisis with Presidential politics. However, he also says that what the people need at this point is to hear from the people that will be leading the country in around 40 days time. The two points are somewhat counterintuitive. Obama is saying that halting the campaign is playing Presidential politics with the crisis, while at the same time saying that they need to be in the media talking about the crisis to inform people as to who would deal with the issue better. According to Obama, stopping the campaign is more political than pitching their different responses to the economic crash. It is spin at its finest.
The whole issue of stopping the campaign is truly bizarre. McCain wants to stop just before going into a debate that he could use to showcase his foreign policy advantages over Obama. And Obama wants to keep going, saying he doesn’t need the extra time to prepare and would rather keep the campaign going. Despite the fact that he has been off the trail for the past few days preparing for the debate while McCain and Palin were in New York City meeting with world leaders. It is rather confusing as to what the motives for each of the major players are.
I think the last word has to go to Joe Biden, who made quite a good point. He pointed out that the candidates need to be in the media, like Franklin Roosevelt went on TV in 1929 to talk about the Great Depression. Except, hold on. Roosevelt wasn’t in a Presidential race then. And he wasn’t President for another few years after that. And TV hadn’t even been invented yet.
Another Joe Biden classic.
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