What’s changed today in the financial crisis other than John McCain’s poll numbers tanking? Isn’t this the campaign equivalent of faking an injury when you’re down late in the 4th quarter? Note too that McCain was in the midst of debate prep when he made this decision.
Look at what appears to have happened. Obama reached out to McCain privately to agree to a shared set of bailout principles. McCain went off the handle again and tried to use the crisis as a way to call off the debates.
Late Update: One longtime reader says it’s worse than that:
Obama reached out privately, because once this discussion went public it was bound to be politicized. Instead of taking his call and hearing what he had to say, McCain spent the next six hours huddling with his aides, searching for a way of turning the situation to his political advantage. His response – a unilateral, public call for cooperation – was designed to retake the initiative and steal Obama’s thunder. But it also ends any hope of actual cooperation.
Obama reached out, hoping that McCain would see something more important at stake than his own personal ambition. Alas, it would appear that there is nothing more important to McCain.
