Breaking - McCain suspends campaign

[Graphic via Fox]

McCain just announced he was suspending his campaign to return to DC and save Wall Street. He wants Obama to do the same, in "the spirit of bipartisanship." Oh, and he wants to cancel the debate on Friday. I'm sure this has nothing to do with the polling today that shows Obama taking a major lead with a majority of Americans saying they trust Obama more to handle the economy.

The campaign denies this is politically motivated.

McCain advisors say they will do all the debates but the schedule is up in the air. They also deny that there is a political calculation in this and say without action the country could slide into a Depression by Monday and added "we'll see 12 percent unemployment" if action is not completed.

Hmmm. That's what Bush and Paulson are saying too, but we've seen no evidence of that being true. It's also useful to note that McCain hasn't been seen on the Senate floor since March or April, but now, all of sudden, after dodging the question for days, only he can swoop into town and save the day? More likely he wants to save his lobbyist pal's livelihoods.

McCain says his advisors just convinced him we were in a crisis this hot minute and that's why he's calling on Obama to pull the plug on campaigning. I'm not buying that story and apparently, according to the CNN quick poll, neither is most of America. At the time of this posting 69% see it as a political stunt. He doesn't look like a leader on this, he looks panicked and scared of losing the race. And it gives creedence to something I read earlier that he tends to act on the advice of the last person he talked to, rather than weighing all the options and making a considered decision. Hardly what we need in a president.

The other possibility, that seems pretty credible is that he's just suffered some kind of neurological event. Look at the photo closely and check out the left side of his face. It's drooping, which would be consistent with a mini-stroke or a stress related palsy. I certainly hope that's not the case, but if it is, it just increases my genuine concern that he is not physically up to the task of the presidency. It certainly would help explain his sudden urge to cancel the debate.

Of course, the alternate explanation, that he's simply afraid of facing Obama in an unscripted format and willing to pull any grandstanding stunt to get out of it, and trying to break Obama's momentum by asking him to suspend his campaigning, isn't much better for him politically. Either way he ends up looking old, weak and foolish.

[More posts daily at The Newshoggers and The Detroit News.]