9/25/08 McCain showboating serves no purpose

Boy, this sure was an action-packed day in the political world. It's midnight and I'm still catching up. McCain's evasive action on the debate which was structured as an urgent need to return to Washington to end this financial crisis has ended up being nothing more than the empty showboating of a scared man who sees the writing on the wall (and I'm not talking about his health). As I said before, I still hold that the main reason was to deflect attention from Palin's disastrous interview with Couric (have you seen it yet? it's hilarious!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Yx-RhHb4g ) and to lay the ground for cancelling the VP debate next week. We'll see about that. But more to the point, McCain's return served no purpose whatsoever. Many sources (including NY Times and CNN) report that McCain met with Republican Boehner and looked at their proposal, then sat silently for 40 minutes at the all-parties meeting called at his behest by Bush, before opening his mouth and saying - nothing of import, according to people present.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/us/politics/26campaign.htm

And we learn late tonite that all the talks collapsed and there was no deal on the bailout anyway.

So let's summarize - all McCain has achieved so far is:
1. Duck out of his debate and try to make a case for Palin to duck out of hers
2. Earn David Letterman's wrath by ducking out of his show claiming to be flying to Washington on his lifesaving mission while sitting in a room down the hall talking with Couric at the same time he was to go on Letterman's show. Moreover, he didn't leave for Washington till the next morning, and we already know all his vital work there today.
3. Confirm his image as a desperate gambler unfit for Presidency in the minds of the American public, as shown by the hundred thousand or so people who voted on a CNN poll that showed 70% of them thought his move was nothing but a political ploy.

As for his holier-than-thou attitude in "suspending" his Presidential campaign to be at Bush's side in the bailout battle, I say "more lies". What "suspension"? AP & the Huff Post report his ads continued to run, his aides were out peddling their wares on MSNBC, his campaigners were going door-to-door in 15 states, and of course Student Sarah was continuing her education by making a highly visible pilgrimage to Ground Zero. I say again "What suspension? Nothing but more lies".
UPDATE: Apparently McCain has backed off and conceded victory (?!) by agreeing to debate after all, further strengthening my suspicions that it was all a ploy to draw attention away from his floundering running mate!

I also came across what would be a particularly nasty little trick being played by the McCain campaign - if true. http://www.ickypeople.com/2008/09/mccain-sends-out-fake-absentee-ballots.html
It's claimed that the McCain campaign has sent out millions of fake absentee ballots to registered Democratic voters in battleground states, each of which contains the wrong return address or other errors designed to disqualify the vote. So far, I haven't been able to confirm this, and no major media outlet is carrying this, nor is it on Factcheck.org. I'll hold judgement on this for now - but truth be told I am hoping that that the Dems and Obama doing all they can to prevent having the election stolen by these sleazy tactics thrice in a row. Some whispers I've heard about voting machines not being ready in places like Ohio make me nervous.

Finally an interesting op-ed from the NY Times today by Roger Cohen examining America's fascination with exceptionalism (what he calls "Palinism" but could be just as well be "McCainism", or what I might call "isolationalism") and how it's not appropriate in today's world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/opinion/25Cohen.html?em