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Senator McGimmick Hits the Panic Button, Again |
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One of the few good things about our never-ending presidential campaign is that voters get a chance to see how the candidates respond to adversity and crisis. After months of campaigning, clear patterns have emerged. When McCain is trailing in the polls, when he/and or the nation faces a crisis, he panics and pulls out a gimmick. When Obama completed an incredibly successful trip abroad, that saw foreign leaders embrace his ideas and even Bush accept his leadership on Iraq and Afghanistan, McCain was panicking and floundering. Faced with adversity, McCain turned to a gimmick–the idiotic “celebrity” ad that belittled Obama in a manner better suited to the schoolyard than a presidential campaign.
The media swooned and McCain managed to change the topic for a little while. But Obama’s campaign of substance asserted itself again, coming into full bloom during the professional, went off without a hitch, Democratic convention. With Obama surging in the polls, McCain hit the panic button again, rejecting his own instincts, foregoing his own VP pick, and turning to the wildly unqualified Sarah Palin. Once again, the media was fascinated by the latest shiny toy dangling in front of it, and McCain saw a temporary bump in the polls.
This week, financial crisis dominated the headlines. Alan Greenspan called it a “once in a century crisis”, and McCain floundered, once again, first declaring that everything was ok, before changing course (a number of times) as he groped about for something that might make him look serious.
As the polls, once again, swung in Obama’s favor, McCain, once again, turned to a gimmick, as Red Wind and others here have observed, turning the presidential election into a game of chicken, unilaterally trying to call off Friday’s debate.
As Red Wind has correctly observed, McCain is willing to do or say anything to give himself an edge in the race. Now, Senator McGimmick has shown he is willing to make the very electoral process part of his childish games. The presidential debates are a central part of our electoral process and have been for years. It is one of the few chances voters have to see the candidates and hear them for longer than the length of a sound bite. McCain is telling us that this central part of our electoral process can be cut loose, at his whim. The question I have for McCain is: are there any limits? If Sen. McGimmick is trailing badly as the election approaches, will he suggest that the election itself be postponed, citing some crisis? I wouldn’t put anything past him.
Don’t be silly Chris. McCain would never do something like that. he’d get Bush to do it for him.
good point
Just out of curiosity, what would the process have to be to suspend the election?
I think if polls show McCain trailing by 8 points or more…just kidding, don’t know and hope I never have to wonder in greater detail!!
I ask, because in 2000, it seemed that they were making up the rules as they went along.
yes, that is a good point