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McCain's 'Suspension' Just a Cover

Posted Sep 28, 08 10:13 AM CDT in Politics,  Opinion 

(Newser) – John McCain’s “suspension” of his campaign was nothing more than a political ruse to bolster flagging poll numbers, writes Frank Rich in the New York Times. McCain didn’t acknowledge the financial turmoil until polls showed Barack Obama opening a wide lead. With damaging stories circulating in the press, McCain had to make a grand gesture —so he went to Washington, damaging a consensus for political gain.

Even after the “suspension” began, McCain’s “surrogates and ads remained on television” —all the candidate really did was cancel an appearance on Letterman. “What we learned last week is that the man who always puts his ‘country first’ will take the country down with him if that’s what it takes to get to the White House,” Rich writes.
Source: New York Times

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Troubled by news like his campaign's ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, McCain needed a grand gesture, Frank Rich writes.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. answers a question at a presidential debate at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., Friday, Sept. 26, 2008.   (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
McCain went on CBS News to distract from Sarah Palin's appearance on the network, Rich writes.   (AP Photo/CBS News, J.P. Filo)
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George Bush put more deliberation into invading Iraq than McCain did into his own reckless invasion of the delicate Congressional negotiations on the bailout plan. - Frank Rich

That power vacuum gave McCain the opening to pull his catastrophic display of economic “leadership”. He may be the first presidential candidate to risk wrecking the country even before being voted into the Oval Office. - Frank Rich

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