John McCain is suspending his presidential campaign tomorrow. The reason? So he can go to Washington and work out a solution to the crisis rocking Wall Street.
Twenty-four hours ago, McCain had been trying to distance himself from any role in resolving the financial crisis.
Only now does McCain want to be involved in moving legislation in Washington, a role that he’s abdicated — his last Senate vote was on April 8th.
Why “suspend” his campaign at all? Does McCain think that campaigning for office is somehow incompatible with his duties as Arizona’s Senator? Or is McCain cynically after the publicity boost that “suspending” his campaign will give him — affording him the appearance of someone who is putting the country’s future ahead of his own mad quest for power?
“Suspend,” indeed. Is McCain shuttering his offices? Is McCain taking ads off the air — and off his website? Is McCain reining in the 527 attack groups? The Republican National Committee? His own Vice-Presidential candidate?
This is cynical politics of the worst kind. McCain wants to look like he cares.
(ETA 9-25): Josh Marshall of Talkingpointsmemo calls McCain’s suspension of his campaign “the biggest ‘dog at my homework’ in history.” I think there’s a lot of truth to that.
Of course McCain cares…about his own candidacy. Surely this is a move to make him seem like he’s the guy who will roll up his sleeves and work to take care of this crisis (which he helped to create, incidentally). Hmmm…could it be because some of the latest polls show him running at up to nine points behind? Nah, couldn’t be!