I agree, Koppelman is all wet. "Phalin" was a horrible and recklessly irresponsible choice, and "McShame" is now conveniently hiding behind the economic crisis to avoid getting killed at the Friday debate. Everything he stands for has gone belly-up, including foreign policy, so he has no recourse but to continue with lies and hyperbole. Problem is his lies are becomingly increasingly transparent. Now he's running scared because he's afraid he may be cornered into telling the truth for a change, the truth being that he's really running against himself. I hardly call that a gamble. In military terms it's called a retreat, and a cowardly one at that.

His refusal to attend the debate makes him look too feeble for the job, which he is (and note I didn't say "old"). He appears nervous, unprepared, and easily overwhelmed. He's looking for any excuse to catch his breath, and Obama is not giving it to him. He reminds me of the slacker high school football player who isn't ready for the history test, so he tries to convince the teacher to move the test date for the whole class. McCain's motivations are becoming more easy to read. The demands of the campaign are wearing him down quickly. And waiting in the wings to take over is Caribou Barbie. Yikes.

This is a cheesy stunt, also designed in part to bump off the Palin-Biden debate next week as well. He suggested that his debate move to that slot, and they then "re-schedule" the VP debate for another time. Hmmmmm.

If the people of this country want the debate to go forward, and McCain cancels, that says a lot about how little he really cares for the people he is campaigning to serve for the next four years. The same can be said of his choice for VP. He is extremely self-serving and thinks he's entitled. This was engrained in him long before he was taken as a POW. The true John McCain is emmerging, and it isn't pretty.

I think that there may have been a serious attempt by McCain to appear presidential here, and that his thinking was that this would look like a heroic "country first" sacrifice.

The problem with that strategy is that he has spent the last month looking downright foolish and blatantly political, going at least as far back as August 29th. The Palin pick was not putting country first, and everything he has done since then, from the pig lipstick to his ever-changing positions on the economy, has only bolstered the image of him as a pandering, win-at-all-costs politician with no real moral or ethical anchor at his core.

In that light, suddenly suspending the campaign is a terrible move, a public relations fiasco. It solidifies the image of him as a pandering politician (does anybody think McCain has anything constructive to add to a serious discussion of economics? Anybody? Hello?), it looks like a stunt, and given the much anticipated first showdown between the two, looks like a cheap excuse to hide from his opponent. You have one candidate who is chomping at the bit for a debate, and one who inexplicably decides that a crisis that has been unfolding for two weeks and is being actively and feverishly worked by many of his colleagues, suddenly requires his immediate assistance--despite a self-admitted ignorance of the primary topic. Convenient excuse.

Unlike the Palin pick, this one isn't even getting a short term bounce. He has become a late night talk show punch line overnight, Twitter is lit up with McCain jokes. I don't even see the trolls buying his excuse in posts, it just looks like the old man is taking a drubbing and wanted to call time out while he catches his breath. That, or blatant cowardice. A candidate can survive a lot of different things on the campaign trail, but not becoming a de facto punch line.

Now, given the urgent and serious nature of my hunger, I am immediately suspending work on this post to focus on lunch.

Is this merely a 'political hustle' or does SENATURD JOHN'the-old-fool-'McCAIN actually want to do something positive??? Will SENATURD BARRY'incurably-dishonest'OBAMA add to or detract from his habit of being 'all things MARXIST/Socialist to all ‘poor’ peoples'??? IN SHORT WILL EITHER SENATURD ADD SENTIENT IDEAS/THOUGHTS/PROPOSALS TO THIS ECONOMIC MARKET CONUNDRUM OR JUST MORE SCHIESS+SPIN ???

I agree that we're being setup for something. Of course McCain wants to take advantage of this situation because he's gonna look like a bufoon during the debates.

Something more sinister is going on here. I'm afraid we are in the midst of another neocon coup. Maybe the final phase of it. The Bushes want to hand over the US Treasury to the very people who drove the economy into the ground! No controls, no responsibility to do the right thing, NO ACCOUNTABILITY whatsoever! Push through bad legislation handing them everything. They won't need another 9/11 terrorist attack when they can just walk in, get a new set of keys and finish taking over.

Suspend the election, that's the final step. Suspend the campaign, that's the first step. That's the crisis needed for the neocons to complete their coup. Create the crisis. Suspend the elections, suspend the constitution, President for Life. President Cheney. That is fucking frightnening!!!!!

Mr. Obama needs to press on. On both fronts. Keep up the campaign AND fly to Washington to work on stopping this take over. It will prove once and for all he has the capability of leading the country and hopefully shut the yaps of the right wing talk radio assholes and their allies.

I do not need the Democrats to convince me that this is a political ploy. It is so very transparent that it is another one of those shameless ploys that they used all along. There was no need for this grandstand play since Congress was already working it out. Unless McCain feels compelled to go to Washington to defend and get passed Bush's bill as is, there was no reason for him to muddy the waters with political posturing.

Suspending his campaign is the right thing to do. It should be permanently suspended since it has not been serving the public interest. Just about everyone, including his campaign manager now, has been MIA, and they have not been addressing the issues. Their "personalities" have burned out and their incompetence even as effective politicians is obvious. There is no reason to believe they can govern with any competence or credibility or honor.

I, for one, am relieved that I do not have to suffer the insults of those deceitful, shameful TV ads; the sophomoric, high school Student Council level "speeches"; and the staged dog and pony campaign rallies. They had reached the point of appearing to me as unruly children without any boundaries, "acting out" without any discipline, while the admiring and indulgent "parents" expected the rest of us to think them as cute and precious as they did.