On McCain’s Decision to Debate
Despite my initial ambivalence about John McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign and come to Washington to help hammer out a bailout deal, I later concluded his “gambit had paid off” when his rival “capitulated and agreed to come to Washington for a summit organized by President Bush.”
Yet, the one thing which troubled me about McCain’s bold move was that he didn’t leave himself any wiggle room to participate in tonight’s debate. Â I wish he had said something like this: “Should we make headway toward reaching a bipartisan compromise on a bailout bill, I’ll fly down to Oxford to debate Senator Obama.”
As a result, the MSM has portrayed his move as an “about face” (or so CNN was spinning it when I was doing my cardio about an hour ago.)  The normally even-handed (but left-leaning) Chris Cilliza concluded that McCain blinked.  Even a smart young conservative blogger has questioned McCain’s consistency.  Yet, if he does well tonight, it won’t matter much to those who watch the debate (while it will to the chattering classes).
Had McCain made the caveat I wish he had made, the media would not have been able to level the charge, particularly given the progress he has made in helping air House Republican views.
Or maybe this was McCain’s strategy all along. Â Had Obama not come to Washington, McCain would have been the sole presidential candidate in our nation’s capital working on the most pressing issue of the day while Obama was prepping for the debate in a Florida resort.
Realizing that those contrasting images might have made Obama appear out of touch, McCain anticipated Obama’s decision to come to Washington, depriving him of the time he wanted to prepare for tonight’s debate.  The Democrat doesn’t do all that well without a TelePrompTer.
That said, I think McCain blundered in not allowing himself enough wiggle room to participate in tonight’s forum, especially because he can point to some progress in bailout negotiations.  Other conservative bloggers, notably Jim Geraghty and Mary Katharine Ham have offered harsher assessments than I (I recommend both posts).  The Powerline folks more ambivalent.
The campaign has definitely suffered some short-term damage. Â Delivering a strong performance tonight and helping effect a truly bipartisan bailout bill will almost certainly erase that damage with the general public. Â But, I’ll wager that the mainstream media will still be carping about it for weeks to come.
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The MSM would spin this against him regardless of the caveats and I’m sure he planned for this scenario, after all, there weren’t too many possible outcomes. Obama would or wouldn’t go, progress would or would not be made.
I think McCain gained some capitol he hasn’t spent yet. Torpedoing the plan offered by President Bush blunts the ‘more of the same’ charge and it looks like he cornered Obama in to ’supporting’ a bill that is polling pretty poorly with the voters.
Perhaps an unintended benefit, at least for McCain, is the boost he gave to the House Republicans pushing for a better, or at least less crappy, solution.
Spot on in that depriving Obama his prep time was definitely a goal the achieved.
Comment by Johnny — September 26, 2008 @ 7:53 pm - September 26, 2008
Oh Come On!!!! This is a serious flip-flop.
His campaign made it quite clear there would be no debate unless a deal was reached. There is NO DEAL. Quote:
A senior McCain adviser made clear McCain would not attend a Friday debate unless a congressional rescue deal was sealed.
“If the package is reached and the country is saved, there will be a debate,” the aide said. “But if there’s no deal, how can you get on a plane … for a debate?”
Both of these candidates have been ready for this debate for weeks. All the questions that will be asked tonight have already been asked. A day or two of prep is not going to make a hill of difference at this point.
The deal was close to agreement as of Wednesday evening, and McCain acted on impulse to gain some glory, swooped in to take some credit for participating…. and it backfired. Not only was there no deal reached, but reports from within the White House conference has McCain sitting without saying a word. McCain never suspended his campaign, nor did he pour all his resources into tackling this issue. This wasn’t just a flip-flop, it was a FLOP.
I would say that McCain, in cold war terms, blinked, but this doesn’t look like a serious effort to begin with.
PS. Obama went to the meeting because Bush asked him to go.
Comment by sonicfrog.net — September 26, 2008 @ 8:28 pm - September 26, 2008
Not only was there no deal reached, but reports from within the White House conference has McCain sitting without saying a word.
That’s interesting, because to hear the Democrats spin it, McCain singlehandedly torpedoed the very deal they said they had — during a conference in which he allegedly didn’t say anything.
Pretty good Jedi mind tricks.
On Wednesday, McCain made the right decision, because it looked like things were going to unravel horribly and the financial markets would implode on Thursday and Friday. Turns out they didn’t. With that in mind and the proposed packages in major rework, McCain likely felt matters were well enough in hand that he could do this debate.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — September 26, 2008 @ 8:47 pm - September 26, 2008
NDT - What else do you expect them to say… something truthful, honest, and intelligent???
Pelosi and Reid, thy name is failure.
Comment by sonicfrog.net — September 26, 2008 @ 8:58 pm - September 26, 2008
Killer coffe table. Good read as well.
Comment by dick — September 27, 2008 @ 1:36 pm - September 27, 2008