McCain's Non-Denial Denial

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-schweber/mccains-non-denial-denial_b_129077.html

Howard Schweber
Posted September 24, 2008 | 06:48 PM (EST)

McCain's Non-Denial Denial

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In the past few hours Davis has canceled an interview, then McCain canceled an interview, then McCain announced the suspensions of his campaign and called for a delay in Friday's debate, then the McCain campaign announced that it was suspending all television commercials and called on Obama to do the same, because a crisis like this one is no time for partisanship, or even interviews, let alone presidential debates. (While declaring the end of partisanship, interestingly, McCain spokespersons have found the time to insist that their candidate had no idea why Obama called at 8;30 in the morning and his own call to Obama at 1:30 was entirely spontaneous and all of this was entirely his idea, and wouldn't it be wonderful if Obama were to follow McCain's leadership.)

McCain's desire for a break is understandable, given the poll numbers and the seemingly endless stream of gaffes, flubs, and inconsistent statements coming out of his campaign over the past few days. In football terms, he wants a bye week to get himself organized; he would also like very much to slow down what is starting to look like momentum for Obama in the battleground states. Furthermore, this is a terrific opportunity for him to demonstrate leadership and bipartisanship in economic policy, the area where he is the weakest: if the upshot of the next few days is that McCain is credited with creating the plan that will Save Our Economy, his slide in the polls might reverse itself with alacrity. After all, if he is the one who made the plan, it would only be sensible that he be elected to put it into operation.

This is also McCain's attempt at another bold, game-changing move. The excitement of the Palin pick has started to wear off, now we have the spectacle of McCain rising above politics to save the nation from itself with his wisdom and his leadership. Barney Frank called it "the longest Hail Mary in the history of football or Mary's." We can be sure that it is not the last one; any time McCain's poll numbers start to slump over the next 40 days, expect to see his campaign looking for the next "Palin moment."

And besides all of that, there is all that stuff about how the country's economic future is at risk, here. Sarah Palin says we are on the verge of the next Great Depression. In Congress, Democrats and some Republicans have made it clear that they will not sign on to a deal that does not have McCain's support, because they will not be willing to have him use it to run against them. So there is a good argument that McCain and Obama turning their attention to their senatorial duties is a sensible thing at a moment like this one.

But it's also true that this is a really, really good time for McCain and Davis not to answer any questions for a few days. Meanwhile, the surreality of this campaign not only shows no signs of abating, it positively seems to be heating up.