McCain Temporarily Suspends Campaign, Obama Said He Will Go On

By: SW

McCain has temporarily suspended his presidential campaign and is heading back to Washington to work on finding a solution to the current economic crisis. Whether it is a bail out or something else, it is clear that Congress needs to address the current financial situation and come to some decision.

McCain also wants to postpone the debate scheduled for this Friday (assuming the crisis is not resolved by Thursday night). This debate will be on foreign policy, which seems secondary at this time compared to domestic economic problems.

Obama said the president ought to be able to do more than one thing at one time, so he is continuing his campaign. He also said he is going to show up for the debate even if McCain is a no show.

While I do believe that there is a bit of politics being played here, I think McCain's actions are correct. Sure everyone ought to be multi-tasked, but there has to be a sense of priority that would require one to focus on things that are more urgent as well as important. Right now the economic crisis is the most urgent and important, not campaigning for president or debate about foreign policy. On the subject of debate, I understand the McCain camp has invited Obama to debates for the past 6 months with no success. Now suddenly Obama wants to debate McCain so badly that he will show up even if McCain does not. Something is not right with this picture.

I see someone putting one's own political ambition above the welfare of the American people, one who does not judge the priority of things properly. McCain had said that he would rather lose an election than to see his country defeated at war. His campaign slogan is Country First. Now perhaps we can see clearly who is putting one's Country first, and one's own interest second and last.

There is still plenty of time to campaign and debate. We are still 40 days away from the election. But if the financial crisis is as urgent as it appears, Congress needs to work out a solution soon. It is time for action, not talk or debate.