John McCain announced Wednesday that he was suspending his presidential campaign and called for a postponement of Friday’s scheduled foreign policy debate with Barack Obama until Congress approves a (pick one) bailout/rescue plan for the collapsing financial system.
Obama called for the debate to proceed, adding quite reasonably that “It’s going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once.” Suppose, on top of the current financial meltdown, a major foreign crisis suddenly emerged (it’s not as if there’s any shortage of possibilities). I hope a President McCain would not have to postpone dealing with the foreign crisis until after things things had calmed down sufficiently at home.
In what may or may not be a related development, a Washington Post poll showed Obama leading McCain by 52 percent to 43. Even a Fox News poll has Obama ahead by six points.
Update: David Letterman is a bit peeved that McCain canceled an appearance on his show so he could “race back to Washington” to deal with the financial crisis, only to do an interview with Katie Couric instead.
(Via Benjamin.)
