McCain Weasels: "I can't debate. It feels like my head is on fire."

"What Are You Going To Do If You're Elected
And Things Get Tough? Suspend Being President?" [1]


By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

In a stunningly desperate move, Senator John McCain "suspended" his campaign for President. He also said he was cancelling or postponing the debate scheduled for Friday night.

With his lead long since obliterated, the Palin bounce now a momentary flash in the pan, and the backlash following his calling the economy "strong" only last week, McCain threw a desperate Hail Mary Wednesday afternoon. The announcement was mocked by the Democrats and seemed to puzzle the Republicans. One Republican congressman, who refuses to be named, told me "I just about s**t my pants! He must have gone off his meds."

McCain's surprise announcement that he was suspending his presidential campaign was met by a statement from Barack Obama saying it's ``more important than ever'' for the candidates to tell voters how they would deal with the crisis." They can work with Congress while campaigning, Obama said.

"It is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once,'' Obama said.

The move by McCain is "desperate,'' said Linda Fowler, a government professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. "He has been trying to change the conversation every time the press and public starts paying attention to the issues."

Presidential Campaigns have not been suspended before, even during the Civil War, the Depression, World War II, and the Vietnam War. "McCain's move should be judged too clever by half,'' said Stephen Hess, a scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

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[1] Some other choice remarks David Letterman made Wednesday:

"In the middle of the taping Dave got word that McCain was, in fact just down the street being interviewed by Katie Couric. Dave even cut over to the live video of the interview, and said, "Hey Senator, can I give you a ride home?"

Earlier in the show, Dave kept saying, "You don't suspend your campaign. This doesn't smell right. This isn't the way a tested hero behaves." And he joked: "I think someone's putting something in his metamucil."

"He can't run the campaign because the economy is cratering? Fine, put in your second string quarterback, Sarah Palin. Where is she?"

"What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We've got a guy like that now!"
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