Presidential Debate - McCain Whack-a-Mole?

CNN this morning says that John McCain has now left Washington and has gone to his Campaign Headquarters in Virginia. Why? I thought he had suspended his campaign until the Financial Crisis had been solved. If he is at his campaign headquarters, presumably he will be working on, discussing and in other ways, working on his campaign. I guess, he's figured that his whole idea of suspending a Presidential Campaign is ridiculous.

The US has been focussed on the question of who the next President will be and what direction they will take the country in that it is impossible for one candidate to suspend a campaign. Regardless of his inaction, the rest of the country, his party, his supporters, independents and of course the Democrats are still campaigning and are still seeking answers and leadership. McCain loses any right to point the finger at Obama for ever voting 'present' in the Illinois legislature. At least Obama was present. McCain has done nothing but make himself irrelevant this week which certainly undoes much of the hard-work he has done.

The President, as much as we'd like the current one to do so, cannot simply disappear from the scene, nor can his return to Washington cause a solution to crumble to pieces - as McCain's recent return to Warshington has (*yes, Warshington, this is McCain we're talking about.) So Obama has largely said little of deep consequence but his presence has been calming and displays to the American public that he both hears their concerns while also realizing that the health of the Economy at large, on a macro-scale, is of crucial importance to the lives of Americans.

University of Ole Mississipi, which is hosting the debate, has spent $5 million in preparation for the debate. McCain tried to cancel this debate, a debate about foreign issues which he is supposed to have the upper-hand on. He is truly desperate. He is starting to know why VP candidates must be carefully veted - Palin clearly is bombing now that people are looking beyond the surface. Anytime she speaks now, all one can think is, my god, McCain better live if he gets elected.

"Anytime Putin raises his head in our Airspace, where do you think he's going to go first into America? Hello? Alaska and that is where we send them up to keep eyes on them..." wooohooo.... what world does Sarah Palin live in? Did they stop reporting news in Alaska sometime during the Cold War? Doesn't she know that Economics are what killed soviet communism - not tough talk.

Now I'm seeing Harry Reid and Chris Dodd hammering away at John McCain. No one on the right is doing that to McCain. His designates have gone silent - because they have no clue how to spin this. The Republicans are trying to distance themselves from their own President. McCain is stuck between Iraq and a hard place - to either support Bush's plan and further alienate house republicans and true conservatives, or to support the plan, side with Democrats, and go with the majority of experts (albeit Bush appointees) who seem to agree that major intervention is required. The times have caught up to McCain in the worst of ways.

Obama is playing this as well as anyone possibly could. He has in essence said many of the same things as McCain. However, he of course benefits because he didn't say stupid things about the Fundamentals of the economy in the last 10 days as McCain did. It's like watching a game of Presidential Whack-a-Mole. Anytime McCain raises his head, Obama, Biden and a host of surrogates are ready to whack him! It's almost unfair. Obama's lead will continue to widen.

Obama played the debate coin-flip well too. They put the foreign affairs debate ahead of the domestic affairs debate. Obama will not lose any ground on foreign affairs and will destroy McCain on domestic issues next week, particularly after this debacle and McCain's total fumbling of Economic Issues. Young people, influenced by shows like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, can only drift further away. And the excitement on the Democratic side, the unprecedented voter registration and grass-roots movement that is Obama, will ensure that there are no election day swindles this time around - no Florida's hanging chads or Ohio vote-count issues. Hopefully.

Just wait unit Obama puts forward his ideas for who would be in his Cabinet - Clinton, Clinton, Powell and William Cohen are among those I speculate will be named to prominent positions. Perhaps General Wesley Clark? Oprah? lol Then add a couple of republicans for a Lincoln-esque Cabinet, challenged by those who disagree with the President and Obama will pick up a huge number of independents. Palin for Secretary of Hockey Moms?

However, until John McCain finds his way out of Virginia, proves that he knows how to get to Ole Miss by 9:00 tonight, we have to assume he is lost.