Breaking news! John McCain wants to postpone the debates to go back to Washington and work on the economic crisis. It's an interesting gambit for McCain, especially after a rough forty-eight hours in which, as Ben Smith notes, nothing has changed except public polling numbers (down for McCain), Joe Biden's blistering foreign policy speech this morning, and the new revelations about McCain campaign manager Rick Davis' work for Fannie Mae. (Davis has canceled his public appearances since the announcement.)
The decision to postpone the campaign is a purely political stunt -- both candidates are going to be doing debate prep in the next few days anyway, not hitting the hustings. McCain has nothing to add to debates about the bailout that he can't offer from the campaign trail, and Obama and McCain had already planned to jointly release a set of principles for the bailout today. It's also been made clear by Senate leadership that no bill will pass without McCain's yea vote, so the only reason to go back to Washington is to engage in some good old-fashioned bipartisan grandstanding.
Keep in mind that McCain's campaign has been, weirdly, raising expectations for him in the debate over the past few weeks -- for instance, here's Deputy RNC Chair Frank Donatelli saying, "Senator McCain is much better at giving answers off the cuff, and Obama has some trouble when he doesn't have his teleprompter." They seem to be regretting that now.
What is Obama's next move? Apparently he's not refraining from campaigning, and he wants the debates to go forward as scheduled. Calling McCain's bluff is the right decision; the president of the United States has to be able to do more than one thing at a time, after all. The McCain campaign is afraid to debate, but if he wants to go to the White House he has to go through the people first.
UPDATE: An e-mail from the Obama campaign points out that their candidate called McCain this morning at 8:30 a.m. to arrange for a joint statement on the economy. They did not mention it to the press. This afternoon, McCain announces his bipartisan leadership. Typical.
--Tim Fernholz
