Dead Man Blogging …

So McCain wants to put politics aside in order to solve the economic crisis …

Feh! Maybe I’m too cynical, but I can’t even imagine a more political tactic.

McCain just gave a speech saying he wants to suspend his political campaign and postpone Friday’s presidential debate until Congress agrees on legislation to solve this crisis.

That’s just silly.

Look, there is some urgency here to get an agreement accomplished. They may be moving more slowly than some would like, but Congress is already doing the work that needs to be done, . They’re asking the hard (and, yes, sometimes silly) questions that should be asked when we’re talking about spending hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out a paralyzed financial system. Compromises on both sides have already been made, and the debate going on now is all a healthy part of the American political system.

I’m sure advisers of both presidential candidates can adequately inform the Senators of the proceedings and keep them abreast of ongoing developments. McCain and Obama, as party leaders engaged in an intense political campaign highlighted by frequent public speeches, already have all the opportunity in the world to help steer debate and policy on this issue (something Obama has done much better than McCain has to this point).

There is just no crushing need for the senators to actually be physically on the Hill.

We may indeed be in a serious economic crisis, one that could get appreciably worse if steps aren’t taken relatively quickly, but this is no 9/11, which McCain referred to in his speech. We haven’t been attacked. No one’s been killed. If we can’t act for a few days or a week or two, it won’t really matter. It’s almost as important that a solution is designed smartly as it is that it is done quickly.

McCain’s insistence that the country’s political cycle needs to be put on pause so that we can address and solve this crisis strikes me as overstating the urgency of the situation.

As such, it also strikes me as an overtly political move by McCain, and maybe even a stall tactic signaling he’s not quite ready for the debate. Of course, even if that’s true, Obama and his campaign can’t even hint at any of those things without sounding petty, so perhaps its also a good political move on McCain’s part.

It ultimately all depends on how the American people view this tactic: As a leadership move that goes beyond politics, or as the worst kind of political grandstanding.