We are now getting word that there will be something happening in Mississippi tomorrow night, even if it’s only a town hall hosted by Barack Obama rather than the long-awaited first debate. Allow me to take a step back from the ongoing battles and crisis scenarios to simply say the following: both of these campaigns are (sadly) taking the current economic panic and trying their level best to twist it to their political advantage, but by far the worst perpetrator is the Straight Talk Express. In Congress, we’re seeing more of the same. The Democrats seem to think they need to do something, but they’re not sure what. What they are sure of is that they won’t “walk that plank alone” and will not act unless the GOP signs on ahead of time.
The two presidential candidates are playing games and getting their spin doctors out in front of the talking heads 24/7. Neither showed any interest in rushing back initially. (McCain’s people are now claiming he was the one to “answer the 3 am call” but only yesterday afternoon Nancy Pfotenhauer was on MSNBC saying that McCain would be coming back to Washington “if his vote was needed.” That blew up today.) Obama showed a similar lack of interest in coming in off the trail to do his job until he called McCain yesterday morning. (Which I found out from my friend Ed today, the GOP is now trying to spin like it was never something he wanted to do in the first place.)
And now the debate is over whether or not there will be a debate. Of course there has to be a debate. If there’s going to be a vote on this Mother of All Bailouts, it’s not going to happen at 9 pm. And I would hope that Rick Davis realizes that if they try to scratch the VP debate and replace it with a presidential contest, the entire country is going to conclude that they’re still trying to keep a bushel basket over Sarah Palin. (For a good side story, see the whole four questions she bravely took from the press today.)
These people need to get to work and still make the schedule for the campaign so the voters can have all the information they need in November. Playing politics with this is beyond sad, and I lose interest in this election more and more each time they open their mouths.