Where, Exactly, Is Washington? And When, Exactly, Is Now?

I hope this little stop on The Ride finds Riders doing well and weathering the storms that assail us. Many are still without power in and around Houston, and other areas affected by Hurricane Ike. Whether it is a blessing or a curse that their means of following the financial turmoil are surely limited, I do not know. For many, these are certainly trying times.

The issues and obstacles before us give added weight to the ongoing (or is it?) Presidential campaign. It is interesting to see how the candidates and their teams are handling themselves here. As I watch and consider the aftermath of Sen. McCain's big announcement of suspending his campaign until the financial crisis is solved/helped/averted, I am becoming more convinced that his campaign is seriously lacking direction and meaning.

Over the past week or so, he has opposed and then, later, supported a bailout of AIG. He has touted the fundamental strength and likely recovery of the economy and then, yesterday, sounded the alarm of a crisis that must be solved by the weekend. He suspended his campaign to get back to work in Washington, then conducted - several hours later - an interview with Katie Couric in New York and, the next morning - this morning - gave a speech at Bill Clinton's conference... still in New York.*

I watched a few minutes of the speech live this morning. He called himself an "old navy pilot" (I'm a little surprised his handlers allow him to describe himself as old) who knows when it's time for "all hands on deck" and that this is one of those moments. This is a moment, he said at his speech in New York, for leaders to be in Washington solving this problem. He said the work in Washington was of dire importance because a solution was not near. Within ten seconds of hearing him say that, I changed the channel to CNBC and I swear the first thing I heard there was that they were hearing from both sides in Washington that they were getting close to a consensus.

While I admire John McCain and believe in his sincere desire to serve the nation and help people, I am left with believing that his "suspension" of his campaign** to work on the financial crisis is either pure political gamesmanship or misguided and, at best, late leadership. Neither of these is good for him.

I realize, of course, that I am playing politics here - giving my interpretation of what is going on when I, too, am anxious for the bailout plan to be finalized, but alas, I am not the one who called off my campaign.


* Anyone who accused John Kerry of being a "flip-flopper" better not be planning to vote for McCain, lest they risk being accused of the very same for supporting one now. And don't get me started on Sarah Palin, just how big an inexperienced nutjob she's turning out to be, and, quite closely related, how old McCain looks every time I see him.

** Saying that he is suspending his campaign gets him a ton of press coverage and few days off from spending on tv advertising. The money saved for a couple of days now will come in handy for late flurries of ads as election day draws near. Also, I couldn't help but notice that his "I'm not campaigning because I'm in Washington solving the problem" speech in New York contained what sounded like campaign platforms and promises. I'm sure he wasn't campaigning at this non-financial-crisis-related conference in New York because he had already called that off to be "on deck" in Washington.