Moments ago John McCain showed his true character by canceling his Friday presidential debate with Barack Obama because of the “financial crises” over the $700 billion bailout bill.

Today, John McCain fell nine points behind Obama in the presidential polls — and by skittering away from a smashing by Obama on Friday, McCain hopes to save his flailing campaign by avoiding his rightful slaughtering before the American people for his nefarious role in the destruction of our banking system.
Moose killer Sarah Palin is still running away from the press.
Now war hero John McCain is running away from Barack Obama.

Barack must go to the debate on Friday and debate an empty chair.
If McCain foolishly chooses to suspend his entire campaign over the “crisis” — Obama must continue even harder his fight for the greater good of our nation.
If Obama concedes and cancels and suspends to McCain’s will, then McCain will claim a “crisis” from now until election day if Obama lets him get away with it this time.
We’ll never see Obama pin down the McCain lies. Running away is the only card a coward has left to play.
Barack owes it to the world to spell out on Friday precisely why a Palin/McCain presidency will rot the American dream from the underbelly if they are elected — and Obama can, and must, do it with a surgeon’s scalpel.
The current “financial crisis” is overblown — the government has been planning this bank bailout for months — and the world didn’t stop across those many days and it won’t even pause as the “we must fix this in a week or we’re doomed” Republican naysayers try to spin McCain’s “the sky is falling” claim as a reality Obama is “too naive to see.”
Canceling the debate and suspending the campaign is Anti-American. Where’d I put my flag lapel pin?
The University of Mississippi just said the debate on Friday will continue as planned.
http://www.olemiss.edu/debate/
ABC News is reporting the Obama campaign says, “the debate is on:”
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/mccain-not-comm.html
McCain is now saying he’s taking down all his TV advertising. He canceled his appearance tonight on David Letterman.
Looks like he’s packing up and going home. The old man — the Original Old Boy in the “Old Boy Network” — is giving up.
Obama just said on live television that the very reason for having a debate on Friday is to tell the American people how each of them plans to get us out of this financial mess.
Barack just confirmed during his live press conference that the debate must go on this Friday.
Whoo-hoo!
The Debate Commission — the group that is running all four presidential debates — just said the Friday debate is moving forward with or without McCain.
McCain supporters want Palin to replace McCain on Friday:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTNlZTcyY2I4NTkzNzRhNDMzZGFiNTU1MGY2N2Y0YzE=
Oh, PLEASE let THAT happen!
The People Speak in a SnapPoll.
They want the Friday debate to take place as scheduled:
http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReportUC.aspx?g=54d651a7-a62b-4420-bb32-9dd6b2df8c02
Drudge Reports:
Ah, now it all makes sense. It’s all about protecting Palin from Biden.
From CNN:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/24/mccain-camp-to-propose-postponing-vp-debate/
Wow! David, thank you for the superb blow by blow coverage. It’s too bad I haven’t been able to get to leave a comment until just now. I am looking forward to the debate, empty chair or otherwise 🙂
It was great fun doing a blow-by-blow blogging of events as they unwrapped live this afternoon.
The second I heard McCain say he was dropping out — it sickened me because his effort to run was so transparent. McCain oversaw the creation of this mess we’re in and how he casts himself as a white knight on a horse riding in to save the day? Ha!
I just hope Obama sticks it to McCain in every way he can on Friday. It has been a long time coming.
I also hope your job interview went well today, Gordon!
Awesome commentary David!
I am just missing the fun! Eagerly waiting to see what happens on Friday – this is Obama’s chance and he should utilize it.
Good for Obama, David!
He is certainly up to it, while McCain fails to even show up.
I wish you were here to join in the fun, Katha. Every hour brings a new amazement. I don’t think this public talk of the entire American economy tanking on Monday does anyone any good. It’s despicable.
Let’s hope Obama stays tough on this, Dananjay. If he lets McCain turn him around then he’ll get spun for the next 40 days until the election is over.
McCain is giving a speech on live TV right now. He’s in NYC at Clinton’s “Global Initiative” conference. Huh? What’s he doing in NYC when he’s supposed to be personally solving the financial crisis in Washington, D.C.?!!
I hope so too, David. I saw the Bush speech on TV today and after eight years in office, he was speaking like he had nothing to do with the state of the economy!
The Bush speech was astonishing, Dananjay. He took responsibility for nothing. He waits until we’re in a faked “emergency mode” and then he tries to strike fear in us to get his way. It’s a terrible way to govern. Take responsibility for ruining the economy for 8 years. Don’t try to scare us with false deadlines. Cowboy up, cowpoke!
Ha! David! That’s a new one! I just looked it up and it’s just what you’d want to tell him!
It’s funny how Bush sells himself as a Southern Texan when he grew up and was educated on the Blueblood East Coast. He’s all myth and mirrors. The new Oliver Stone movie “W.” will ride those fantasies hard and put ’em to bed wet.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iDcH-ZXRMt59uOlmZ5P3JKs5VAYg
Can’t wait for that one, David! I found JFK very engrossing. Haven’t seen Stone’s other movies though.
The previews for the “W.” movie look strange. Is it a farce? A drama? A cartoon? It could be really awful.
OleMiss said today it will cost them $5.5 million to cancel the debate on Friday. They’ve moving forward no matter what.
I haven’t seen them, David. But I’m sure it’s going to be very challenging! Handled with care i suppose it can turn out to be one of the good ones.
Look forward to the debate then!
I sure hope the debate happens, Dananjay. If a “deal is done” today on the budget, then McCain has no other way out except to show up tomorrow in Mississippi.
Now McCain claims he’s going to Mississippi to debate Barack.
What a waste of time! Nothing is solved. He had no role in accomplishing anything with the economic crisis!
HE NEVER SUSPENDED HIS CAMPAIGN!