The McCain Move

I'll update this more later, but it does appear that John McCain is going to find himself the subject of pretty intense criticism, based upon the narrative of what happened today leading up to his announcement.

Talking Points Memo details that the Obama campaign reached out to McCain this morning, at approximately 8:30 am, seeking to find common ground and issue a joint statement on the financial crisis. Here is the text of the Obama campaign's statement:

At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama's call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details.

It seems that after agreeing to issue a joint statement, McCain changed his mind - instead choosing to return to Washington, request a delay in the debate, and issue a challenge to Obama to meet him back in DC to work on the issue. Obama was seeking to make a joint statement privately, without drawing attention from the media, in an effort to build bipartisan consensus. McCain, on the other hand, called a press conference and suspended his campaign. Curious.

It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out today and tomorrow in the media. No doubt some will champion McCain's move as brave and forward thinking. Others will point to it as a sign of McCain panicking due to today's poll numbers and seeking to avoid a public debate on Friday. These are exactly the types of pitfalls that I talked about yesterday for Obama - and this note from the Obama campaign seems to make it clear that McCain won't avoid them.

My suggestion? Obama should take McCain up on the challenge to return to Washington, but propose that the debate goes on as planned on Friday. Rather than discussing national security, Obama should propose that they focus on the economy exclusively, so the American people can witness their dialogue on the issue. McCain and Obama can have a public, forthright conversation on what they will do in this crisis, and the whole country will get to watch it happen.