John McCain is a gambler by nature, and the bet he placed Wednesday may be among the biggest of his political life.says Dan Balz writing in this morning's Washington Post.
The Republican presidential nominee is hoping that his abrupt decision to suspend campaigning, seek a delay of Friday's debate with Democrat Barack Obama, and return to Washington to help prod negotiations over a financial rescue package will be seen as the kind of country-first, bipartisan leadership he believes Americans want.
And a gamble it certainly is,after all one of these two candidates will be in charge of trying to control this financial gamble in 40 days time.
The Obama camp has alreday rejected the proposal to postpone the debate but he like McCain will be going to the White House for talks and discussions with George Bush.
But as Michael Cooper says in the New York Times for both of them
The new role is a risky one .It puts them directly on the line over an issue whose politics are mutating almost by the hour, forcing them to balance a sense that the country is angry about the prospect of being stuck with the bill for Wall Street’s excesses against a chance that failure to act quickly could have dire economic consequences.
Interestingly since the financial meltdown began,McCain has begun to slip down the polls
Karl Rove writing in the WSJ says that
the first debate is the most important of all, establishing an arc of opinion that persists unless jarred loose by big mistakes or dramatic events.
So whether this year's first presidential debate between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain is Friday night or postponed a few days, it may be the fall's most critical event. In the nine first debates since 1960, the perceived winner of the debate averaged a 4.2 point net swing in the Gallup poll.
Quite what that opinion will be if McCain does not appear is unclear but with the Palin effect wearing off rapidly,surely he must engage in debate with Obama over the safest pair of hands on the American political rudder?
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