Mr. McCain Goes to Washington
September 26, 2008
I am reporting from Oxford, Mississippi tonight, the location of the first Presidential debate.
Did John McCain win or lose by going to Washington? More importantly how will voters see it?
Let's start with the bottom line: John McCain went to Washington to broker a deal and when he left Washington today there was no deal. At least not yet.
The real question here is did he really have to suspend his campaign and put this debate in jeopardy in the first place? You can make the argument that instead of 'suspending his campaign" he could have simply said that he's going off the trail for a few days to try and hammer out a deal. That simple. No drama. No calling out Obama to follow his lead. No suspending of the campaign. No debate up in the air. But clearly the McCain campaign wanted to showcase "John McCain the Leader' and so hence we got the dramatic scene that unfolded Wednesday.
Indeed, McCain got his dramatic presidential moment. When he suspended his campaign on that New York City stage with American flags behind him, he took no questions and walked off stage. It looked very presidential and like a 'take charge decisive" moment. But the problem is that he didn't go straight to Washington. If it was such a crisis, why not blow off your entire schedule? That's not simply my analysis. That is just common sense. To capitalize on his "suspending the campaign moment", the next video of McCain probably needed to be him walking into his office on Capitol Hill. Appearing with Katie Couric after the announcement with David Letterman making fun of you is not a "Kodak moment."
There's no doubt that it made sense for McCain to go to Washington. After all, as the potential leader of the Republican Party, he needed to have a hands on approach and it makes sense for him to be present. Also, John McCain has a track record of brokering deals and cutting through the clutter so this type of situation was right up his alley. I'm sure that this wasn't just a political move.
The problem here is that House Republicans had other plans so instead of John McCain coming in to take credit for finalizing a deal and then jetting off here to Oxford claiming victory, instead he'll have to check his "white horse" at the door.
It'll be interesting tonight to see how much credit McCain takes for his moves this week. I'm sure he'll say he acted decisively and put his country first over his own ambition. Will Obama criticize his moves or leave it alone and try and play above it all?
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