Dear Friend and Reader:
AS MERCURY stationed retrograde today, John McCain put his presidential campaign on hold, and called for the first debates between himself and Barack Obama — scheduled for Friday, just 48 hours from now — to be postponed. Obama replied, essentially saying that yes, we can walk and chew gum at the same time and that the debates will go on as planned. [McCain has proposed that he and Obama take the slot originally planned for the vice presidential debate — duh.]
How exactly you put a presidential campaign on hold, we’re not sure. With Mercury involved, you can be pretty certain that a lot of people think it’s a stunt, and the chances are it probably is. Either that, or it’s The Onion acting up — but lately it’s been difficult to tell the difference between politics and political satire
It almost sounds like a trick to get Obama to suspend his campaign. “If I suspended mine, you have to suspend yours!”
However, it’s more like political leverage. CNN tonight reported, “Republican candidate John McCain said he was suspending his campaign to deal with the nation’s economic crisis. McCain also said he would not attend Friday night’s debate with Democratic rival Barack Obama unless an economic bailout deal is reached by then.