LOL I'm glad to see you agree! I don't know what kind of tactic it is but it sure is bizarre isn't it? Canceling a presidential debate in such a big year...

Let's hope he decides to go through with the debate on Friday.

One more thing I forgot to add-

"Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign to return to Washington and focus on the "historic" crisis facing the U.S. economy."

Just a few days ago the fundamentals of the economy were strong, no?

Wow, I think he just shot himself in the foot big time. I understand that he was getting desperate but...this is really impressive.

I know what he was aiming for here, which was to show he was going to put America before politics but his execution couldn't be worse. This ones probablly going to blow up in his face.

I could be wrong and this somehow win him votes but I seriously doubt it. I suppose if it does everyone will be talking about how brilliant this move was and in the future we might see other canidates doing it.

I'd like to offer the other side of the argument:

he's showing a responsibility to his CURRENT elected office by being there for the Congressional Sessions.  The Debate can easily be moved to DC where the Sessions are being held, it's not the other way.

A more important question is why does Obama feel it's ok to miss out on such important sessions?  What else would he be willing to miss out as the President because it didn't fit his political agenda?

There's absolutely no reason to skimp out on your current job to look for something better.
Brad: if one of your management types started skipping work to go interview elsewhere, how would you feel?

Obama:  "If they need me, they will call me" - referring to Pelosi and Reid.

Enough said....

That is the most impressive political maneuver I have ever seen, and I think it will win him the election.

Have you guys ever heard of FALSE DILEMMA?

You can do both, taking a couple of hours to have the most important debate in many many years won't hurt anything.

Stall tactic

Candidates attendance record

McCain: 64.1% votes missed

Obama: 45.9% votes missed

Still way to much votes missed by Obama (he's third in the top-five and the second one Tim Johnson has a pretty good excuse), but this clearly shows that being in congress has not been the top priority for the candidates.

Source: Washington Post

How many years was this counting for?

Obama got elected to office and announced his Canidacy for President within a year... so he's missed 50% of his 2 years.

McCain got elected into Office in 1986... which means that he's been in office longer then people who are voting...

It's quite obvious where the distinct difference is between less then 2 years, and 22 years.  next you'll tell me Obama voted against Iraq (which happened before he was in office), right?

Was just going to look up those facts to show how much responsibility McCain really takes in his current job

I'm not sure what this is argueing, they've both been running for prez for the same ammount of time, Obama has voted more than McCain in that time.

False dilema, political gold.

I see its already working. Its a win win situation for McCain really, unless Obama comes up with a very clever response or something else to distract people. It will be the first thing McCain does if the debate happens is bring up that he wanted to be doing his job not sitting there talking. Instant hit for him.

This is just a political stunt, it would be even if Obama did it. Neither of them has been there throughout this crisis and chances are good neither one of them would or will even vote on it.  This is the reason we haven't had a Senator elected since Kennedy, too much of a paper trail. I guess how effective it is depends on how many people realize its political.

And as others point out they can do both. But chances are good neither one of them will go there after the debate, because they aren't going to vote.

I think I know why you think he is an idiot Draginol, but can you tell us why?

Don't be so sure of that. While Obama rehearses his red sea parting voice for 3 days, McCain is rushing to Washington to work on an economic crisis. Is it a gamble? Probably, but if McCain gets positive results its not all that dumb.