So John McCain has “suspended” his campaign (which I guess, means get as much media attention as possible, continue with TV commercials, have your campaign offices nationwide push your candidacy and have your surrogates like Lieberman let everyone know how “presidential” you are being) to work on the Economic Crisis. So far he seems to have thrown a monkey wrench into it and we are not moving forward any more.
It makes me wonder how much he understands about fiscal policy and what caused this mess anyway. In his interview with Katie Couric (you know, the one he did when he told Letterman he was canceling to get right back to Washington DC), McCain said:
One of the major reasons why we’re having difficulties is we let spending get completely out of control — earmark and pork-barrel projects. Senator Obama asked for over $900 million in earmarks pork-barrel projects, that’s not part of the answer that’s part of the problem.
Earmarks? Pork Barrel Projects? Wasn’t this problem called by cheap, bad mortgages? That’s what everyone else thinks.
But McCain has been here before (via Think Progress.) On the failure to respond to Hurricane Katrina, for instance:
“[McCain] places ‘some of those responsibilities on the Congress of the United States, which funded pork barrel projects that were not only not needed and certainly not as important as some of the projects that were needed [in New Orleans].”
Or what about the Minnesota Bridge Collapse?
“The bridge in Minneapolis didn’t collapse because there wasn’t enough money,” McCain told reporters while campaigning in Pennsylvania. “The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects.”
So now we’re wondering whether or not McCain will meet with Obama at tonite’s debate, or stay in DC to provide his financial expertise to solving this problem. Whatever happens, McCain will keep himself in the press all day… you’d better believe it. And all this with a “suspended” campaign.
Say, maybe he could send Sarah Palin to debate for him tonite. Wouldn’t that be fun?
