Somebody set up us the bomb.

When I read this morning that Mr. McCain wanted to postpone the debate so he and Mr. Obama could go to Washington and help deal with the 'crisis' I was at first flabbergasted.
Here are two men that have less than 5 times since March been in Washington at the same time, and suddenly it is important for them to suddenly remember they are Senators and go do their jobs? Ridiculous! The crisis has been going on since August but only now they need to be doing their jobs? Ridiculous. The bailout plan has been on the table almost a week and they don't need to go to Washington to deal with it until Thursday? Ridiculous!

It offends me when politicians constantly inanely babble talk about what they'll do when they get elected to a higher position than the one they are in. If their current political position is any evidence, then they'll spend most of their term at that higher position trying to get reelected! Senator Obama, for all his graces and vices, has been running for an elected position nonstop for the last 14 years. Senator McCain: 26 years.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: there should be a law that says if a federal employee runs for an elected position above his or her current position, then he or she must immediately resign their current position before they (or their affiliated party) are allowed to use any campaign financing for their election campaign for that higher position. If we raised the stakes a little we wouldn't have had several Senators, a Governor, a neoconservative uber-Christian and 2 Representatives run for President this time around. Furthermore, federal employees would have nothing to do but get reelected and actually do their job.

So when Mr. McCain says "drop everything, let's go to Washington" I was a little cynical.

However, politically it was a bold move to put him on the offensive. If Mr. Obama had agreed, well, Mr. McCain has the upper position, and can claim he was running the show. If Mr. Obama disagreed, then Mr. McCain can say Mr. Obama isn't a patriot and isn't doing his job as a Senator (tut tut).
So when Mr. Obama said he thought the campaign should continue, the debate should not be postponed I thought "fortune favors the bold, well done Mr. McCain."
But I thought too soon! (and TPI posted too soon) Mr. Obama's last sentence in his press release, that "we both have big fast planes, we can get to Mississippi Friday night no problem" was sheer genius. He was agreeing with Mr. McCain that they should go to Washington Friday (if needed) but he was upping the ante, throwing it back into Mr. McCain's face!

Instantly the pundits pounced, and Shanin and Parks, a conservative radio program out of Kansas City lamented for all Republicans: "Had Obama agreed with McCain, he would have made a great decision, but based on what Obama responded, McCain has made a terrible, terrible mistake." Then these (normally McCain pandering) analysts started to speculate about whether Mr. McCain's age was a factor. Perhaps he should send Governor Palin to the debate in his stead!

Fortune favors the clever, well done, Mr. Obama.