Yesterday, GOP nominee John McCain suspended his campaign, saying he wants to lead a bi-partisan effort to solve the current financial crisis. At stake for McCain is the presidency, which seems to be slipping from his grasp with each new revelation about how the chickens released following years of deregulation and lax policing of financial markets – policies long supported by McCain – have now come home to roost.

So rather than face the tough questions about this situation, McCain hides behind a flimsy call for bi-partisan leadership on the issue. Never mind the fact that a deal is already nearing completion without McCain’s special brand of leadership. Never mind the fact that McCain, if he has his way, might be able to avoid debating Barak Obama. Never mind that McCain has admitted to being not particularly strong on economic theory. Never mind that McCain is a Bush Republican – which as we have all experienced – is many times worse than being a Tax and Spend liberal. These are the Bomb, Borrow, and Bail-out Republicans – and they preach a “small-government” line while putting taxpayers on the hook for their miserably failed policies again and again.

With McCain’s call to cancel the debate, he could well deprive the entire nation the opportunity to see how both candidates plan to deal with this crisis in the coming months. He’s apparently ok with keeping us from kicking the tires on the presidency he want to sell us. Interestingly, if he’s able to cancel or reschedule the presidential debate, then there’s another thing that the GOP will be able to keep hidden: Sarah Palin.

Beyond McCain’s irresponsible and politically calculated selection of an apparently know-nothing governor, the legitimate issue many have with Palin is that we know next to nothing about her. And if the McCain/Palin Campaign has its way, things will remain that way up to Nov 4, when you’re asked to buy a Republican bag of goods. What we do know is that Palin was added to the ticket to placate the religious right, as the lipstick on the pig of McCain’s not too conservative candidacy. We also know that McCain doesn’t have a plan, not for the economy, not for the wars, not for education or health care or job training or social security or anything. He doesn’t need one, because he’s cribbing from Bush.

But he doesn’t want any sunlight cast on that now, does he?

Edit – here are some David Letterman outtakes after McCain cancelled his interview to race back to Washington.

BUSH: A clear lesson I learned in the museum was that outside forces that tend to divide people up inside their country are unbelievably counterproductive. In other words, people came from other countries — I guess you’d call them colonialists — and they pitted one group of people against another

Bush used this bit of logic to apparently defend his administration’s do-lessness with respect to the ongoing Darfur genocide, as well as an excuse for America’s lack of response to the Rawandan Genocide. If that doesn’t peg your irony meter, maybe this will: The WAR President just called American troops in Iraq a colonialist force, while admitting that their presence was “unbelievably counterproductive”.

Sounds like Bush is getting a bit liberal in his loafers, no?

8,789 words

BAM – top that luhoo-zuhers.

No wait, that’s my XBOX gamer score. Shit, at least I can edit html to make it look as if I broke the mythical 35 wpm barrier.

GOP frontrunner, Rudy Giuliani apparently forgot about the event, and attended a $1000/plate fund raiser instead:

After his speech, Giuliani said he didn’t hear about the NAACP convention until Thursday afternoon.

“I’m not sure I was invited,” he said. “And it was very responsible for me to be here raising money fore [sic] Republicans.”

I’m sure the other candidates had better things to do as well, just as Bush and his do-less GOP minions had better things to do as New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast tried to cope with Katrina.

Thanks to Les at StupidEvilBastard.com