John McCain has asked that this Friday's first presidential debate be postponed. He says it needs to be put off in order for him to "focus on the financial crisis," and he needs that time to fix this mess in his position as a Senator without any authority over any of it. Wtf. According to MSNBC, he's returning to Washington right now to personally solve this bailout thing. So—"country first," right? No time for debating, because Senator McCain—who is not on the Joint Economic Committee btw!—is asking Obama to join him in Washington. Jesus Christ. We're thinking this will very quickly come off as a "political stunt," and also make McCain look like a moron next time he trots out the "I lie about Obama because he wouldn't debate me 100 times from now until the election" line. But whatever, maybe it'll play well? For a day or two, anyway. But! What does Obama do? He calls it a cheap political ploy, hopefully, says he wants to debate right away. It is a sign, probably, that McCain's debate prep wasn't going well. It's a naked attempt to look on top of the news cycle and to insert himself into the economic debate, but canceling a debate won't instill confidence in anyone, will it? It seems desperate and reactive, especially in the face of bad polling for McCain. He's painting it as a post-partisan 9/11 thing, of course, and maybe that'll fly. Once again, we reiterate: there is nothing McCain can do about this. This is the stupidest and emptiest of political gestures. On the plus side, your Friday won't be wasted watching the debate! Update: Stuff we heard on the tv: The University of Mississippi (they're hosting the debate) say the debate is still going on as planned. Obama's camp is probably going to announce that they're going ahead with the debate soon.