Written By : John Hawkins

John McCain canceled the Friday night debate to head back to D.C. and work on the bailout. He then invited Obama to join him.

The idea behind that was probably something along the lines of:

#1) It would make McCain look like a leader who puts country first over politics.

#2) Obama was put in a position where he either had to follow McCain’s lead or he would look indecisive and overly concerned with politics. Obama ended up doing both actually, by insisting on going to the debate and then agreeing to go to D.C. at Bush’s invitation.

#3) A Friday night foreign policy isn’t going to be heavily watched. It was in McCain’s advantage to get it rescheduled. Obama, who is apparently terrified of debating McCain, looks like he may try to use this as an excuse to dodge a future debate with John McCain on foreign policy.

So, was it a good move?

Yes, but only if McCain takes advantage of the situation.

If McCain goes to D.C. and ends up helping to push through a 700 billion dollar nightmare for the American taxpayers, I think it will remind conservatives exactly what they don’t like about the guy: that he is very bipartisan, but “bipartisan” to him means screwing conservatives.

I would also add that McCain would be foolish to let Obama get away with dodging a debate. If Obama tries it, McCain would have to take advantage of the situation by mercilessly deriding him for it.

However, if McCain, who does have a good reputation as a fiscal conservative, helps bring about a better, more fiscally responsible bill or even helps stop this bill and gets another debate at a better time, he has made this situation work for him. Whatever the case may be, he has shown leadership — but, let’s just hope he’s not leading us down the road to perdition with this bill.

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