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Willing Suspension Of Dysfunctional Campaigning

For a candidate who is currently at war with the media, McCain certainly seems to believe his own press clippings if his suspension of campaigning is any indication.  Considering how badly the last week and a half has gone for McCain and how badly and unpredictably he has coped with the crisis so far, perhaps the best thing for his chances in November would be to suspend campaigning indefinitely.  The striking thing about this move is that McCain is now shouldering a large part of the responsibility for whatever legislation comes out of negotiations in Congress and he is pretty much staking his campaign on its passage and its contents.  Put it down to another example of McCain’s habit of winging things and not having a plan going from day to day, and then consider what it would mean for how McCain would govern.   

Of course, if the debate is cancelled, administrators at the University of Mississippi say that they probably won’t host it again later.

Update: Apparently, it wasn’t clear that this post was ridiculing McCain as a fool, so let me say it more plainly: McCain is a fool.

about the author

Daniel Larison is a senior editor at TAC, where he also keeps a solo blog. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.

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