McCain's Running Scared !

For the last week, John McCain has looked like a deer caught in the headlights. The campaign has turned big-time to economics and the current economic crises -- a subject that McCain has admitted he has little expertise in. In fact, his voting record on economic policy has been straight down the line with our discredited and very unpopular president.

McCain has a history of wanting to deregulate big business and Wall Street. He's also parroted President Bush (and Herbert Hoover) by assuring Americans that our economy is "fundamentally sound". But in the last week it has become clear that both those positions are untenable, so he is floundering around to find something that works.

Now he wants to pose as a regulator, even thought his history shows he is just the opposite. He has also started talking about "greed" on Wall Street, forgetting that his economic votes help that greed to take root and create the current crises.

With his poll numbers falling like a rock, McCain knows that the upcoming debate on Friday could be disastrous to his campaign. It was supposed to center on security and foreign policy, but with the current economic crises, there is no way that a discussion of economic policies can be avoided. What was McCain to do?

He did what any Republican would do -- he tried to avoid the debate by lying and posturing. He asked that the debate be postponed, because he must go to Washington to solve the economic crises. That might have worked if he had actually suspended his campaign and immediately flew to Washington -- but he didn't.

Instead, he went to an interview with CBS's Katie Couric, and tomorrow he will address President Clinton's Global Initiative in New York. Only after that bit of campaigning will he go to Washington. The economic crises is too important to go to the debate, but it is not so important to stop his campaigning in New York.

That tells me that his trip to Washington is just a sham to try and get out of the debate, while trying to look like a leader. He wants to stop the bleeding of his poll numbers and he's afraid the debate will just make it worse (and he's probably right about that).

But Obama didn't fall for his desparate gambit. Sensibly, Obama said with only 40 days until the election, America deserved to hear the candidates debate. The debate sponsors agreed and refused to postpone it. I suspect McCain will give in and go to the debate.

The specter of being represented by an empty chair while Obama talks to the American people, is even worse than the prospect of losing the debate.