If John McCain is afraid to debate the economy, how can he run it?


Senator John McCain (R-AZ), 73, is pulling out of this Friday's presidential debate and "suspending his campaign" citing his decision to focus on "the economic crisis," reports MSNBC. But as recently as last week McCain said, "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" as the Dow fell 300 points, according to National Journal. Perhaps voters see him as out of touch. In any case, McCain's standing in the polls has changed -- a recent Washington Post-ABC poll shows him nine points behind his opponent.

So exactly why is he so afraid to fight back to regain some of that lost standing in the polls? Is it possible that his well established track record as a foe of financial regulation will make it too obvious to voters that he shares responsibility for the mess we're in and can't credibly solve it? Or is he afraid that he'd lose even more ground by debating his opponent than he would by suspending his campaign?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I am not aware of a candidate who has received the nomination of his party ever suspending his campaign days before the first debate with his opponent. It does not instill much confidence in his leadership skills.

Update. The enclosed video from David Letterman suggests that McCain should have appointed his vice presidential nominee to run the campaign while he ran away from the debate with his opponent.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-162.7612,340.05
NASDAQ-32.712,806.37
S&P 500-16.541,300.09

Last updated: May 23, 2012: 11:04 AM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.98-0.20(-1.04)

Alcoa

8.35-0.14(-1.65)

Apple Inc

557.50+0.53(+0.10)

Google Inc 'A'

603.40+2.60(+0.43)

Bank of America

6.88-0.10(-1.43)

Wal-Mart Stores

63.65-0.08(-0.13)

Exxon Mobil Corp

80.68-1.27(-1.55)

Ford

10.375+0.185(+1.82)

Citigroup

26.22-0.70(-2.60)

IBM

194.53-2.29(-1.16)

Yahoo

15.21-0.08(-0.52)

Starbucks

54.12+0.75(+1.41)

Microsoft

28.86-0.90(-3.02)

Home Depot

47.96-0.30(-0.62)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1337785445721 ms.