What Are Bush, McCain, and Palin Afraid Of?

First, John McCain didn't want to kick off the Republican National Convention in Minnesota on the night that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were scheduled to speak, because of Hurricane Gustav.

Then, Sarah Palin met with world leaders in New York but the press were not allowed to attend the meetings--and her handlers were adamant that she not take questions from reporters.

Today, John McCain announced that he wants to cancel the first Presidential Debate in light of the Wall Street Bailout.

It is clear from this behavior pattern that the Republicans are hiding a number of things--and avoiding confrontation of some of the most serious economic issues and foreign policy issues of this campaign. Is this really the behavior we want to see from our Executive branch?

Cutting George W. Bush and Dick Cheney out of the Republican National Convention benefits McCain because the end result is that there are no photos or associations of the current administration with the Republican Party or the McCain/Palin ticket. And therefore the Democrats' argument that a vote for McCain is a continuation of the policies of Bush/Cheney ultimately weakens because the lack of pictures or documented speeches ultimately breaks that association in the impressionable voter's mind. Yet McCain tries to spin it in a way that makes him sound like he has the interests of the victims of a natural disaster in mind.

The shielding of Palin is astounding for someone who could be in such a high-profile position. They seem to be protecting her from making a gaffe like the "Bridge to Nowhere" at all costs. Some are even calling her overprotection "sexist." After 8 years of Bush, we need someone who genuinely thinks on her feet and speaks from the hip, as opposed to someone who is scripted and censored at every turn.

And finally, there is John McCain. He is not known for his speaking ability. Since Palin joined his ticket, McCain has been stumping with Palin all across the country, sort of lurking in the background as a beady-eyed puppet... A strategy that is perfectly fine for knee-jerk voters but one that ultimately loses an election because of the ground lost campaigning together instead of with a divide-and-conquer strategy. And canceling the debate in light of the economic crisis is a cheap political trick. As with the above example of canceling the RNC in the wake of Hurricane Gustav, McCain is able to inject phoney compassion to make it look like he cares more about the economic crisis than "partisan politics."

In contrast, here is what Obama said in a statement responding to McCain's vote to cancel:

“It is my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who, in approximately 40 days, will be responsible for dealing with this mess,” Mr. Obama said. “It is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once.”

The Commission on Presidential Debates also thinks that "the public will be well served by having all of the debates go forward as scheduled," so I sincerely hope that McCain shows up to face the problems this nation is facing and talk about them on live television, where we can truly see where both candidates stand and how they both think on their feet.