9-25-08, 11:45 am

Did John McCain suspend his campaign 'to return to Washington to broker a deal on the financial crisis' in order to use the financial crisis as a way to prop up his sagging poll numbers? Or, is he afraid to meet Barack Obama head to head in a debate? Or, is the McCain campaign trying to avoid the fallout from new revelations this week that his campaign manager, lobbyist Rick Davis, continued to take money from Freddie Mac executives probably in exchange for access to John McCain?

Either way you shake, it doesn't look good.

First of all, the US is mired in two wars on the other side of the globe. The economy has been hemorrhaging jobs for eight straight months. Millions have lost their homes in the housing bubble over the past year and a half. Working families have been struggling to make ends meet, find good jobs, or pay for their children's educations for about two years. And 47 million people lack access to decent health care because they have no insurance.

And a crisis on Wall Street caused by millionaire CEOs and Washington players grabs John McCain's attention – nine days after the first group of banks failed – enough for which he has to suspend his campaign.

But the decision to suspend the campaign nine days after the first major banks failed also coincided with a Washington Post/ABC News poll that gave Barack Obama a nine-point nationwide advantage as well as a host of other polls giving Obama a decided advantage on economic issues.

The McCain campaign's decision also came less than 24 hours after media reports directly linked McCain's campaign manager and lobbyist, Rick Davis, to Freddie Mac, another lending institution which failed earlier this month. According to the New York Times, Freddie Mac paid Davis Manafort, a Washington lobbying firm owned by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, about $500,000 between 2005 and last month.

Prior to the payments to Davis' firm, Freddie Mac had paid Davis himself about $2 million to head a group called the Homeownership Alliance, an organization that sought to block federal regulatory oversight of the housing market.

Noting that the Freddie Mac payments to Davis appeared to be aimed at gaining access to the John McCain campaign, Obama campaign spokesperson, Dan Pfeiffer, said in a statement for reporters that 'The question that now needs to be answered is this: did Freddie Mac or any other special interests buy access to John McCain by compensating top officials, including Rick Davis?'

While welcoming John McCain's decision to join Barack Obama in finding a solution to the Wall Street crisis, the Obama campaign has rejected McCain's assertion that the first presidential debate set for Friday, Sept. 26, should be postponed. Obama had called on John McCain nearly a week ago to join a bipartisan effort on the issue.

Other TV and newspaper commentators were less generous with McCain. During a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman Wednesday, Sept. 24, David Letterman reportedly joked, 'He can't run the campaign because the economy is cratering? Fine, put in your second string quarterback, Sara Palin. Where is she? What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We've got a guy like that now!'

On , Former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards opined, 'Oh, brother. What idiot came up with this stunt? It ranks somewhere on the stupidity scale between plain silly and numbingly desperate.' Edwards added that McCain is not in the leadership in the Senate and isn't needed to broker a deal there. 'Sorry, John,' Edwards added, 'it really sounds like you're afraid to debate. This sounds like the sort of ploy we used to use in junior high school elections.'

Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic noted, 'Suspending your campaign basically says: all that over the past sixteen months? It wasn't important. Ignore what I said or did. Too late. The tough thing here for McCain is that nobody in Washington asked him to come back; nobody seems to need him to come back; and that Democrats simply do not trust John McCain's motives.'

Time magazine's Joe Klein also expressed skepticism about McCain's motives. 'McCain suspends his campaign because of financial crisis?', he wrote. 'Oh please. Given today's poll numbers – even Fox has him dropping – it seems another Hail Mary (like the feckless selection of Palin) to try make McCain seem a statesman.'

McCain's decision to suspend the campaign may be linked to his sagging poll numbers, Reuters' Steve Holland reported. It 'came at a time when Americans have been telling pollsters they believed Obama could handle the economy better than McCain.'

Generally, McCain's decision has been seen as a 'ploy' done in desperation and panic. One point of fact is that John McCain has missed more Senate votes in the past year than any other Senator, causing some to wonder if he is even needed in the Senate at all. His latest move prompted Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid to say, 'We need leadership, not a campaign photo op.' Reid added that the American people deserve to see a debate between two potential presidents more than ever. Observers are nearly unanimous in viewing the move as less than presidential.