Reality Show Campaign

While John McCain suspends his campaign, you know, except for the ads and the volunteer work and the surrogates and the campaign events and speeches, Barack Obama has moved forward, believing that he can actually juggle multiple responsibilities at once, which is, you know, part of the job description.

There are new ads about McCain's love of offshore tax havens and his lying about the foreign cars he owns to Michiganders. I don't think either were successful, but this one on the economy is better.



That's a solid, serious response to this crisis. Let's hope it's reflected in any deal.

But the real killer for John McCain is that Obama has called his bluff on tomorrow night's debate, which will go on regardless of McCain's presence.

Barack Obama is committed to hosting a public, televised event Friday night in Mississippi even if John McCain does not show up, an official close to the Obama campaign tells the Huffington Post.

In McCain's absence, the Senator is willing to make the scheduled debate a townhall meeting, a one-on-one interview with NewsHour's Jim Lehrer, or the combination of the two, the official said.

In a word, the McCain campaign is screwed. They either give up a full hour of free airtime across all networks to Barack Obama, or they suspend their campaign for a whopping hour and a half to deal with a crisis he has likened to the Great Depression. He's in a bad position of his own making, and the reviews are basically in on this being a ridiculous stunt.

McCain is reaching Omarosa territory, while Obama is leading.