I am in Beijing. But even here it is hard to get away from the American presidential election campaign. This morning, in my role as all-purpose seer, I met a group of Chinese journalists. The first question I was asked was - “What do you think of McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign?” Since, the second question was - “When do you think the Chinese stock market will recover?” - I think I’ll answer the easy one .

 I’m doubtless revealing my bias here, but I think McCain’s decision is batty.

Obviously it’s all meant to fit in with the “Country First” theme. But I think it’s just a little too stagey for that. As Obama pointed out, a Friday night debate doesn’t take that long out of their schedules. In fact, Obama should have pressed home his advantage by offering to switch the debate to economic and domestic policy - rather than foreign policy as scheduled.

If McCain had been conducting a campaign of utmost sobriety and deliberation up until this moment - I think calling the debate off might have worked for him. The trouble is that in the past couple of weeks, he’s given the impression of making spur of the moment pronouncements and decisions. So at the beginning of the week, he is announcing that the US economy is fundamentally in good shape. By the end of the week, the crisis is so grave that it would be a dereliction of duty to honour his commitment to one of the hallowed traditions of a US election - the presidential debate.

I doubt that the debate will take place now - at least not this Friday. (Which is good from a narrowly personal point of view, since I’m meant to be chairing a session at the World Economic Forum at Tianjin, just as the two candidates mount the rostrum.) If McCain changed his mind, he would look weak and erratic. As it is, he just looks hot-headed and disingenuous.

September 25, 2008 9:29am in US politics | Comment