Desperate Times, Here’s Your Desperate Measure

John McCain has long been known for his impulsive and tempermental personality, a trait his campaign has successfully incorporated into his “maverick” image. Yesterday, however, he crossed the line from impulsive to desperate. By “suspending” his own campaign and calling for Friday’s debate to be postponed, McCain took a risky gamble that has not paid off and that just might signal the beginning of the end for his White House bid.

One week after claiming that the “fundamentals of the economy are strong,” McCain made a complete about-face and insisted that the Wall Street crisis is so grave, he and Obama should immediately leave the campaign trail and return to Washington to help craft bail-out legislation. McCain’s intention is to show strong leadership on a critical issue on which he has been weak. But what is really happening is that he is showing exactly why he is unfit to be the president.

One of the most critical characteristics of sound leadership is the ability to diffuse panic and promote calm response. Think JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis:

Conscious that a misstep could have meant nuclear war, President John F. Kennedy and his advisers grappled with the Cuban missile crisis with cool detachment. It was completely devoid of the rhetoric of the cold war. They were very, very calm, and they were just trying to find a way out of this.

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Or FDR during the Great Depression:

While developing programs to help America emerge from the Great Depression, Roosevelt also needed to calm the fears and restore the confidence of Americans and to gain their support for the programs of the New Deal. Roosevelt called his radio talks about issues of public concern “Fireside Chats.” Informal and relaxed, the talks made Americans feel as if President Roosevelt was talking directly to them.

McCain has done the opposite of what Kennedy and Roosevelt did when they calmly guided the nation through difficult times. By publicly calling for such extreme and largely symbolic measures, McCain has served only to inflame fears and contribute to the panic that is starting to grip this country. Had his intentions truly been to help solve the economic crisis, he would have acted by going to Obama privately with his proposal, not by grandstanding with a sudden declaration on national television. 

Clearly, McCain’s purposes are political. His campaign has suffered through a difficult week. He has taken hits for his failure to meaningfully address the crisis, and Obama has been inching ahead in the polls. Perhaps it was time for a bold and aggressive move, but this is the equivalent of throwing a Hail Mary pass in the middle of the third quarter. Any football coach who called such a play would be placing his job in jeopardy, and that appears to be exactly what McCain has now done to his campaign.

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