Suspended? Pt. IX

If John McCain has suspended his campaign, what is he doing on television tonight?

John McCain will appear on all three network newscasts tonight, a top aide said.

McCain is at the White House meeting with President Bush, Barack Obama and congressional leaders now and will tape interviews with NBC, ABC and CBS after the West Wing session.

McCain also appeared in a taped interview last night with Katie Couric on CBS.

Aides are still in wait-and-see mode on whether they'll attend the debate but are prepared to have the candidate jet down to Memphis, the closest major airport to Oxford, as late as tomorrow afternoon if a deal is reached.

That's not suspension you can believe in.

Suspended? Pt. VIII

If John McCain has suspended his campaign, what was Sarah Palin doing at Ground Zero today?

Gov. Sarah Palin made an unscheduled stop at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan today, and for the first time since she joined the Republican ticket in August, she took questions from the reporters traveling with her.

[...]

Speaking to today's negotiations over the $700 billion bailout bill, she said she didn't think the legislation should be passed until Sen. John McCain's provisions are included. "I don't support that until the provisions that Sen. McCain has offered are implemented in that, in Paulson's proposal," she said.

Ground Zero.

That's not suspension you can believe in.

Suspended? Pt. VII

If John McCain has suspended his campaign, why was Nancy Pfotenhauer on Fox "News" attacking Obama today?



That's not suspension you can believe in

Suspended? Pt. VI

If John McCain has suspended his campaign, why is Nancy Pfotenhauer doing a live chat with the Washington Times?

Suspended? Pt. V

If John McCain has suspended his campaign, why is Tucker Bounds on CNN right now?

Suspended? Pt. IV

The NYT's widely-read blog The Caucus asks if McCain and surrogates like Nicole Wallace and Mitt Romney are still on the campaign trail, in what sense is the campaign suspended?

Has the McCain-Palin campaign really been put on hold?

Questions have emerged over the extent to which Senator John McCain is actually shutting down his campaign — as he indicated he would on Wednesday — to deal with the negotiations over the government’s economic bailout package.

A local Philadelphia NBC News affiliate was reporting Thursday morning that Mr. McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was to hold a rally at the airport in Philadelphia upon her arrival there this afternoon.

The most recent official schedule for Ms. Palin, which the campaign distributed late Tuesday night, did not include an airport event. And the McCain campaign said Ms. Palin’s arrival should not be construed as a “rally,” merely “an arrival.”

Also, McCain surrogate Mitt Romney was scheduled to speak to business leaders in Detroit on Thursday, according to a Michigan newspaper. Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, was expected to speak with reporters after the closed-press meeting.

(We’re seeking more details from the campaign about Ms. Palin’s arrival and the event with Mr. Romney.)

As for Mr. McCain, he went ahead, as he said he would, with his speech in New York City at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative today. And parts of it sounded like his campaign speeches.

At a meeting with reporters in Washington, Robert Gibbs, an Obama campaign senior adviser, questioned how fully Mr. McCain applied the brakes to his campaign.

“I was on TV with Nicole Wallace today,” Mr. Gibbs said referring to a McCain spokeswoman who made the rounds on several morning shows on Thursday, “If they suspended her, she didn’t get the memo.”

Suspended? Pt. III

Dave wonders why, even if he is needed so urgently in D.C., McCain has to take the dramatic step of suspending his campaign.

"You say, 'I gotta get back to Washington to save this country!'

"Good for you!

"'And while I'm gone, campaigning in my stead will be my great running mate from the State of Alaska, Sarah Palin.'

"And she comes out and campaigns.

"What happened there? What's the problem? Where is she? Why isn't she doing that?"

The answer is: she is.

This is nothing but a cheap, cynical stunt, and everybody fell for it.

Suspended? Pt. II

If John McCain has suspended his campaign, why is Sarah Palin campaigning in Philadelphia today?

Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin will bring her campaign to Philadelphia Thursday.

She’s expected to hold a rally Thursday afternoon near the Philadelphia International Airport

On Wednesday night, the Alaska governor offered a grim assessment of the current financial crisis.

So far, "suspending the campaign" does not prohibit the campaign's spokespeople from going on television, and it does not prohibit the vice-presidential nominee from holding campaign rallies.

Seriously, what does "suspending the campaign" mean?

Suspended?

If John McCain has suspended his campaign, why was Nicole Wallace on television today?



Doesn't the high-minded principle driving McCain to suspend his campaign require him to cede the field entirely to Obama?

And if not, what exactly does "suspending the campaign" mean?