The AP reports that Barack Obama is “inclined to move ahead” with Friday’s debate as scheduled, and not grant John McCain’s wish to delay it while he goes to work on the bailout crisis in the Senate.
This is an interesting choice for Obama. On the one hand, having taken a respectable lead over McCain, he sees no reason to let McCain dictate the narrative between now and November. On the other hand, he’ll be criticized for putting his campaign over country, which (in addition to actually wanting to work on the bailout issue) is the desired effect of McCain’s move.
It’s back over to the McCain camp now. They have to be careful in their criticism of Obama’s probable refusal of a delay, so as not to sound like they are overtly politicizing America’s financial crisis.