we have seen this before

[DividedWeAre]

When it should be crisis management, it morphs instead into a "panic mode". That is not leadership, that is either poor leadership or outright political manipulation - or both.

The credit crisis is more "weapons of mass destruction" and, as was in the case of Iraq, it is more "mass quantities of bullshit" - foistered upon the more gullible citizens in America.

It is going better for Obama than it did for Kerry or Gore, but not necessarily because the candidate is handling it better - more because a small percentage of Americans (between 2 and 8 percent) are less inclined to be fooled a third time (election).

Danger for Obama, though.. if the debate is held, then this has been more disruptive to the debate practice for him than it has been for McCain because McCain is the disruptor and has an advantage as the disruptor and because McCain already has his two-word answers for everything about his "foreign policy". Obabma needs the practice more because he has to somehow shorten thoughtful answers into something more digestible for the debate format. And if the economic crisis is resolved or close-to-being resolved, then McCain can count on the debate actually being about foreign policy, again, where he is perceived to be stronger. The economic thing threatened his ability to have his strongest showing in the debates, which was the first one - foreign policy. So, this goofy move may still have some benefits for him.

I think that Obama, if he wants to fight back against McCain's manipulation of the past 24 hours, should have the Democrats stall the economic solution until Monday so that McCain closes down this debate and then, refuse to reschedule it in the future. Why play along with such grandstanding and why be so nice as to reschedule the debate that he was goind to have the toughest time with?