The Definition of "Suspend"

The always bright and intelligent Rachel Maddow was commenting on John McCain's kind of, sort of suspending his campaign as of yesterday. She briefly quoted The Princess Bride, which made me chuckle in the midst of all this madness. Does John McCain actually know what the word "suspend" means when he still has ads up across the country; his surrogates are still huffing and puffing on talk shows; and most of his campaign offices in key battle states have not stopped their standard day to day tasks.



Never mind the fact that he pissed off David Letterman. Dave's continuous rant last night about McCain's phony claims of having to cancel his appearance, so that he could rush back to Washington, is biting and funny.



Evidentally this is not the first time that John McCain has cancelled a debate when his polls were starting to slide. Back in February of 2000 McCain pulled out of a debate with George W. Bush.

With new polls showing his campaign dead in the water among California Republicans, Arizona Sen. John McCain has pulled out of a long-scheduled debate with Texas Gov. George Bush, set for Thursday in Los Angeles.

McCain campaign officials tried desperately yesterday to put the best face on their withdrawal, even as a new Field Poll showed Bush far ahead among likely Republican voters in the winner-take-all race for the state's 162 GOP delegates. [...]

The bait and switch on the debate left the Arizona senator -- whose favorite campaign line is "I'll always tell you the truth'' -- wide open to blistering criticism from his rivals.

"Clearly, this is more double-talk from the McCain campaign,'' said Alixe Mattingly, a spokeswoman for Bush. "Pulling out of this debate at the last minute is an indication that they're pulling out of California, where McCain's antagonistic message clearly isn't working.''

Thanks to BarbinMD at Daily KOs for this story.