Sarah Palin was McCain’s first big stunt. In a move that made no sense from a “country-first” standpoint, he hired someone supremely unsuited for the presidency or vice-presidency on the gamble that he could energize his base, capture women voters, and somehow turn things around without taking damage from Palin’s lack of ability and vetting. It was a high-stakes, Hail Mary gamble which was designed purely to help his campaign while not helping the country, indeed by putting the country itself at risk. And while initially it appeared to pay off, that gain has now melted away and McCain is back where he started–but now with a potential albatross around his neck.

Apparently McCain decided that it was time for another desperate gamble. Along the lines of the highly untraditional suspension of the GOP convention due to Hurricane Gustav, McCain is now using the bailout crisis to generate an even bigger publicity stunt, while running away from facing up for his past actions and current scandals. For McCain, the upcoming debate presents a huge risk: he faces a potential pasting as he would have to face questions about his history of deregulation in the banking industry and why his campaign manager has turned out to be a lobbyist for the biggest offenders in the crisis. Suddenly, McCain, who blasted Obama for not wanting to debate more, finds himself incredibly vulnerable to a forum where he cannot pack the audience with fawning loyalists.

So he decides that the only feasible thing for him to do is to cancel the debate–but he can’t just do that, he has to come up with a whopper that’ll make it seem like he’s actually doing something good or even necessary; ergo his decision to use the bailout crisis, saying that he has to rush to Washington to manage things. But even that would just look like posturing, so he adds the element of suspending his campaign to make it look like an act of self-sacrifice. While tactically a good move for his campaign (he gets more publicity without spending money), this again does not benefit the country, and in fact hurts it, in two ways: by suspending the debate, he robs the country of a chance to judge the candidates more on the issues and their merits (not a surprise–McCain’s entire campaign has been based upon the strategy of dodging the issues), and by injecting himself and the GOP’s election focus on the bailout, he risks upsetting balances and compromises with volatile political moves.

But more to the point, McCain’s act is really nothing more than self-serving aggrandizement; just like his PR trip down to the areas preparing for Gustav, there is really nothing he can contribute, and only stands to get in the way and muck things up (Obama responsibly steered clear of relief efforts so as not to interfere with their progress, offering only whatever help was possible from afar). But McCain cares less about getting things done than he does about grabbing the political advantage; ironically, his “Country First” posturing, while attractive for the cameras, only makes things worse for the country so McCain can benefit politically. Not to mention that the cancellation would deal a huge blow to the university that has spent so much money and effort to host the debates.

Potentially, this suspension tactic has great advantages for McCain: he could avoid the debate where his own hand in the crisis could be put in the forefront, he could come out looking like a self-sacrificing, dutiful reformer while putting Obama in the position of either following McCain’s example or risk being seen as less dutiful, and stands to grab a big chunk of credit for a bailout when all he is doing is getting in the way. Whatever happens, one can bet that McCain will either take credit for any success or blame Obama for any failure. Not to mention that his call to suspend fundraising would primarily hurt Obama, as McCain gets his funding from the state. Bonus: McCain’s people are trying to use this to cancel Palin’s VP debate, apparently white-knuckled over what she might come across looking like.

There is also a risk: if the public sees this for what it is–a self-serving publicity stunt and an attempt to run from the debate–then McCain could see his numbers fall even more. (Dave Letterman has reportedly hit at McCain, saying: “He can’t run the campaign because the economy is cratering? Fine, put in your second string quarterback, Sara Palin. Where is she? What are you going to do if you’re elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We’ve got a guy like that now!”)

In the end, however, we come away with an even more enduring impression: John McCain is a long-shot gambler, prone to make lurching, desperate moves when he feels threatened politically, with more concern for his political career than for his country or the truth–a quality which speaks volumes about his character and his temperament.

This is not a man suited to be president.