By The River

So on the day that new polls show Barack Obama significantly widening his lead over John McCain, in large part because the public is terrified of the tanking economy and doesn't believe McCain has a clue, the Arizona senator dramatically "suspends" his campaign and asks that the Presidential debate scheduled for Friday night be postponed for the supposed good of the country. He wants to work with Obama to craft a consensus on a bail-out plan for the fat-cat bankers who got us into this mess, preferably without inconveniencing them in any way.

And when would the first debate be held? Why, it would be on Oct. 2 in place of the vice presidential debate. When would the vice presidential debate be held? Uh, they're working on that. At a later date. Sometime. Maybe during Game 7 of the World Series.

Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania pointed out to the New York Times that it was highly unlikely Congress would be in session on Friday at 9 p.m., when the first debate is scheduled. Obama, who has wisely rejected McCain's call to suspend his own campaign and postpone the first debate, said being President is nothing if not about multi-tasking several crises at once. He said the American people deserve to hear how he or McCain would handle the Wall Street crisis when one of them takes office in January.

This is a transparent political ploy by McCain to draw attention away from his slumping poll numbers and, even more importantly, to stop the vice presidential debate between his ball-and-chain, er, running mate, Sarah Palin and Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden. Judging by her halting performance in her interview with Katie Couric of CBS News broadcast tonight, McCain has real cause for concern.