Chief
09-11-2008, 09:40 AM
From Time Magazine:
They are a point or two apart in the polls. They seem to shadow each other from battleground state to battleground state. And now and they are hurling words at one another like longshoremen.
But on Thursday, September 11, John McCain and Barack Obama will take a break. A brief moment of silence will descend on the presidential campaign. Call it a pause. Or maybe a cease-fire.
Above all, call it temporary — and there's still a chance that it won't happen at all. (In fact, if you were in a betting mood, you might want to throw some money at the won't-happen-at-all option.)
But, in any case, here's the plan:
The two candidates will gather briefly at the site of the World Trade Center to mark the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in 2001. Neither man will speak at the site; they will instead bear witness to the tragedy that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pa., and left thousands of others wounded. It is enough that they would stand side-by-side to mark the anniversary. "We will put aside politics and come together," the two men said in a statement released jointly.
Earlier in the day, Obama will tackle another reconciliation mission when he has a long planned lunch with former President Bill Clinton in Harlem, the home of Clinton's post-Presidential offices. Later, in the evening, McCain and Obama will intersect again for half-hour appearances at a TIME-sponsored forum on national service at Columbia University.
The candidates will not speak together at the forum, but will participate in a discussion about national service with TIME managing editor Rick Stengel and PBS's Judy Woodruff.
Said one midwestern Republican, "Obama and McCain are having a playdate on Thursday."
The break in the action comes at a moment when the nation seems anything but peaceful and its politics far from unified. In the last several days, the presidential campaign has taken on a desperate — and at times downright pathetic — turn.
Longtime Democrats have been spooked right to the edge of their windowsills by the resurgence of McCain and his superstar running mate Sarah Palin.
Republicans, meanwhile, have sunk to familiar depths in accusing Obama of championing sex education for kindergarteners and seizing on an innocent but perhaps ill-timed comment by Obama about lipstick and a pig to suggest that the Demcoratic nominee was making sexist asides.
Perhaps this little timeout is just what everybody needs, to reassess the campaign's trajectory — maybe even restore some class to the operation. But should peace break out between the principals, its impact would be muted unless the campaigns muzzle their packs of opposition bloodhounds, counter-punchers and surrogates who produce round-the-clock emails to supporters and reporters about their rivals' many shortcomings.
Now there's a proposition with long odds
They are a point or two apart in the polls. They seem to shadow each other from battleground state to battleground state. And now and they are hurling words at one another like longshoremen.
But on Thursday, September 11, John McCain and Barack Obama will take a break. A brief moment of silence will descend on the presidential campaign. Call it a pause. Or maybe a cease-fire.
Above all, call it temporary — and there's still a chance that it won't happen at all. (In fact, if you were in a betting mood, you might want to throw some money at the won't-happen-at-all option.)
But, in any case, here's the plan:
The two candidates will gather briefly at the site of the World Trade Center to mark the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in 2001. Neither man will speak at the site; they will instead bear witness to the tragedy that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pa., and left thousands of others wounded. It is enough that they would stand side-by-side to mark the anniversary. "We will put aside politics and come together," the two men said in a statement released jointly.
Earlier in the day, Obama will tackle another reconciliation mission when he has a long planned lunch with former President Bill Clinton in Harlem, the home of Clinton's post-Presidential offices. Later, in the evening, McCain and Obama will intersect again for half-hour appearances at a TIME-sponsored forum on national service at Columbia University.
The candidates will not speak together at the forum, but will participate in a discussion about national service with TIME managing editor Rick Stengel and PBS's Judy Woodruff.
Said one midwestern Republican, "Obama and McCain are having a playdate on Thursday."
The break in the action comes at a moment when the nation seems anything but peaceful and its politics far from unified. In the last several days, the presidential campaign has taken on a desperate — and at times downright pathetic — turn.
Longtime Democrats have been spooked right to the edge of their windowsills by the resurgence of McCain and his superstar running mate Sarah Palin.
Republicans, meanwhile, have sunk to familiar depths in accusing Obama of championing sex education for kindergarteners and seizing on an innocent but perhaps ill-timed comment by Obama about lipstick and a pig to suggest that the Demcoratic nominee was making sexist asides.
Perhaps this little timeout is just what everybody needs, to reassess the campaign's trajectory — maybe even restore some class to the operation. But should peace break out between the principals, its impact would be muted unless the campaigns muzzle their packs of opposition bloodhounds, counter-punchers and surrogates who produce round-the-clock emails to supporters and reporters about their rivals' many shortcomings.
Now there's a proposition with long odds