George Will, of all people, made the case yesterday that John McCain is not suited to the presidency:

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated.

[…]

McCain’s smear — that Cox “betrayed the public’s trust” — is a harbinger of a McCain presidency. For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are “corrupt” or “betray the public’s trust,” two categories that seem to be exhaustive — there are no other people.

Will’s observation was on vivid display today, as John McCain suddenly suspended his campaign and asked for a postponement of Friday’s presidential debate, saying he needed to be in Washington at this time of crisis.  Maybe I’m cynical, but I don’t think anyone in Washington working on the financial industry bailout plan was saying “if only John McCain and Barack Obama were helping us, everything would be OK.”

Jesse Walker at Reason.com summed up McCain’s gambit thusly:

I’d rather debate pressing issues behind closed doors with my colleagues than on national TV where voters might see me.

McCain has had a rough week.  Obama is up in the polls and meddling reporters keep trying to ask his running mate questions.  It’s understandable that he might want to take on the mantle of the burdened leader, suspending his campaign for the good of the country.  But is it a good campaign strategy?  I think Barney Frank put it well:

“It’s the longest Hail Mary pass in the history of either football or Marys.”

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