John McCain: The Candidate of the Infantile Id

Here’s the thing I can’t get past. John McCain is a screeching prima donna who seems to neither know nor care about the ramifications of his actions. By throwing the question of tonight’s debate into turmoil, the Senator has disrupted the lives of thousands of people. All of the journalists and tech people traveling to Oxford are left with now-worthless (and presumably non-refundable) plane tickets on their hands and literal tons of stranded broadcast equipment. All the people who bought tickets to the event are potentially S.O.L., and the University of Mississippi is screwed out of millions of dollars and a year and a half of planning.

As the podiums were receiving a final polish, exasperated officials from the university took to the airwaves to say that they had been preparing for this big event for 18 months, and had invested $5.5 million (£3 million) in it – a figure that people here found easier to get a handle on than the $700 billion being demanded by President Bush to rescue Wall Street.

At trestle tables volunteers sat ready to hand out 3,000 press credentials. Roads throughout the area had been closed down. The Secret Service checked for bombs. In Oxford’s town square, around its Confederate war memorial, shop windows were decorated with “Debate ’08!” The headline in The Daily Mississippian read, above a picture of Mr McCain: “Will he show?”Assuming that he will, their encounter will be a critical moment.