Fresh from the “are you kidding me?” files: The Associated Press is reporting that Sen. Jon McCain is asking for Friday’s presidential debate on foreign policy be delayed because of the economic crisis, while CNN is reporting that the Obama campaign may have reached out to McCain about some sort of change to the debate earlier today (leading to the conclusion that McCain, rather than suspending his campaign, has tried to leverage some more faux-bipartisan leverage out of the deal by making it a press announcement.) That would be the economic crisis that McCain’s economic policy designer, Phil Gramm, helped start with his deregulation legislation.

Yes, he wants the debate suspended so that Mr. Keating Five himself can help fix the system he helped break and not, as many might have suspected, because his staff are trying to get him to learn the whole Sunni/Shi’ah, Iraq/Iran thing. Or that Spain isn’t in Latin America.

That aside, isn’t this the ideal time to be debating foreign policy since the big question has to be, exactly how much of that $700 billion bail-out is going to come from international loans, probably from China?

This article appears in September 19 • 2008.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.