I think the Obama camp just got suckerpunched.
The Obama campaign said Obama had called McCain around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday to propose that they issue a joint statement in support of a package to help fix the economy as soon as possible. McCain called back six hours later and agreed to the idea of the statement, the Obama campaign said. McCain's statement was issued to the media a few minutes later.
Now, before the joint statement is issued to the media.
McCain announces to the press the following:
Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign to return to Washington and focus on the "historic" crisis facing the U.S. economy.
So, now it looks like McCain is putting "country-first" and this halts the media narrative forming and makes McCain seem like a leader when, both Obama and McCain were going to issue joint statements.
Barack Obama can't now back out of the joint statement and he has to decide if he's going to look opportunistic while the country burns.
Damn, pretty good political move.
UPDATE:
I was just informed that Carter suspended his campaign during the Iran hostage crisis and Reagan didn't in 1980. So, the question is should Obama quit campaigning. Does anyone remember this? How did this affect Reagan?
UPDATE 2:
Didn't McCain do this with the immigration bill and with Obama?
UPDATED 3
Kos member Rimrocker makes a really good point in the comments:
We learned this week that Obama's spending on ads has increased by 50%. If McCain can get Obama to suspend his campaign, ane assumes that means cancelling all the current ad buys. The suspended period then shortens the ad buying time and allows McCain to more effectively match Obama in the closing weeks. If McCain tries to match now, he runs out of ammo for the final stretch.