McCain vs. the WSJ

Yes, today's lead Wall Street Journal editorial has bad things to say about both John McCain and Barack Obama's responses to the ongoing economic meltdown. But it also praises Obama's desire to hold Friday's presidential debate as scheduled:

Mr. Obama was right on the merits, and politically shrewd, to respond to Mr. McCain's suggestion to pospone Friday's debate by saying that "Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time. It's not necessary for us to think that we can only do one thing and suspend everything else.

The earliest and toughest criticism, meanwhile, is directed at McCain:

[C]ount us as mystified by Senator John McCain's decision yesterday to suspend his campaign and call for a postponement in Friday's first Presidential debate so that he and Barack Obama can work out a consensus bill to stabilize the financial system. This is supposed to be evidence of leadership?

In addition, the Journal notes the transparently political motives behind McCain's "suspension":

We...understand Mr. McCain's desire to further dress his campaign in "Country First" gilding, as if patriotism and consensus are one and the same, or that getting something done is more important than getting it done right.

If you're John McCain, you probably expect the Boston Globe ed page to disagree with you. But getting hammered by George Will and the WSJ in short succession has to hurt.