Washington, Sept. 26 : A consultant to the Republican Party has said that its candidate -- Senator John McCain – has taken a big risk by suspending his campaign this week. 

Fox News quoted Chris Coffey as saying that McCain has taken four risks that could ultimately tell on the performance of his campaign in the run up to the presidential poll and in its aftermath.

He said that the first “obvious” risk is that the Democrats will argue that Senator McCain cannot multi-task. 

According to Coffey, this fuels all of the other negative themes relating to Senator McCain’s health and age, which at this point, remain unfounded.

Secondly, the Democrats will say that McCain is afraid to debate Senator Obama.

Third, all will wonder whether the suspension of his campaign is a gimmick. This gambit, he says, will only feed the perception that Republicans are resorting to cynical trickery. Such an image runs contrary to Senator McCain’s image of the straight talk maverick.

And finally, others will see bitter partisanship masked as a bipartisan overture.

McCain delivered an implicit ultimatum to Obama: suspend your campaign, cancel the debate, and high tail it to D. C. — or tempt the perception of being one who puts politics before country.

Ultimatums are delivered to defenseless foes, not to vital opponents. They are a form of intimidation intended to trigger subservience. That is why McCain now risks looking like a duplicitous bully with little interest in bipartisan cooperation, even though he has spent a lifetime cultivating the opposite image. (ANI)