Bill Clinton: McCain acted in "Good Faith" on Debate Delay

ABCNews ^ | 09-25-08 | Nitya Venkataraman

[Federalist Society]

Former President Bill Clinton defended Sen. John McCain's request to delay the first presidential debate, saying McCain did it in "good faith" and pushed organizers to reserve time for economy talk during the debate if the Friday plans move forward.

Appearing on Good Morning America Thursday, Clinton told ABC News' Chris Cuomo that McCain's push to postpone the debate would only be a good political move if both candidates agreed. McCain announced on Wednesday that he would "suspend" his presidential campaign to come to Washington to help negotiate a financial bailout bill "We know he didn't do it because he's afraid because Sen. McCain wanted more debates," Clinton said, adding that he was "encouraged" by the joint statement from McCain and Sen. Barack Obama.

[CedarDave]

McCain is appearing (or appeared) at some Clinton global something or another. This is Slick’s way of saying “thanks.”

[Tenacious 1]

“Just call me if you need me.”

This sounds like a real leader. “I’ll be out here running for president. Let me know if you think I can do anything to help the situation. Otherwise, I’ll just show up to vote present when the deal is ready.”

[Gulf War One]

I think the Clintonistas are smelling an Obama election loss and are starting their 2012 run now.

Respectfully disagree. If an Obama loss were a given right now, the Clintons would protect their Dem bona fides by bashing McCain. That they are not tells me that the race is uncomfortably close right now. The Clintons seem to be doing everything short of outright campaigning for McCain-Palin and I find that a bit worrisome. I look forward to a time when they feel free to again criticize the GOP ticket.

[Perdogg]

Who cares! I’ll take Al Davis’ advice.

[Question Liberal Authority]

I don’t think Bill Clinton cares if Hillary wins or not. At this point, he is the most powerful living Democrat and the most successful Democrat politician in the last 60 years.

[dmz]

LOL. Strategery. That’s what this is.

If you get Bill Clinton to say enough nice things about McCain, that Bill and John see eye to eye on a lot of things ... conservatives will dump McCain as quickly as they flocked to him after the Palin selection.

/tongue in cheek

[Question Liberal Authority]

The only question left is, does Bill Clinton’s support of McCain help or hurt McCain? At this point it is difficult to say.

HELPS. Are you kidding? Draw a Venn Diagram if you need to.

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

It doesn’t matter if Senator Obama was in washington or not, he’d only end up voting present anyway.

[StAntKnee]

“This was Obama’s first 3am call, and he missed it completely.”

Post of the day already?

Nice one.

[HamiltonJay]

Fauxbama just lost the election. I feel he had it lost long before this, but his actions here guaranteed it.

What’s the dem talking heads going to say? All evidence is McCain lead while Fauxbama floundered.

Country First vs Fauxbama First, no greater example than what has just happened.

[CommerceComet]

Promising a “very bipartisan approach” to how he’ll run his administration, Sen. John McCain said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he would appoint Democrats to his Cabinet.

Fine depending on which Democrats he picks and for what positions.

[NonValueAdded]

What's remarkable to me is that Bill Clinton, of all people, is a more even-handed commentator on this election than the MSM.

Yep, a real mind bender.

[The South Texan]

The Clintons do not want Obama to win. They don’t want to be known in the history books as losing to the first AA President. And Clinton is still PO’ed about the race card being pulled on him and the way the party in general left him and Hillary during the primaries.

[CommerceComet]

This was Obama’s first 3am call, and he missed it completely.

His response has been "I'll deal with it in the morning" and then roll and go back to sleep.

[dfwgator]

Expect when the bailout bill is signed, it will also have Hillary written all over it,along with McCain.

That is the ultimate “worse case scenario” for Obama.

[GnL]

My question was half in jest. And what the hell is a Venn diagram? Stop throwing fancy schmancy terminology around here. Some of us actually went to publik skool, albeit 25 years ago.

[goresalooza]

I still think the clintonistas got an “in” somehow and made Plugs Biden Obama’s pick. I don’t know how they did it or who they greased but they must have highly placed rats within the Obama campaign.

LOL! Biden is a complete idiot and Bubba is laughing like mad. The clintooons are definitely laying the groundwork for 2012.

[r9etb]

And what the hell is a Venn diagram? Stop throwing fancy schmancy terminology around here. Some of us actually went to publik skool, albeit 25 years ago.

The general idea is that there is a "space" where A is true, and a space where B is true. Where they overlap is where both are true. Where they don't, is that portion of the "space" where one or the other is true, but not both.

As an example, you might place "characteristics of horses" in one circle, and "characteristics of dogs" in the other. There are certain "horse" or "dog" aspects that are unique; but others where they're similar.

And, fwiw, my kids go to public school and learned about Venn Diagrams in 3rd or 4th grade....

[aculeus]

Keep it up, Billy Boy.

[r9etb]

I still think the clintonistas got an “in” somehow and made Plugs Biden Obama’s pick. I don’t know how they did it or who they greased but they must have highly placed rats within the Obama campaign.

Actually, no ... I think Obama's choice of Biden is pretty similar to Bush 41's pick of Dan Quayle -- superficially attractive, but not really a threat to the image of the main candidate.

Unlike Bush41, however, Obama had the added burden of having to add "experience" to his ticket, to combine with the necessary blandness.

Enter Biden. If he were a car, he'd be a top-end model from American Motors.