McCain Suspends Campaign to Help With Bailout

FoxNews ^ | 9/24/08 | Sharon Kehnemui Liss, FOXNews.com

[GatorGirl]

The “a President needs to multi-task” is an idiotic statement.

We’re not asking him to handle two crises at a time, there is only one crisis and one debate and he’s such a lightweight he needs three days in the Florida sunshine to prepare?

No, this says “McCain = Action; Obama = Talk”.

[beckysueb]

Just like Obama to bring a foreign policy advisor to a presser on an economic crisis.

[mass55th]

"Not arguing, but he never debated McClellan?"

I couldn't find anything regarding election debates between the two. John C. Fremont was the "peace" candidate, but he dropped out in September of '64. I did see that the Dems held their convention at the Amphitheatre in Chicago in '64. Guess they never learn.

[Salamander]

I keep trying to believe that’s not true but I never was very good at lying to myself.

The Democrat party is the modern day equivalent of medieval castle sappers.

[FreeReign]

Senator McCain going to Washington on this is a good thing.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions but the undecideds don't care about intentions. They care about what they see. They see this last minute suspension of his campaign and debate.

No. They see the last minute suspension of his campaign and debate AND they see him going to Washington to address the important issue.

They see his campaign backpedaling and telling ABC tonight that they want to move the first Presidental debate back to the date of the VP debate and then push the VP debate back.

Again, they see him delaying the debate AND they see him going to Washington to address the important issue.

[beckysueb]

What makes you think its a gimmick? Isn’t it possible that John McCain really cares more about his country then a stupid debate? He has already shown what he is willing to go through for his country. I noticed you signed up about 3 weeks ago. Signed up in time for election night, I suppose. One thing you should know about FR. We don’t shut down on election night and throw a pissing contest if we lose like DU does. We just pick ourselves up and dust off and go back to work so if you signed up to watch a meltdown, you won’t get it.

[adc]

Or,
McCain=Action, Obama=Re-Action. Not very leaderlike.

[spokeshave]

"Is the financial crisis severe? Yes, but we've known that for months (and in some cases years). If John McCain just realized that today, then he is even more clueless than Obama"

Not so fast grasshopper...

McCain (and Bush for that matter) has recognized the problems with Fannie and Freddie over the past several years....and his proposed legislation to reign in those organizations has been rejected by democrats.

[beckysueb]

I like it!

[Lusis]

I see the calls for Palin to campaign while the other 3 are in session, and that’s the LAST thing she should do. It will make this whole thing to be a cheap stunt. What she NEEDS to do is get in and lend here presence to the house and senate, and SHOW the American people that she is ready to get in the trenches with the big boys and get things done.

[beckysueb]

Dingy Harrys’ wife must really hate herself to put herself through the torment of having to wake up beside his sourfaced ass everyday.

[beckysueb]

I think that was Bush 41, wasn’t it?

[af_vet_rr]

Again, they see him delaying the debate AND they see him going to Washington to address the important issue.

You give the undecideds way too much credit. Our society, for better or for worse, is all about image these days. Substance doesn't matter like it used to.

The key to winning this election is not about how the base feels (Lord knows it's not about how we feel - otherwise we'd have a different Republican running for President).

The key is image, and the undecideds are not thinking "John McCain is going to Washington to work on something".

The undecideds are thinking "why is Bush interrupting my TV show". They are thinking about what movie they are going to go see this weekend. Financial matters - they are thinking about how much candy they can sneak into the theater in their wife's purse, not about Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.

You and I and others can stay on this merry-go-round - you and others can defend McCain and I and others will point out that McCain's reasoning doesn't matter. Meanwhile, the people who lap up the latest Lindsey Lowan or Brittany Spears rumors are thinking McCain chickened out and he's trying to delay Palin's debate. It bugs the hell out of me, but a lot of those types are the ones who make up the swing voters and McCain is losing that vote.

[af_vet_rr]

McCain (and Bush for that matter) has recognized the problems with Fannie and Freddie over the past several years....and his proposed legislation to reign in those organizations has been rejected by democrats.

If you are talking about what he was proposing three years ago, the swing voters, the undecideds - they don't care what he was proposing three years ago. Hell, they couldn't tell you the last three pieces of legislation John McCain proposed or even what he was doing three days ago.

They are going to wonder why McCain got such a sense of urgency two days before the biggest debate in his political career.

They might wonder why he didn't have this sense of urgency two weeks or two months ago.

Some of them will even say "why didn't McCain have this sense of urgency when my 401k started going downhill in the spring".

The undecideds/swing voters will decide this election. Hillary ignored them, and Obama upset her. Al Gore and John Kerry ignored them in Ohio, Florida, and elsewhere, and with Rove's guidance, Bush won.

McCain needs to worry a lot more about these swing voters and the impression he is giving them, because if he doesn't, he definitely won't have to worry about changing houses come January.

[dfwgator]

Well said, and once again this proves why Senators make for poor Presidential candidates. And this time we’re stuck with two of them.

[maine-iac7]

Yeah, you know what, I think you’re right. It was not so much an interesting, “maverick” move on the part of McCain — it was a mandatory directive from Bush.

Nice try - but no sale.

McCain made his announcement hours before Bush called them - proof is that the obambi said he wouldn't go - then many hours later, AFTER Pres.Bush called him and 'suggested' he show up too = he decided he'd best 'go to work' also.

Nice try though.

[maine-iac7]

I hate to say it, but Obama is right: a President needs to know how to multi-task and this makes McCain look silly for suggesting he can’t do his elected job (senator) and run for office when virtually everyone else is doing it.

You may not have noticed, but the country is facing what could be it's worst financial meltdown in over 70 years = keeping this house of cards from folding in on itself means a swift solution - not an easy thing with a Congress that hasn't managed to pass a major appropriations bill in 2 years.

If they don't get this thing settled by Friday afternoon, they well may have to work "overtime." And I pose to you that no matter how good you are at 'multitasking' = you cannot be physically in two different states at the same time.

Some things take priority over others. Will the country have a major collapse if the debates are postponed a week or so? I hardly doubt it.

Is there that danger if this crisis drags on even into next week? Quite possibly.

I prefer a leader who can tell the difference/

[beckysueb]

and Letterman's people catching McCain going on CBS News to talk to Couric instead of being on Letterman's show.

I think that is Palin going on Courics' show.

[I see my hands]

You said: "get back to me" It's not my obligation to justify to you what I do with what is mine. It's up to you to cite the authority that allows you to claim what isn't yours. You're bitching about a bailout. Why? Because fat cat Wall Street types might benefit? You said: "And why not [provide for the government limiting executive compensation in a bailout bill?]" That isn't what's wrong with a bailout. What is wrong with a bailout is the interference in the market. And that's what is wrong with your view, i.e., you want to interfere.

You said: "Wall Street types should be thankful that they are not being carted away to prison pending trial for the crimes that’ve committed". I asked: "What crimes? Who committed the crimes? Who deserves to be carted off? Why aren't they being carted off? To whom should Wall Street types and fat cats be thankful?". No reply.

You said: "If the taxpayers are propping up a business, we’re investors and it becomes our business." How so? Who says? How does that work?

You said: "LOL - unbelievable!" You're all buzzed. High on emotion.

I've got to caramelize a few onions. Have a nice night, chum...

[af_vet_rr]

You've named all Presidents. Obama and McCain (and Biden) are not President (or Vice-President). They are Senators seeking the highest offices in the land. And because they are Senators, they should be actively involved in the plan to save this economy. And if that means postponing a debate, or temporarily suspending a campaign, they should be willing to do so. Country first, not public office.

FDR, Lincoln, Truman, and Madison all held much greater responsibilities under much more trying circumstances than any Senator today, and they all found the time to run for office.

Hell, not only did Lincoln have to run against an active General in the US Army in the middle of the Civil War, but a group of Republicans broke off from the main party and were pushing John Fremont as the candidate for Republicans (think Ron Paul, only with more support).

If you are curious about Lincoln in '64, these are pretty good books - I've read the first two, and had the third recommended, just haven't picked it up:

Reelecting Lincoln: The Battle for the 1864 Presidency - focuses on Lincolon mainly
The Union Divided: Party Conflict in the Civil War North - good look at how much infighting was going on and how Lincoln had to deal with mid-term elections (remember, in 1862, there were plenty of people in the North still opposed to the war).
Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North - covers the opposition.

Most people do not realize just how skilled Lincoln was in party politics or that he was not that popular then. The maneuvering he did within the Republican party is very impressive, even when weighed against what we see in party politics today.

The War of 1812 was just as bad, if not worse - Madison won by less than 4% points, and his opposition was running on both a pro-war and anti-war platform, just like Obama's platform - it depended on where the Federalists campaigned as to whether the Federalists supported the war or opposed the war. Lincoln did face something similar with McClellan - McClellan ran pro-war messages while the Democrats pushed him to run anti-war messages (and would do so themselves behind his back).

In McCain's case, he's trying to fend off another Great Depression from taking place.

I don't know what they teach in public schools these days, but we aren't even close to that. No offense to you - you seem intelligent, but I run into younger folks all the time who throw the term "Great Depression" around without understanding just how bad it really was, and just how many things came together to cause it - here, in 2008, we have no equivalent to the tariffs of the Smoot-Hauley Tariff Act, we have no equivalent to the drought conditions and farming practices that turned some of our most productive farmland into dust (100 million+ acres), we don't have a huge portion of the population tied to agriculture (who became homeless because of the drought), we don't have the two largest countries in Europe devastated and still trying to recover from a war, we don't have an Asian empire starting to throw its weight around militarily and economically (although one could argue China is modern version of 1920s/1930s Japan).