Not trying anything, just passing on how the media is playing this.
They are and will continue to focus on him saying one thing and doing another about the debate.
He has no choice but to explain it tonight or it is over.
I wouldn’t say it’s over if he doesn’t articulate it well, but it will hurt him badly if he fails to do so. Mac has a plan, and that plan is to say he is for the taxpayers and not for bailing out Wall Street millionaires and billionaires who created most of this mess, that he supports a prudent and careful approach to solving this crisis that will not create a whole new arm of the federal government and that Obama/Reid/Pelosi/Bush/Paulson is just more of the same and that same is failure. It’s all about leadership and experience, I hope he does it. Here is a press release from the McCain camp, read it, it explains exactly where Mac is coming from:
“Statement By McCain Campaign On Negotiations
John McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign was made in the hopes that politics could be set aside to address our economic crisis.
In response, Americans saw a familiar spectacle in Washington. At a moment of crisis that threatened the economic security of American families, Washington played the blame game rather than work together to find a solution that would avert a collapse of financial markets without squandering hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ money to bailout bankers and brokers who bet their fortunes on unsafe lending practices.
Both parties in both houses of Congress and the administration needed to come together to find a solution that would deserve the trust of the American people. And while there were attempts to do that, much of yesterday was spent fighting over who would get the credit for a deal and who would get the blame for failure. There was no deal or offer yesterday that had a majority of support in Congress. There was no deal yesterday that included adequate protections for the taxpayers. It is not enough to cut deals behind closed doors and then try to force it on the rest of Congress — especially when it amounts to thousands of dollars for every American family.
The difference between Barack Obama and John McCain was apparent during the White House meeting yesterday where Barack Obama’s priority was political posturing in his opening monologue defending the package as it stands. John McCain listened to all sides so he could help focus the debate on finding a bipartisan resolution that is in the interest of taxpayers and homeowners. The Democratic interests stood together in opposition to an agreement that would accommodate additional taxpayer protections.
Senator McCain has spent the morning talking to members of the Administration, members of the Senate, and members of the House. He is optimistic that there has been significant progress toward a bipartisan agreement now that there is a framework for all parties to be represented in negotiations, including Representative Blunt as a designated negotiator for House Republicans. The McCain campaign is resuming all activities and the Senator will travel to the debate this afternoon. Following the debate, he will return to Washington to ensure that all voices and interests are represented in the final agreement, especially those of taxpayers and homeowners.”