Posted on 09/26/2008 1:15:10 PM PDT by Brookhaven
I have been trying to figure out why McCain is debating tonight. He said he would stay in Washington until the problem was solved, but that doesn't appear to be the case. If anything, it looks even more fractured than earlier this week. Why break his word about delaying the debate?
Ronald Reagan's most succesful moments are when he went over the heads of the press and talked directly to the American people. Is McCain going to use this opportunity to talk directly to the American people about the bailout?
If so, he is going to have to take over the debate and throw out the moderator. "Nothing personal Jim, but both Senator Obama and I have been involved in the negotiations going on in Washington, you haven't. You don't have enough uderstanding of what is going on to even ask the right questions. Senator Obama and I are going to lay out and discuss our positions."
If Obama objects, McCain can say "We are running for the most important job in the world, President of the United States. As Harry Truman said 'If you can't stand the heat, you should get out of the kitchen'"
A risky move, no doubt. But it would be something I could see McCain doing.
McCain’s not going to throw out the moderator, but I do think he’s going to go in there and talk about what he wants to talk about instead of answering the questions.
He needs to use the debate tonight as a bully pulpit to take his and the House GOP’s alternate plan directly to the people.
I believe this is what he will do, and I know it is what he must do.
HE SHOULD! PERIOD! ....and another thing -
conservatives should offer a (1) “TEMPORARY MEASURE” for 40 days on this bailout along with a (2) a “PERMANENT ONE” that they can stand on and put up for McCAIN and Republicans can stand on for the next 40 days and hold it up for an election mandate on NOV 4th.
I would love that. I'd also love McCain to discuss some of the history that got us to this point (especially the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005) and why the Democrats blocked it.
John has moved Obama’s cheese again. Obama doesn’t do well in anything but prerehearsed set-pieces and John took away rehearsal time and study time.
Look for Obama to use the word uh quite a bit as he tries to remember his lessons from three days ago.
Obama will also be afraid that John will bring up his blow up in the meeting yesterday. “My excitable friend..”.
John is messing with his head.
I like your idea.
Does he have a choice? :-}
Twice as many people will watch tonight because of this fracas.
McCain knows it.
Lets hope he shines.
Here’s how it will go:
Moderator: “Senator McCain, you supported the surge in Iraq...”
McCain: ‘Yes, I did, and my opponent opposed it. Which reminds me, we have a major financial crisis going on at the moment and here’s what I intend to do about it...”
Moderator: “Senator McCain you came out early and quickly condemned Russia’s invasion of Georgia...”
McCain: ‘Yes, I did, and my opponent took three days to come around to the correct point of view: mine. Which reminds me, we have a major financial crisis going on at the moment and here’s what I intend to do about it...”
Just keep hammering away.
I'm not sure how the temporary structure would be but I said from the start that McCain and the Republicans need a multi-point pledge of what they would do if elected to unravel and correct the internal financial issues championed by Democrats that created the crisis in the first place.
This would not only help McCain if the proposal and execution are done right but would make it possible to make great gains in congressional seats.
Hope so, because he has no friends in the press.
This debate is part of the world’s most important job interview. Frequently in job interviews in the corporate world, the interviewer says, “Tell me about yourself.” This questions, although dreaded by many job candidates, is a great opportunity to explain why you should be selected for the job, in this case, President of the United States.
This should be the first question in the debates. In this instance McCain could explain his part in the current bailout debate. Besides, it would be great fun to watch the Anointed One without his teleprompter go “Uh, er, eh, ah, DUH!” along with his deer in headlights expression. It would be a great opportunity to expose just how vacuous Obama truly is.
You are so right, Texan. The candidates are going to be expected to explain their position on this economic crisis clearly and firmly. Obama will just hem and haw and make no sense. McCain will be calm and clear. Obama is so afraid of telling the truth that he has to um and uh while he is searching for words. I predict he won’t actually say specifically what he supports.
Duh, he’s been going directly to the people for the last two months.
He’s going because he HAS to, otherwise O would have gotten 90 mins of free uncontested airtime to say whatever he wanted. Look, the whole “suspended campaign” was a knee-jerk idea, and like it or not his bluff was called. O won that one. It’s not the end of the world. If he DIDN’T show it might have been the end of the world though. He is making the right decision now. What he needs to do is take command at that debate and show America HE is in charge. O will be stuttering, McCain needs to seize on this and not let him get a word in. This is McCains night, he will win it, he will win it BIG.
W and McCain pulled the rug out from Øbama by making him improvise while he was supposed to be memorizing his debate lines. Øbama is painfully poor at improvising, and he will flail in the wind when he's put on the spot.
I'm counting on McCain to put him on the spot several times tonight, and he will do it with a smile.
John's use of tripping up his opponent and throwing him off balance could help bring us a more entertaining debate.
YouTube:
The subject for the debate was set long ago. They will stick to that subject: foreign affairs. However, questions could be phrased to encompass the financial/economic situation as it relates to foreign affairs.
I believe that Jim Lehrer will announce at the beginning that due to the financial crisis, they will spend the first 10mins (or whatever) on that, and then move to foreign affairs as orginally scheduled.
That’s my prediction
Actually, this might simply be semantics, but it means much to me. He asked them to postpone the debate. They would not. He is showing up. As it was so eloquently put, with new cheese. Now, even if he sticks to the subject, if the reports from the White House meeting yesterday were accurate, Team Zero has no idea how to prepare him for tonight.
Obama practiced on foreign policy. If Lehr asks questions about anything else it’s going to fun to watch Obama answer questions that weren’t asked. And the world will go, “Huh?”
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