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AP reports:
Republican John McCain says he’s going to be at the first presidential debate, even though Congress doesn’t have a bailout deal.
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back to top48 Comments to “McCain to debate tonight”
Yipee! He must have saved the country!
Amazing. The guy invented the Blackberry, and now this?
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Isn’t the first debate suppose to be about foreign policy?
How are they going to be able to discuss that at this time?
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This just in: McCain WINS Debate! http://tinyurl.com/4qedfy
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Didn’t McSame say he wouldn’t debate until the Looter legislation was finished?
Is this another flip flop?
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This just in: McCain WINS Debate!
http://tinyurl.com/4qedfy
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Reality 1
McCain 0
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Wonkette, MyDD, Huffington Post and other are laughing at McCain. Apparently some online ads have already run that read “McCain WINS Debate”!
P.S. – Noticed that even WMB was too distracted by this to notice how poorly Sarah Palin did with Katie Courick.
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GL (#1),
You are being kind of dumb when you apply Al Gore’s internet phoniness and conceit to John McCain. Nobody here is buying that lie. I’m sure that after tonight’s debate we will be able to see the genuine McCain and Obama without your condescension and distortions.
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I’m waiting for someone, anyone to defend McCain’s actions over the last couple of days.
This guy is supposed to be a seasoned veteran, a guy good in a crisis, and even, whatever this means today, a “maverick”.
Yet he is running around in circles, contradicting himself radically almost every day and still has never once told anyone what he wants to have happen. He seems to have no principles other than that of demanding that everyone pay attention to him to see which windmill he is going to next espy and attack with his steely glare.
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With respect, Michael Martin, I’ve aleady seen the genuine McCain and Obama, even with his condescension and distortions.
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OK, Arcadia (#9), I’ll bite.
I’m not sure I agree with his decision (to attempt to delay the debate), but I believe that what McCain intended to do was to show the voters how important this issue (the economic “crisis”) is to him. The fact that, in hindsight, it apparently didn’t work (with the voters) doesn’t mean it was a bad idea.
In other words, when I look at his intention, I’m not so sure that it was so bad of a idea, at the time. The voters were/are saying, “why doesn’t somebody do something?,” and the pundits/talking heads were all saying that both Obama and McCain were dithering, and not saying/doing anything specific, concrete or helpful. This was McCain’s way of saying, “I am doing something!”
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McCain is running for President because of a desire to serve his country. Obama is running for President because of a desire to become President – painfully obvious.
#10 – Amen – Obama’s condescension and distortions.
The debate should be fun. Direct answers from McCain and tortured wordiness (zzzzzzz) from Obama. He should have agreed to postpone it…………for the good of the country.
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Actually, McCain was brought back to Washington to shore up Republican support for a resolute solution to this serious financial crisis. Yesterday he listened carefully to all sides on the issue and urged the recalcitrant Congressmen who are blocking Paulson’s proposal, to get back into the discussion, resulting in Rep. Blunt being delegated as the House’s spokesman in the negotiations.
The McCain campaign has issued the following statement that is a good summary of the situation:
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.
One hopes that McCain will have sufficient energy and wit tonight to thoughtfully debate Obama.
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McCain’s strong suit is allegedly defense/national security/foreign stuff. Why would he NOT attend this debate? If it were on budget/finance/econ I could see McCain calling in with a headache to cancel. But c’mon folks!
Even the OBama partisans concede McCain has much more cred with tonight’s topics. But who here doesnt acknowledge our own economic poop pile makes the whole world stink?
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Luke, that is hilarious!
And I do hope to see a WMB thread on Sarah Palin’s Couric interviews. They depress me. I had hoped it was just the simplistic rhetoric of one idiot president. But, no, some Americans really do see the world as eight-year-olds playing army: good guys versus bad guys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58d1HBGaegY
It depresses me that one of them has even a remote chance of becoming a leader of our nation. At least Bush had the good grace not to discuss his absurd Manichean philosophy in such stark terms?
Really, Governor? “Good guys” and “bad guys”?
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PaulR (#12):
I didn’t decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. . . . In truth, I’d had the ambition for a long time.
John McCain, Worth the Fighting For, 2002.
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I don’t get the attacks on McCain over this.
If Obama had agreed to postpone the debate, it would’ve been a bipartisan gesture that really wouldn’t have favored either side. But instead the Democrats made an issue over a bipartisan gesture, preferring political attack to a gesture of unity and working together.
And if Obama refused to suspend his campaign and the debates, McCain couldn’t do so, could he? He wanted Obama’s agreement. Without it, the debate will go on.
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Peter Leavitt: Where, in all the blather in that McCain release does he say anything about what he wants to see in the package? His total silence about anything of substance is a sign of utter, craven, political cowardice.
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The debate is on for tonight? Good!
Bottom line – McCain panicked. He ran back to Washington to try and salvage his party because he knows that the electorate is going to hold them accountable on Nov. 4th. It was done purely for political damage control and the election. Remember, McCain has admitted he doesn’t know much about the economy other than that it’s “fundamentally strong” and the American people are a bunch of “whiners”.
“McCain/SnowJob SquareGlasses: Because America hasn’t suffered enough!”
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#5 “McCain Wins Debate”
No wonder he had to change his mind!
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One of the sad-funny aspects of this is that on Tuesday, three days after the 3 page Paulson proposal had been released, and both Houses had been negotiating for two days, McCain told a reporter that he couldn’t comment on it because he hadn’t even read it yet. One day later, he suspended his campaign and charged off to the rescue. I really do suspect that he has STILL not read it.
Peter Leavitt; Perhaps you can tell us WHAT DOES McCAIN WANT that is not already in the package. I’ve been looking for the House REpublican counter-proposal, which he may or may not have endorsed yesterday, but can’t find it.
And, incidentally, while “wit” and “energy” are nice qualities to “hope” your candidate has, real debates are won, and countries better led, by knowledge, analysis, reasoning, intellect, promise-keeping and consistency.
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Two more for PaulR:
*****
The Arizona senator expressed regret for that stance on Wednesday, telling the audience of Republicans: “I feared that if I answered honestly, I could not win the South Carolina primary. So I chose to compromise my principles.”
John McCain, April 2000
*****
Palley: There was a local issue, a political issue, over whether the confederate flag should fly over the state capital. You waffled on that.
McCain: Yes. Worse than waffled.
Palley: What do you mean?
McCain: Well, I said that it was strictly a state issue, clearly knowing that it wasn’t.
Palley: That’s not what you believed in your heart?
McCain: No.
Palley: What did you believe in your heart?
McCain: That it was a very offensive symbol to many many Americans.
Palley: Why did you say that?
McCain: I’m sure for all the wrong reasons.
Palley: And those wrong reasons would be…
McCain: Were ambition. For votes.
Youtube video, around the 5:45 mark
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Arcadia, McCain has been in daily conversation with Paulson and supports Paulson’s bailout plan, except that he wants more oversight of it by a bi-partisan board of finanially savvy leaders including Bloomberg and Romney.
Yesterday, knowing that the House Republicans are wary of the Paulson plan, McCain spent time trying to get them to take a better part in the discussion, resulting in Rep. Blunt being appointed to represent the House Republicans in the negotiations.
Your remark about McCain that His total silence about anything of substance is a sign of utter, craven, political cowardice merely reveals both your own ignorance of the situation and your usual mean spiritednsess of discussion.
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Peter Leavitt:
According to people present at the hour long meeting that McCain called, McCain said nothing for the first 40 minutes, then at the end said nothing of substance. He only questioned the compromise deal that they had been hammering out, without adding any specific proposals of his own.
[McCain] found himself in the midst of a remarkable partisan showdown, lacking a clear public message for how to bring it to an end.
At the bipartisan White House meeting that Mr. McCain had called for a day earlier, he sat silently for more than 40 minutes [of the hour-long meeting], more observer than leader, and then offered only a vague sense of where he stood, said people in the meeting.
…there was no evidence that he was playing a major role in the frantic efforts on Capitol Hill to put a deal back together again.
…as a matter of political appearances, the day’s events succeeded most of all in raising questions about precisely why Mr. McCain had called for postponing the first debate and returned to Washington to focus on the bailout plan, and what his own views were about what should be done.
NY Times
So why exactly did he rush back to Washington and call a meeting if he had nothing to say?
It looks to me like Campaign First.
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In contrast, here’s real leadership:
“What I’ve found, and I think it was confirmed today, is that when you inject presidential politics into delicate negotiations, it’s not necessarily as helpful as it needs to be,” Mr. Obama told reporters Thursday evening. “Just because there is a lot of glare of the spotlight, there’s the potential for posturing or suspicions.”
“When you’re not worrying about who’s getting credit, or who’s getting blamed, then things tend to move forward a little more constructively,” he said.
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Apart from McCain’s intentions, whatever they may have been, I think this is going to wind up a huge strategic blunder for him.
It looked like he was running away from the debate and his low poll numbers. He made an unprecedented call to suspend the democratic process six weeks before an election, and now that he’s decided to debate anyway even though a deal hasn’t been struck, he’s going to look rash and indecisive.
Furthermore, his stunt has now guaranteed that the first debate, which was supposed to be about foreign policy, supposedly his strong suit, will include some substantial economic questions, his admitted weakness. Where he initially had the chance to come away from the debate looking much more experienced and knowledgeable, that picture will now be muddied with the inevitable media attention that will be lavished on the 10-15 minutes of economy questions. One of those will probably be, “why did you suspend your campaign, what did you accomplish by doing so, and why did you then un-suspend it the very next day even though your conditions weren’t met?”
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jjf, don’t believe everything you read in the New York Times, which routinely denigrates Mccain. McCain is in fact quietly and effectively trying to shore up Republican support for Paulson’s bailout plan. He came back to Washington mainly at the behest of Paulson to see what he could do about shoring up support for the bailout. McCain is well aware that the country is in a severe economic crisis and doing what he can to influence a resolute solution to it.
Jim Geraghty makes a salirnt point on this issue as follows:
Notice that they never explain how John McCain, simply by arriving inside the Beltway, somehow broke up a consensus that was there earlier in the day. If McCain had come in and persuaded people to oppose the bill, it would be a different story. But the message of Pelosi, Reid, Dodd and Obama is, “McCain is here, so it must be his fault.”
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Peter Leavitt: That’s just one of the 4 principles enunciated by Obama way back on Sunday. It was already in the negotiated plan by Monday or Tuesday and annouced as having been agreed to by Republican Senators and Reps on Wednesday. So tell me again why he suspended his campaign and flew so (well, really not so) hurriedly back to Washington? WHAT ELSE DOES HE WANT?
Does he want the rump Republican plan which apparently completely overhauls the Paulson structure and calls for freer financial markets and reductions in capital gains taxes? He certainly hasn’t denounced it and according to one CBS report on the meeting yesterday he did support it in the meeting Wednesday. Does he want to remove the executive compensation provisions, and equity ownership provisions which were also negotiated and announced as having been agreed to? What does he want??
He hasn’t told us. He is a coward and I am beginning to wonder if he isn’t a bit daft. Perhaps if you can provide an example of his political courage within the last couple of weeks…?
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Here is an excerpt from the CBS story.
What caught some by surprise, either at the White House meeting or shortly before it, was the sudden momentum behind a dramatically different plan drafted by House conservatives with Minority Leader John Boehner’s blessing.
Instead of the government buying the distressed securities, the new plan would have banks, financial firms and other investors that hold such loans pay the Treasury to insure them. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., a chief sponsor, said it was clear that Mr. Bush’s plan “was not going to pass the House.”
But Democrats said the same was true of the conservatives’ plan. It calls for capital gains tax cuts and insurance provisions the majority party will not accept, they said.
At one point in the White House meeting, according to two officials, McCain voiced support for Ryan’s criticisms of the administration’s proposal. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, angrily demanded to know what plan McCain favored.
These officials also said that as tempers flared, Mr. Bush struggled at times to maintain control. At one point, several minutes into the session, Obama said it was time to hear from McCain. According to a Republican who was there, “all he said was, ‘I support the principles that House Republicans are fighting for.’”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/26/politics/printable4479673.shtml
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I haven’t read the details of either plan, but I’m not in favor of nationalizing losses while the corporations keep the profits. And I’m especially not in favor of this clause:
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
We’re setting up a financial dictator with unilateral, unreviewable powers. That is not representative government.
If the House Republicans’ plan does away with the unilateral power and forces these big institutions to pay for insurance, I favor it over the plan backed by Democrats and the Bush administration. But the capital gains tax cuts and such need to get cut out.
So as I understand the plans (and my understanding is imperfect at best), I’d like to see our representatives work from the House Republicans’ plan, strip capital gains cuts, strip the creation of a financial dictator, and add a moratorium on foreclosures or some other measure to help out consumers. (On the grounds that it is deeply unfair that consumers pay with their taxes to bail out the companies who sold them volatile loans and took their houses when the loans didn’t pan out.)
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McCain blinked
Sarah doesn’t blink — they’re still trying to figure out how to cancel her debate….
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inTrade.com has McSame down another 1.4 today.
Could he run a more erratic and desperate campaign?
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“It just proves his campaign is governed by tactics and not ideology. In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The ’steady hand in a storm’ argument looks now to more favor Obama, not McCain… My guess is that plasma units are rushing to the McCain campaign as we speak to replace the blood flowing there from the fights among the staff.”
– Former McCain adviser Craig Shirley
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JJF: As noted, the announced compromise principles from earlier this week included substantial bi-partisan oversight of the Treasury Secretary. That portion of his plan was a non-starter and everybody quickly agreed on that.
To praise the House Republicans’ plan for including that is sort of like praising them for being in favor of oxygen.
What remains mysterious to all is what McCain’s position on any other part of either plan is.
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On a somewhat more personal note, while I am not a big Obama fan,
I am particularly moved by the fact that this Presidential debate will be held on a campus where, while I was in elementary school, Mr Obama would not even have been allowed to set foot.
That is heartening evidence that, ever so slowly, justice, fairness and reason will triumph over hatred, prejudice and bigotry. One of the people who made an enormous sacrifice to make that happen in 1960’s Mississippi was an elementary school teacher at my school and another was a classmate’s father who ran the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Dept. So, wherever you are, Mrs Fowler, and Mr. Marshall thank you, thank you on behalf of all of us.
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The most hilarious thing happened….Obama was nominated by the DNC to run for Prez…and they’ve been running around like be-headed chickens ever since.
Not the candidates, campaign teams or the media (although they have as well…) … but the libs on this blog.
Keep foaming boys… it sure is hilarious to watch!!
I’m truly going to enjoy the day after the election when the Big BO can slop back into obscurity.
Yee-haw!
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Should have been “slip” back into obscurity…
…or not.
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Arcadia,
There is nothing to defend. The left came out on TV at least 3 times yesterday, lying to the American public as usual, that a deal had been wrapped up, wanting to make themselves look important before McCain got into town – and trying to make him look oh so wrong and unnecessary at all costs as a result. This was after the leader of the Republican representatives went on TV twice yesterday telling the truth – that Democrats had not even talked to them yet and there is no deal except one to nowhere and only in the small minds of the Democratic leadership.
It didn’t help that the insane, in childish, leadership of the left Barney, Nancy, Harry and Chris spent all day blaming the Republicans especially McCain for this financial crisis. This really pissed off the entire Republican contingency walked out – poof no deal. McCain wasn’t even back in town yet.
Then McCain came back in to town, way after the deal that never was anything but a bald face lie blew up. Like always the adults finally took over. They once again went on TV Senators and Representative to say for the millions time that there was no deal and this plan proposed by the left as a done deal was dead as it always was.
The Democrats, as usual, were lying all along, had loaded this bill up with pork like they did the $300 Billion housing bill where amongst other pork they gave hundreds of millions to Acorn. Then there appeared million more for Acorn in this bill amongst much more. Obama was also Acorn’s lawyer and trainer when he was passing out clean needles to crack hoes as a community activist. Well McCain is the anti earmark pork man himself.
McCain just said, as he had all along all week, that he did not support the bill, it was dead and they had to go back to the drawing board. Then Obama gathered up his forces to tell them they had to learn to lie better and not get caught. They need to learn to lie like he does – better luck next time he said encouraging them as he thanked them for hiding $6 billion more pork earmarks in yesterday’s spending bill instead.
While everyone else was worried about the financial system collapsing the left was hiding pork in the spending bill. You know, the one that the left could never get around to before yesterday. The government would come to a halt next week for a lack of an approved spending bill by them left and it would run out of money. like the American public, next week.
I’m guessing after yesterday’s lies and shenanigans, the left will have a heck of time getting this spending bill passed over adult objections and signed by Bush.
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Why is this an issue now but not back earlier in the campaign season when Obama refused to debate Hillary Clinton?
It seems the Obama supporters are now willing to remove their tails from between their legs and come out and desire a debate. And in true Democratic Hypocrisy Party form, they label their opponent with the titles that they really were just a few months ago.
I suggest we change the name of the Democratic Party to the Hypocratic Party. It really is the party for hypocrites to excel in!
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#22
Wow! I’ve never been more proud of a politician! Go McCain!
I completely respect someone who tells the truth, even when it hurts, and who actually admits to being human (as opposed to some sort of Messiah). I like his straight, true answers here.
Thanks for posting this, JJF. I feel better about McCain than ever.
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#24
Again, fantastic! A politician who actually LISTENS before opening his mouth to spout platitudes. I really appreciate a listener.
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“I do hope to see a WMB thread on Sarah Palin’s Couric interviews. ”
I tried to get it going on Whirled Views, but the enthusiasm for Celebrity Sarah has dropped off lately. I can’t imagine why
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“I really appreciate a listener.”
In the video he appears to have nodded off….
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So why did Obama have courage to debate now against McCain but not against Hillary not long ago?
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I tried to get it going on Whirled Views, but the enthusiasm for Celebrity Sarah has dropped off lately. I can’t imagine why
******Right. We just don’t want to get into anything started by YOU.
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Ok, I saw the debates tonight, now I know why Obama avoided debating when he had previous opportunities during the nominating process.
Perhaps he should stay in Washington and focus on the financial issues too, it might serve him better.
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llama:There is nothing to defend. The left came out on TV at least 3 times yesterday, lying to the American public as usual, that a deal had been wrapped up, wanting to make themselves look important before McCain got into town
Nowhere except in loony llamaville could Senator Bob Bennett of Utah, a rock-ribbed conservative if ever there was one, be considered part of “the left”. Here’s a quote from him yesterday, before Mc Cain hit town.
Emerging from a two-hour negotiating session, Senator Dodd, a Democrat of Connecticut, said, “We are very confident that we can act expeditiously.”
“I now expect that we will indeed have a plan that can pass the House, pass the Senate, (and) be signed by the president,” Senator Bennett, a Republican of Utah, said.
The bipartisan consensus on the general direction of the legislation was reported just hours before President Bush was to host presidential contenders Senators Obama and McCain and congressional leaders at the White House for discussions on how to clear obstacles to the unpopular rescue plan.
Incidentally, did you hear the quote from Boehner’s chief aide that the house Republicans did what they did yesterday solely to help McCain? Is he also just another member of the lying left.
Yeah. I thought so.
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Crikey! Another missed tag.
Anyway, paragraph two of the above is mine, as are the last two. The others are llama and a news report about the conservative Republican he identifies as a liar and a leftist.
And the source is the New York Sun, one of hundreds of newspapers which reported the exact same quote from Sen Bennett.
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