"Senator John McCain said Wednesday that he would temporarily suspend his presidential campaign on Thursday to return to Washington to deal with the financial crisis and the $700 billion bailout package now before Congress."mccain has also asked barack obama to delay the presidential debate scheduled to take place in mississippi this friday night.
let's get this straight: this morning, obama calls mccain to "ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal."
this afternoon, mccain says "talk to the hand."
how anyone – mccain supporters included – could view this move as anything but political gamesmanship, i'm not sure. will the republicans now present a mccain plan to save our failing economy? obama reaches out to mccain in a bipartisan fashion, and what does mccain do? makes a totally unilateral decision. there was no agreement here. this was obama reaching out, mccain slapping back his hand, and standing up and saying "here's what i'm gonna do." remind me who's not playing politics with this crisis?
we have 40 days before we have to choose the next leader of the free world. 40 days. the mccain campaign won't allow sarah palin to have a press conference. they won't allow the vice presidential nominee the opportunity to answer reporters questions unfettered. and now, because the economic crisis is so large, mccain wants to suspend the process of picking our next president.
this is crucial. this is a crucial moment in the campaign. the man who would be our next leader, the man who chose a vice-presidential running mate with virtually no foreign policy knowledge when we are embroiled in two wars and on the precipice of a third, the man who has run one of the sleaziest campaigns in history, wants to take a break so "the country can come together" to solve this economic crisis. and yet, the fundamentals of our economy are strong.
what would mccain do when he's president and there's a crisis? or two? or four? why aren't the candidates suspending their campaigns to end the war in iraq?
this is the most important time for these two men to be campaigning. the most important time for them to be debating. if obama and the democrats are tough (and we know their history there) they'll stand up and tell the country exactly what this move is: a gimmick.
He just hasn't put on his American Hat yet, give him time. (You know how hard it is to get that Republican Hat off.)
ReplyDeleteAmy H.
Tony, I just wanted to leave a note saying how much I appreciate your political posts. You never fail to lay out an easy-to-understand explanation of the day's events. It's a nice break from the mainstream media, which always makes it (at best) hard to navigate the facts.
ReplyDeleteThanks!