WWTBAM Bored

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) ended three days of suspense on Friday morning and announced that he will leave bailout negotiations in Washington and fly to Oxford, Miss., for the opening presidential debate.

McCain had said he would suspend his campaign until an agreement was reached on the administration's $700 billion mortgage proposal.

No such an agreement has been reached, but Republicans said the standoff was hurting McCain's campaign, and he would look terrible if he ruined the nationally televised, eagerly anticipated debate while Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was ready to go onstage.

The text of the statement:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announces: "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.

The text of a statement from his camapign at about 11:20 a.m. Eastern:

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.

silverscreenselect wrote:... but people will be looking at this debate more to get a gauge on McCain than Obama.

gsabc wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:... but people will be looking at this debate more to get a gauge on McCain than Obama.

Personally, I will be watching for two things:

Obama - Do the things he says about, and what he will do about, the international issues seem to have a basis in reality? Or is it more "looking into his soul" stuff and what IMO (and only mine, not anyone else's) is an overly optimistic reading of those issues and the players involved?

I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for from McCain. Maybe the same thing. Maybe more expounding on some of these issues which have been brought up earlier in the campaign.

From both - less attacks on the other's positions (past and present) and more substance on how they themselves see things and what they will do.

We could do worse than imposing the European product advertising rules on campaigns in general - you can't mention your competition, but can only talk about your own attributes, policies, etc.

5LD wrote:You say "wordiness" -- I say well spoken.

Unusual in politics lately, I know......
Amerikuns ain't used to hearing full sentences that make sense and answer questions. *this is a reference to the WHouse resident from the last 8 years

silverscreenselect wrote:The stakes have been raised for this debate considerably as a result of what's happened the last few days, and the pressure is on McCain.

Fair or not (and I think it's not), he has to explain inserting himself into the process for the bailout legislation.