ALERT: MCCAIN: ‘Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington’…
MCCAIN: ‘Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington’
Wed Sept 24 2008 14:58:02 ETMCCAIN: America this week faces an historic crisis in our financial system. We must pass legislation to address this crisis. If we do not, credit will dry up, with devastating consequences for our economy. People will no longer be able to buy homes and their life savings will be at stake. Businesses will not have enough money to pay their employees. If we do not act, ever corner of our country will be impacted. We cannot allow this to happen.Last Friday, I laid out my proposal and I have since discussed my priorities and concerns with the bill the Administration has put forward. Senator Obama has expressed his priorities and concerns.This morning, I met with a group of economic advisers to talk about the proposal on the table and the steps that we should take going forward.I have also spoken with members of Congress to hear their perspective.
I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved.I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night’s debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.
I am confident that before the markets open on Monday we can achieve consensus on legislation that will stabilize our financial markets, protect taxpayers and homeowners, and earn the confidence of the American people. All we must do to achieve this is temporarily set politics aside, and I am committed to doing so.
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 Update: A source inside the Obama camp tells NBC The One will reject the idea of cancelling the debate and argue that presidents should be able to multitask. Er, what if McCain simply doesn’t show, then? Meanwhile, Obama mega-shill Joe Klein offers a clever way to call Maverick’s bluff: Simply move the debate to D.C. so that the two candidates can be in town to work on the bill and change the topic from foreign policy to the economy.
Update: As expected, he just said at his presser that he thinks it’s important for Americans to hear from the candidates right now given that one of them will have to deal with this mess in January, etc etc, so the debate is presumably still on as far as he’s concerned. Your move, Maverick.
More from FNC.
McCain: Scrap Friday Debate for Bailout; Obama Camp: ‘The Debate is On’
“Â ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and Rick Klein report: Sen. John McCain on Wednesday said he would “suspend” his presidential campaign to come to Washington to help negotiate a financial bailout bill, a dramatic move designed to seize a powerful issue.
Discussion: Jonathan Martin’s Blogs, Think Progress, TPM Election Central, Weekly Standard, The Campaign Spot, Open Left, Townhall.com, Firedoglake, Donklephant, The Anonymous Liberal, Taylor Marsh, The RBC, Agence France Presse, Political Machine, TIME.com, Gawker, MyDD, Informed Comment, QandO, Comments from Left Field, Hot Air, Salon, Pajamas Media and FP Passport
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September 25, 2008 - 09:04 AM on September 25th, 2008
Is this a joke??? One side can NOT postpone a debate!! Now is the time to debate!! NOW! So essentially is he stepping down????? Can he not handle a debate???Hmmmm…
September 25, 2008 - 09:11 AM on September 25th, 2008
Yes Deb, one side can pull out. Now is not the time for campaign promises about what you would do. The situation is upon us now and both men are currently being paid to fix this problem.
September 25, 2008 - 10:46 AM on September 25th, 2008
This highlights a fundamental difference between McCain and Obama. McCain sees the need for leadership and work to sort out this mess. Obama sees it as another opportunity to criticize his opponents and refuses to put his self interest aside and do what he is supposed to do (as a Senator), what a leader who cares about doing the right thing would do.
I have said many times before look at people’s actions as an indicator of their character, not their words. Could it be any clearer?
September 25, 2008 - 03:06 PM on September 25th, 2008
President-to-be Obama is doing precisely the right thing. These issues such as the financial crisis, the mortgage meltdown, the energy situation are issues but they cannot and should not be allowed to distract from the importance of the Obama campaign. Obama is on a mission and is on track to be the next President. By continuing his campaign, that is the best and most useful thing he can do right now. As soon as he gets in office, you will see things change quickly. With a larger Democratic majority in Congress and Obama in the White House, the crooks and thieves on Wall St who have had carte blanche from their friends in the Bush Administration will know the party’s over. They’ll be forced to stop their plundering and the ones that caused this mess will be held accountable. Just the knowledge that Obama is in the White House will help all of these problems. Americans will start inflating their tires properly and getting regular tune ups, easing the energy crisis. The announcement by President Obama that we are changing over to solar and wind power will panic Big Oil into dropping the prices; but it won’t matter because with solar and wind power we will no longer need their oil!
So people, don’t worry about all this static, all this nonsense, all these Rove-inspired distractions! Obama is firmly in control! Just follow his lead and all will be well!
September 25, 2008 - 05:21 PM on September 25th, 2008
Yeah, right…the nation and its problems are nothing compared to the importance of the Obama candidacy. After all, he is the New Messiah and Caesar too!
September 26, 2008 - 11:43 AM on September 26th, 2008
I’m sorry but what is mccain gonna do when Putin plays hardball in Georgia, or with Belarus? Or if Venezuala and Iran and Russia band together? is he gonna declare a crisis and suspend his presidency?
I thought he was a tough guy, but he cannot multi-task, or even bi-task, apparently.
I knew he had questionable morals when he worked with SS, the Karl Rove heir apperent Steve Schmidt, who is from the group that racially abused his adopted daughter Bridget in the vicious 2000 South-Carolina primary, easily the dirtiest campaign since Willie Horton. But I thought, he’s a republican, they just DO this racist stuff, they’re used to it. But he’s also a whimp. Can’t even do debate when a crisis is going on? Come on!
And it’s not like he’s doing a whole lot in Washington either. According to all reports, he’s caused more diversion and doesn’t whip the House repubs into shape. What does he actually do in Washington? photo ops?
Sad. He lost my vote, that’s for sure.
September 26, 2008 - 11:55 AM on September 26th, 2008
I don’t get repubs here, with all the haste. If bush had come out, and said, we are gonna solve this, within a week or two, and there’s gonna be a lot of money to insure that everythings stable, then the markets would’ve been calm.
First, the repubs scaremongered the public with a useless war with 4000 soldiers dying for nothing other than Halliburtons bottom line.
And now, mccain is scaremongering the public into giving up 700,000,000,000 DOLLARS (and not those Guyanese ones either) of my taxmoney???
I say, law of the jungle, guarantee the lowerlevel jobs, the houses and let the CEO’s sort themselves out. Preferably via bare-knuckle fist fighting on cable-TV, so a guy can make a few bucks with bets.