The press reports on how John McCain suddenly "stopped campaigning" to return to Washington and "provide leadership" to resolving the bailout debate is both amazing and disturbing on its face. Several members of the Senate from both parties and a few in the House expressed anger over McCain "parachuting" into the negotiations for political purposes, possibly confusing or delaying them instead of having any positive effect on developments.

First, McCain failed to respond to Obama's early Wednesday phone call as to whether they should make a joint statement with regard to the requested bailout legislation. After about 6 hours, McCain called Obama back and then within 5 minutes after the phone call, McCain announced his decision to suspend his campaign to return to Washington. Then within a half hour, Senator Lindsay Graham, McCain's spokesman with regard to the scheduled Friday debate announced that McCain will not debate Obama unless the bailout legislation was passed. When reporters pressed Graham observing that there was no possible way that the bill could be written, reviewed and agreed in joint committee, passed by both House and Senate, and signed by the President in anything less than a week or so. Graham then "redefined" what was meant by saying that McCain would not debate until the legislation was "essentially passed", meaning agreed upon by both House and Senate leadership as well as the president and the Treasury Department. Now on Thursday morning, CNN and NBC reports from Washington are that Senate Republicans intend to drag their feet on their approval of the legislation so that McCain can avoid participation in the scheduled Friday night debate.

This is unbelievable! Are McCain and his advisors so convinced that the only way he can win is to avoid discussion of the issues and simply keep banging away at Obama using whichever nasty negative campaigning they can come up with until Election Day? Are both McCain and his handlers so contemptuous of Americans that they're willing to politicize the most serious financial crisis in decades for personal gain? Can't the American public see thru this sad ruse? Will the election still be close even if McCain is successful in avoiding direct debate with his opponent or any meaningful discussion of the issues? The GOP campaign handlers schedule all kinds of photo ops for Sarah Palin as well, but won't let her be interviewed or even answer questions in a press conference. They made a mistake yesterday and a reporter asked Palin a direct question about the financial crisis. Her answer: "I've only been involved in local politics, but John McCain will continue to attack the special interests when we get to Washington." Whaaat???

How could we possibly trust John McCain if he continues to approve of this disdainful approach to campaigning for election to the most powerful position in the free world? Unless we can understand the positions of the candidates on the issues and observe their performance in face-to-face debate, I can't see how voters can make an intelligent decision. But maybe that's the last thing the GOP campaign strategists want--an informed electorate.

I remain convinced....extremely hopeful at the very least...that American voters will see thru this disturbing contempt for the public in permitting them to understand how the candidates stand on the issues and how they conduct themselves in face-to-face debate. If one candidate continues to avoid addressing his opponent and the issues directly, I guess the choice for voters who wish to be informed is obvious.

My opinion is the simplest:

Both of these gentlemen are US Senators, one representing Arizona and the other Illinois. Their primary responsiblity is to fulfill the oath of office they took as senators and get back to DC to represent their constituents' interests in this grave matter. Also, if they are the de facto heads of their respective party, then no justification on earth exists for ignoring their role by caring about personal glory instead.

I don't care for what job they are "interviewing" via the campaign trail. It does not matter if they are seeking the presidency or interviewing for the job as CEO of General Motors. JOB ONE is the one they are getting paid to do and which they swore an oath to complete. If they don't give a d^#* for their senatorial responsibilities, then its a fair bet they won't give a D^#* for the presidential ones either.

There are only 100 senators to represent 290,000,000 people. That should be their priority.

As a note: If either one of the two senators from FL were candidates for President right now and continued job-hunting instead of fulfilling their primary responsibility to the FL citizenry, then I'd be carrying the banner calling for their removal from office.

Neither McCain nor Obama are on the Banking or Finance committees. I believe those are the only 2 committees involved from the senate, aren't they? What exactly are McCain and Obama supposed to do if they suspend their campaigns and go back to Washington?

If either one of the two senators from FL were candidates for President right now and continued job-hunting instead of fulfilling their primary responsibility to the FL citizenry, then I'd be carrying the banner calling for their removal from office.

McCain does have the option to "resign his nomination" immediately and deal with this severe crisis. Mitt and the Gov could then continue the campaign without John. Things seem to be very quiet in Alaska and Mitt is not busy so .. no harm.

Originally Posted by Midge538

If either one of the two senators from FL were candidates for President right now and continued job-hunting instead of fulfilling their primary responsibility to the FL citizenry, then I'd be carrying the banner calling for their removal from office.

McCain does have the option to "resign his nomination" immediately and deal with this severe crisis. Mitt and the Gov could then continue the campaign without John. Things seem to be very quiet in Alaska and Mitt is not busy so .. no harm.

I LIKE THIS IDEA....OR BRING IN FRED....THEY WROTE HIM OUT OF THE SCRIPT DIDN'T THEY? ALTHOUGH I LIKED HIM ON THE SHOW.....

I think McCain/Palin and their people are VERY scared...infact I think Obama might be scared too with all the blunders Biden has made lately....

Oh, it is just so sad....I have for the first time in my life really CARED about politics and those that are running....and well...maybe I scared them all away.....

AAAHHHHH!!!!!! I guess I will just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride...


NOT....too scary!!!!

We need a real HERO..
..I VOTE FOR KAHUNA as Pres...and Peachie/Cologal as VP's..they could work nicely together.

Do you think we could separate TV's as a separate State or Union??

Originally Posted by another Linda

Neither McCain nor Obama are on the Banking or Finance committees. I believe those are the only 2 committees involved from the senate, aren't they? What exactly are McCain and Obama supposed to do if they suspend their campaigns and go back to Washington?

They can do exactly what they are supposed to do: Be there, listen to all of the dialogue, review documents, evaluate proposals, discuss the matter with other senators, in short BE THERE.

Being a senator is not a telecommuting job. There's a lot of action in the various rooms to include side-bar discussions with others and following opinion from home. If only the committee members needed to be there, there would be no need to have a vote involving ALL of the Senate.

If they can telecommute, then we can tear down the entire Senate office building and sell the land. There is a reason they have votes on the floor, and why all of the Senate is housed in one office building. These two guys are not superstars who don't have to follow what the rest of the Senate does. They both are in the lead for most-votes-missed, and that's not what they took an oath to do.

If you went looking for another job and had to go through a series of "interviews" around the country, would your current boss continue to pay you in spite of being always absent? Being a Senator is no different, and if there is a difference, please let me know, because that would give me reasaon to run for the job myself. I can be absent from work and collect my pay just as good as they can.....

..I VOTE FOR KAHUNA as Pres...and Peachie/Cologal as VP's..they could work nicely together.

Do you think we could separate TV's as a separate State or Union??

I'd be honored to serve.......

Originally Posted by cologal

..

Do you think we could separate TV's as a separate State or Union??

...
:

If only.... then we could get foreign aid.

It has been turned into another partisan, political spectacle, that has nothing to do with the financial crisis OR the American people.

It is just another propaganda fest being fed to the media which in turn is whipping into an issue for the loyal sheeple.

Nothing more.

Tit for tat for tit for tat....again nothing to do with the issues at hand.

Debates are for entertainment value only...scripted like a movie.....parts are acted out just like the movies.....the characters made up like the movies....the characters presented are no more real people than the actors in a movie.....nothing real presented just like the movies....oh, I guess there is a plus, it's free.

There are a lot better movies with much better actors.


BTK

Originally Posted by Guest

It has been turned into another partisan, political spectacle, that has nothing to do with the financial crisis OR the American people.

It is just another propaganda fest being fed to the media which in turn is whipping into an issue for the loyal sheeple.

Nothing more.

Tit for tat for tit for tat....again nothing to do with the issues at hand.

Debates are for entertainment value only...scripted like a movie.....parts are acted out just like the movies.....the characters made up like the movies....the characters presented are no more real people than the actors in a movie.....nothing real presented just like the movies....oh, I guess there is a plus, it's free.

There are a lot better movies with much better actors.


BTK

I wish I could disagree....

Originally Posted by SteveZ

They can do exactly what they are supposed to do: Be there, listen to all of the dialogue, review documents, evaluate proposals, discuss the matter with other senators, in short BE THERE.

Being a senator is not a telecommuting job. There's a lot of action in the various rooms to include side-bar discussions with others and following opinion from home. If only the committee members needed to be there, there would be no need to have a vote involving ALL of the Senate.

If they can telecommute, then we can tear down the entire Senate office building and sell the land. There is a reason they have votes on the floor, and why all of the Senate is housed in one office building. These two guys are not superstars who don't have to follow what the rest of the Senate does. They both are in the lead for most-votes-missed, and that's not what they took an oath to do.


If you went looking for another job and had to go through a series of "interviews" around the country, would your current boss continue to pay you in spite of being always absent? Being a Senator is no different, and if there is a difference, please let me know, because that would give me reasaon to run for the job myself. I can be absent from work and collect my pay just as good as they can.....

Yada yada yada! More sanctimonious nonsense from the usual suspects.

It's purely a political stunt on McCain's behalf. Besides, last week the "fundamentals" of the economy were sound so suddenly its a crisis?

In addition, McCain was asked on Tuesday if he approved of the Bush/Paulson plan. He answered that he hadn't yet read it. Gee, it was a full 2 1/2 pages??
Perhaps it was sent to him as an e mail and he didn't know how to open it?? "Review documents", that's laughable on it's face with McCain!

McCain hasn't voted in the senate since April 8. So where was the hue and cry about his absence since then?

It's expected that when you are the presidential candidate for either party, you will be on the campaign trail full time. In the event bills come up and your vote is going to be important you can get back to DC in a heartbeat. The senators have plenty of people on their staffs to instantly relay any pertinent information to the senators at any time night or day, even at 3AM.

It's 2008, not 1968, physical presence in a location doesn't mean you aren't working. Everything mentioned in Steveo's first paragraph can be done from any Kinko's in the world. Bush spends every August in Texas and it's never been an issue since he remained connected to DC via numerous means.

It's 2008, not 1968, the lack of physical presence in a specific location doesn't mean your aren't working or are disengaged. But then again McCain could easily be an exception.

Dust off your abacus so you are ready for work tomorrow.

The Republican Bush administration will have run up the national debt from -0- to almost $11 trillion in just eight years. The Democrats have had the majority in Congress for only the last two of those years--much of the financial damage was already done. Our GOP-lead government never anticipated the implosion of the debt markets, even though an ultimate "accounting" was inevitable and forewarnings issued by many.

It was the Bush administration that removed any cooperation in our elected bodies and replaced it with partisan and highly polarized governance. Even though the current crisis is the most serious in decades, the most conservative in the House are still blocking any agreement because of their unwillingness to abandon oreven modify their ideaology.

It was the Bush administration who quietly but effectively reduced or eliminated the guts of our government regulations in any number of areas--bank regulation, consumer safety, food and drug administration, the environment, occupational safety, and on and on.

It has been the Bush administration that has set the lowered moral bar for any government of a developed country. Fully 5% of the Republican members of Congress have been investigated, indicted, convicted or imprisoned during the Bush administration. Then there is Abu Graib and Guantanamo and the fabricated reasons for the Iraq War. The number of lobbyists has quadrupled on Bush's watch because it's clear they can get what they want for their special interest clients.

The Democrats should not be spared great criticism for complicity in all the deterioration in the last eight years. They were there and they either participated or stood by and watched.

But if there are partisans who are most responsible to delaying the much-needed legislation to stabilize the financial markets, its the far right members of the Congress who desire no intervention at all and are blocking any efforts to craft some stabilizing plan. When our investment portfolios are halved, when we can't get mortgage or car loans, when our kids are laid off from their jobs, when our own standard of living is changed--we should probably conclude that we weren't partisan enough!

"The same people who got us into this mess are the ones they have put out front to tell us they are going to get us out of it..." Gee, who might that be? Wasn't it George Bush, Dick Cheney, a string of ineffective cabinet officers at best and devious and even evil cabinet oficers at worst, hundreds of appointees who gutted government departments on their watch, who might share a lot of the blame for this situation? Isn't the plan put forth one designed by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary? And aren't those blocking its passage members of the President's own party? The Democrats have done a lot of things wrong, but the way I see the current dilemma, the inability to get bailout legislation passed is mostly being caused by the Republican members of the House.

KAHUANA...I am surprised and dissapointed by your blatant disregard for facts in your original post. Sen McCain has welcomed and asked for IMMEDIATELY upon Sen Obama receiving the nomination that there be town hall meetings where citizens could ask questions of each of them and not the stupid structured stuff we usually get. Sen Obama did not want that.

I do not find fault with supporting one candidate or another but to even suggest what you said in the opening is reckless and just flat not true !

Just what we need Kahuana..more partisanship. To stick with the thread...the two Senators should "debate" from an office in Washington DC while breaking from thier real job, which is hopefully working for us. They should take questions from US,not reporters......and in reading your last post....GW Bush is not running for anything and to even hint that one party or the other is more guitly than the other is what is wrong with this country RIGHT NOW....its all about WHO DID IT..WHAT PARTY DID WHAT...

We are expected to forget votes in congress for one side and recall all the other sides votes..that is how we got here.

I, for one, can wait on debates while they work on this mess and to use the debates for political gain is simply continuing what these guys in congress have been doing.

This is not a defense of any party...not a condemnation of any party...simply responding to your partisan posts. To make the Democrats holier than thou and the Republicans the evil devil is just plain wrong and to the opposite is just as bad.

I have stated my case on here as regards Sen Obama....but I try very hard (hope most of the time) to stay away from the party labels that you seem to be handing out !

Sorry for ranting and raving and probably will be upset when I see this posted but this day especially to be trying to BLAME someone is just plain lost on me !