I am irritated that McCain has once again decided to pull a political stunt when the situation least calls for it.
- He did by picking an unvetted radical to be his Vice President.
- He did it by going overboard on rhetoric about the Georgian invasion that even the Georgian president called unhelpful.
- And he does it now. When we need it the least .
Obama reached out to him this morning to show solidarity with a joint statement on the crisis. McCain decided to react by holding a press conference and saying he will suspend his campaign--taking no questions from reporters. If this was a true gesture, then McCain would have spoken with Obama instead of holding an event and tried to get both of them to suspend their campaigns simultaneously. Make no mistake about this, McCain is trying to use this travesty to get the upper-hand. Cynical. The proof of this can be seen on right-wing blogs such as RS that are gleeful that McCain is trying to use this as a ploy to crawl back up in the polls. Obama can't let him.
Obama should simply say the following:
I am glad that McCain wants to help solve this large financial crisis. But this crisis was created because this administration, with the support of Senator McCain, pushed through deregulation of our banking industry as well as stipped away all meaningful oversight. The legislation that allowed this was crafted by none other than Senator Phil Gramm, his former chief economic advisor until he stated that suffering Americans were "a nation of whiners." This is the direct result of the now obvious misguided belief that investment firms with no regulation and no oversight work best.
This deregulation allowed a culture of greed to overtake our financial markets, and the American taxpayer is now being stuck with the bill. Unlike Mr. Bush and Senator McCain, I do not accept that this multi-billion dollar bailout has to occur within the next two days. Wall Street will not fall apart before Friday. Personally, I would rather get it right than rush through a bad bill; and for once, this president should take time to work through this carefully.
There is no reason why Senator McCain should forgo the debates this Friday. A high-level public servant should be able to multi-task, and the threat of sectarian violence, rogue states, and terrorism are just as relevant and present just as much a threat, if not greater, than investment firm greed.
Senator McCain himself admits that he is not well-versed on the economy, so I cannot understand what is accomplished by McCain forgoing the debate to go to Washington except to have a photo opportunity. The Senate Majority leader is correct when he states that it is wrong to inject presidential politics into this delicate negotiation.
I will be attending the debate on Saturday and hopefully Senator McCain will attend as well. The American people deserve better than political stunts.
McCain is a stuntman, not a statesman.
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