Gee - what a surprise. The running mate who can't talk without a script needs more time to prepare. I sure as hell hope Americans can see right through this crap. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/25/mccain-camp-to-propose-postponing-vp-debate-2/ -Pop
Maybe postponed, and if so for a few days. Only if there's no budget deal by Friday. Anyone see Obama misread the teleprompter at the Clinton Global Initiative today? He stumbled and mumbled through a long speech that he clearly hadn't read. At one point, the teleprompter stopped and he stopped for a good 5 seconds before restarting the paragraph he was reading before it stopped. Maybe he could use the time to prepare for the debates, too.
"Country" comes first? You mean after Obama suggested to McCain that they both put out a joint statement, only to have McCain respond by trumping that (why? country first, my friends!) with his statement about suspending his campaign. Country, in this manner, doesn't come first. They can do both, and in fact as President will have to. It's called multitasking. And they both play such a small role (as individual senators) to even make this declaration. It's not like they're both the main decider in the issue, or in the case of McCain, even read up on it. In the past there have been debates after other country issues. But I guess none had the neat "country first" battle cry. I know McCain wants to have government be transparent, I just don't think this is the kind of transparency he meant.
I was serious. The economy is about to go down the drain, yet some people expect the candidates continue campaigning while they have a job to do in the senate, that's why they were elected for in the first place. We're all at risk here, as Americans, jobs can be lost, houses can be lost, it's worse than 9/11 in many ways.
Both candidates have "multitasked" for most of the past couple of years. On a bill as big as this, and affecting the next presidency and congress to as huge a degree, you'd think it'd be worth paying extra attention to it.
You know McCain made a good move when everyone goes nuts on him for it. If it wasn't helping him, they wouldn't care so much.
No. They should be paying attention to it as senators period, and if they can't handle running for president and the bill, they shouldn't be running for president. Not only that, if he was so serious about doing it, he wouldn't have canceled on Letterman only to do other shows and stay in NY that night. He wouldn't worry about what Obama did, and he'd just say "Ok, I'm gonna be in Washington trying to do what I can" and actually go to Washington that minute. It wouldn't come after his campaign has basically limited his access to the media, and Palins incredibly limited media time. They don't need to cancel anything. He's running for the President, if they can't react on their feet, with little sleep, limited information (or limited access to said information), I don't want them running for President.
A joint statement will get you no-where, and that was the best Obama could come with. You even saw in the press conference, he tried to spin that different ways to make him look good but it didn't work. (unless you're an Obama supporter and are blinded by his speeches) There is no time for multitasking at this point, it's not like they're about to pass a bill that will only affect a few states, a meaningless bill. We're talking about the US economy as a whole, which is about to go bankrupt if something doesn't get done fast. It's time to focus on that problem alone and fix it ASAP. Kind of like how 9/11 was, you had no time to multitask at that point, only focus on protecting the country. That's how country comes first, and debates, and campaigns are second. (unless you're Obama and you badly need to score points otherwise you're losing the election) This issue with the economy right now will go down as the worst in the US's history. A lot of companies going bankrupt, others losing money, people losing jobs, etc. This is not just "any" issue as you're trying to make it be. (or Obama is, in that case)
and as President, you can't just go "ok, I'm going to suspend my health care coverage plan, until we figure out this other thing". It doesn't work that way. You have to be able to handle more than one thing at a time, regardless of the importance of the issue.
Exactly Denny. The next couple of weeks, whatever gets done will affect the future 20 to 30 years from now.
and McCain and Obama aren't really going to play a significant role in it, and McCain is just trying to make it look like he (and by proxy, Obama) will play a role in it. Neither one will make enough of a difference.
You know what, I'm not completely sure what McCain will be able to accomplish that the other senators can't, but I'm fine with him going back to Washington. He's trying to do his job as senator the best he can, and I can't fault him for that. Good for him. But: (1) Why not move the debate to Washington? Does he really have to spend all week prepping for the debate instead of working on the bill? Why can't he just show up and discuss his position on various issues? Doesn't he know his position on the issues? (2) Why can't his running mate--not a Senator, not at all involved in this legislative process--continue the campaign in his absence? (3) Why does he feel the need to suspend his advertising campaign? What does that possibly have to do with him focusing on the bill?
So let me get this straight. If this bill passes as-is, and Obama is elected, virtually every spending program he's personally drooling over and has the base drooling over can't be enacted, even with his tax hike proposal. You're suggesting he should care more about making TV commercials, reading from a teleprompter, and cramming for a debate instead? And it really is instead. There's only so many hours in a day, multitasking or not.
Newsflash. Palin is a governor, not a senator. And last time I checked, her state was handing out surplus checks from all the federal earmarks and oil money that was flowing into Alaska, so they're doing fine in this economic crisis. So, if the Democrats feel Biden needs to delay the debate to work in Washington, they should propose a postponement of the VP debates, not the McCain camp. Palin, however, is not needed in Washington. No reason to delay the VP debates on her account. So the whole "country first" argument is ridiculous and horribly transparent. -Pop
