As of 8 AM today there is still no word whether John McCain will show up for tonight’s debate. However, in most media (I don’t count Faux News) there appears to be consensus that McCain’s skipping the debate would be a boneheaded move. Even Republicans are saying that, unless there are critical negotiations going on in the White House at the exact time the debate is scheduled, McCain had better haul his ass to Mississippi.
And it’s unlikely the Dems, who would have to agree to hold those critical negotiations, would give McCain an excuse not to be in Mississippi.
This morning a number of news stories say that McCain was a near non-participant in yesterday’s White House photo op meeting. Adam Nagourney and Elisabeth Bumiller write for the New York Times,
At the bipartisan White House meeting that Mr. McCain had called for a day earlier, he sat silently for more than 40 minutes, more observer than leader, and then offered only a vague sense of where he stood, said people in the meeting.
That was the “giving McCain the benefit of the doubt” version of the story. David Kurtz provides a little more detail:
During the late afternoon meeting at the White House (a meeting which was McCain’s idea), McCain sat silently at the table until nearly the end, according to a Hill source who was briefed on the meeting. At that point, I’m told, McCain vaguely brought up the proposal being pushed by the Republican Study Committee, the group of House conservatives that is bucking the GOP leadership. But McCain didn’t offer any specifics and didn’t necessarily advocate for the plan, according to the Hill source.
Responding to McCain, Treasury Secretary Paulson said that the RSC proposal was unworkable, my source says, at which point McCain didn’t really advocate for it or state his own position. The meeting adjourned soon after, amid confusion over where negotiations could go next.
There are other news stories that give different accounts of who introduced the RSC proposal. Marc Ambinder says other Republicans in the meeting brought it up. David Rogers of The Politico says Barack Obama brought it up first to squeeze the Republicans.
Whatever the details, all accounts agree on one point — McCain sat through most of the meeting silently, like a bump on a log, and made no substantive contribution.
In a column in which he reveals something that perhaps he didn’t intend, David Brooks writes about McCain in the past tense. The McCain of the past as described by Brooks is in no way the same man who showed up at yesterday’s White House meeting. Either Brooks’s views of past McCain were highly skewed (which is highly possible), or McCain is deteriorating before our eyes.
This morning Americans — the ones paying attention, anyway — are hearing the news that negotiations on a bailout deal fell apart after McCain got to Washington. Oh, and guess what? Here’s the biggest bank failure in U.S. history. Way to go!
It’s not clear to me what will happen if Obama shows up tonight and McCain doesn’t. However, I say again that unless some critical meetings or negotiations are taking place in Washington tonight, most Americans will assume McCain just plain ducked out. Not very heroic of him.
Also: A bold, fresh piece of pathology — listen to rightie “intelligentsia” eating its own. Revealing, but not in the way Allahpundit thinks it is.
Update:
I have a feeling that mccain is not going to show up. He is going to use the storm as an excuse. I don’t believe talking about the success of the surge and how he is going to rid the world of evil will move up his poll numbers.
If McCain doesn’t go to the debate, I think Obama should go and just have an hour and a half of putting across his leadership qualities and vision for the future.
I really thought the way he spoke when he saw the repubs. working that pig on a lipstick stuff to a lather was GREAT!
The way he pointed out the run around to avoid the talking about important issues was something I was proud to see. The way he said this is too important to all of us to do that was even better.
I say go have an hour and a half Obama speech.
It could inspire many to look to a better day. He could even do a better job of inspiring the country than bush did the other night.
OT btw.. got an email from a repub. relative.. sure wish I was better at arguing or at least I had someone to help me formulate a reply.. honestly… it said all kinds of crap including the race stuff.
So John McCain has “suspended” his campaign (which I guess, means get as much media attention as possible, continue with TV commercials, have your campaign offices nationwide push your candidacy and have your surrogates like Lieberman let everyone know how “presidential” you are being) to work on the Economic Crisis. So far he seems to have thrown a monkey wrench into it and we are not moving forward any more.
It makes me wonder how much he understands about fiscal policy and what caused this mess anyway. In his interview with Katie Couric (you know, the one he did when he told Letterman he was canceling to get right back to Washington DC), McCain said:
Earmarks? Pork Barrel Projects? Wasn’t this problem called by cheap, bad mortgages? That’s what everyone else thinks.
But McCain has been here before (via Think Progress.) On the failure to respond to Hurricane Katrina, for instance:
Or what about the Minnesota Bridge Collapse?
So now we’re wondering whether or not McCain will meet with Obama at tonite’s debate, or stay in DC to provide his financial expertise to solving this problem. Whatever happens, McCain will keep himself in the press all day… you’d better believe it. And all this with a “suspended” campaign.
Say, maybe he could send Sarah Palin to debate for him tonite. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Under The LobsterScope
“It’s not clear to me what will happen if Obama shows up tonight and McCain doesn’t. However, I say again that unless some critical meetings or negotiations are taking place in Washington tonight, most Americans will assume McCain just plain ducked out. Not very heroic of him.”
If the McCain campaign has played this one right, there will be an announcement later this evening that an agreement on the bailout plan has been reached. While Obama is in Mississippi, McCain will appear at a press conference in Washington looking like the great statesman who saved the bailout plan.
This really has been the turning point of the campaign. This financial crisis was going to bury McCain. His campaign could not just let this roll over them, so they had to make this play. Will it work?
Can there even BE a debate without McCain? A friend with a deep background in campaign finance law was musing that there are very strict rules about debates because they are corporately funded and need to be differentiated from news stories and campaign events. The first are exempt from campaign finance laws and the funding of the second is regulated. If one candidate doesn’t show, then it becomes a campaign event which corporations could not fund because of spending limits.
How about a fund that lends money to the people who can’t pay thier mortgages? And a board that renegotiates home loans to something people can afford. It can be funded as we go. If I remember right, that’s how the RSC worked.
This would save peoples homes. It would fix bad mortgages and save banks.
But, that’s the bottom-up approach. And we can’t have that. No, we have to save the greedy idiots who got us into this mess in the first place. We have to throw over a trillion dollars at the banker’s, not the people.
Facsism indeed…
If the McCain campaign has played this one right, there will be an announcement later this evening that an agreement on the bailout plan has been reached. While Obama is in Mississippi, McCain will appear at a press conference in Washington looking like the great statesman who saved the bailout plan.
Right now, I’d say the chance of that happening is about the same as catching Osama bin Laden by later this evening.
If one candidate doesn’t show, then it becomes a campaign event which corporations could not fund because of spending limits.
That’s what I’m reading elsewhere. If only one candidate shows up, the event will just be canceled.
As a depositor of Washington Mutual, I’d like to personally thank John McCain for his effectiveness in solving the economic crisis.
So, getting everybody in a room and telling them to “cut the shi*” is harder than it looks, eh John? Especially when most of them have been in the room day and night for more than a week, and also knew more about the issues when they started than you know on your best day. What a pathetic joke.
I’m betting he shows at the debate, despite there being no agreement, and people will politely try to avoid mentioning the fact that his threat not to show was bluster and bluff. (And, since bluster is his key foreign policy theme, we can kind of see how well that would work, right?)
This morning, I heard a soundbite of McCain from a debate earlier in the year. He sounded so much stronger and clearer-headed, and I wondered if that was just my imagination. I think the stress of the campaign may have really accelerated his mental decline.
My prediction of his appearing tonight may be wrong, if his handlers have decided he can’t be allowed out in front of the cameras by himself that long.
Ask yourself, what was the purpose of McCain going to DC? It’s clear he had nothing substantial to add to the dealmaking, except to obstruct it. I still believe that a huge purpose is to stall or cancel the debates, especially the VP debate next week.
And given the campaign finance rules elucidated upstream, I’d bet McCain cancels the debate, which means no appearance by Obama either. Of course the Democrats can and should make hay out of this by any other means possible.
Here’s a DKos diary supposedly on how at sea the McCain camp is over Palin. They simply don’t know what to do with her, and I’m sure steering her away from the cameras is their top priority.
CNN just said the debate is on tonight.
(I am disappointed that Obama can’t have the 90 mins alone to inspire Americans, but 45 will be fine)
#10 Could it have been an excuse to be in DC so he could swing by the docs and get some medicine for his rumored condition(s)?
It seemed funny to me that he got there late in the morning and also that Palin talked to the press that day too.
btw.. the head guy of the biggest bank failure had worked there 3 weeks and will get over 12 million….
It’s hard to feel bad about a bank going down if they are in trouble and make that kind of deal.