I can hardly blame John McCain for not wanting to debate Barack Obama about foreign policy, particularly the Iraq War... which gets ever closer to a $1 trillion price tag, and which now has cost the lives of 4,168 U.S. soldiers.
(For more info, see Iraq War Results & Statistics at September 17, 2008 .)
After all, McCain's continuing push for "victory" in Iraq is radical and radically out-of-touch, even with General David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq for 20 months, now Commander of U.S. Central Command.
Perhaps McCain is also embarrassed by the recent revelation by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that Bush Tried To Delay U.S. Withdrawal To Help McCain.
But then again, McCain has proven that despite his protests to the contrary, he often places politics over country in this race for the White House. Even Karl Rove admits that McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate was purely a "political pick."
Certainly McCain doesn't want to debate Obama about Bush's proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Streeters, given that, per Rasmussen polling as of September 23rd, 44% of Americans are adamantly opposed to the deal and only 25% support it. And yet Bush and Cheney are reportedly pushing McCain mercilessly to support their massive corporate welfare bill.
And besides, McCain freely admitted earlier this year that he "doesn’t really understand economics," which he amply proved merely eight days ago when he declared that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong."
I can understand McCain not wanting to debate about his plans to repair the devastated U.S. economy... because he has no realistic plans to help Americans facing foreclosure or unemployment or lack of health insurance. Or all of the above.
And Obama does have a clear, realistic 12-Point Plan to Repair the U.S. Economy which would bolster and protect middle-class American families, as well as create millions of new jobs.
Yes, I can understand why John McCain doesn't want to debate Barack Obama in two days.
What I can't understand is how McCain expects to be an efffective President when he can't take a mere 90 minutes to debate and explain his ideas on these urgent issues to the American people.
From what I heard today on MSNBC's Hardball, McCain hasn't been in the Senate chambers since April 2008. And several insiders lamented on Hardball that bailout plan negotiations are on-track but delicate... and frankly, don't need presidential politics mucking up the process at this point.
Ascerbic comedian and astute political observer David Letterman sums it up well this evening about McCain's sudden reluctance to campaign or debate this week:
"You don't suspend your campaign. This doesn't smell right. This isn't the way a tested hero behaves..."He can't run the campaign because the economy is cratering?... What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We've got a guy like that now!"
(Photo taken on September 22, 2008: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)
Comments
Obama is refusing to delay Friday’s debate to discuss “foreign affairs” no less. McCain
challenged Obama to ten debates and he refused them all. Its seems that for Obama a single debate is more important than the future of America. Perhaps Obama should debate himself in a Senate stall instead. The American people want action out of Washington not more talk. There is a stalemate in Washington and Obama and the media want to play politics instead of dealing with
this very serious financial situation that will affect the future of every American. You can debate anytime but the American people need solutions now, not six months from now. McCain knows what his priorities are but it is becoming obvious to all America that Obama is more concerned about himself then about the future of his own country.
To me, the answer to this problem is quite simple: Switch the debate topic from foreign policy to the economy. Since that is presumably what McCain is focusing on right now, he should have little trouble preparing for it, and I can’t see why Obama would disagree to a slight switching of topics.
McCain is putting country first. When it is a major crisis of our life time (in OBAMA’s words), The ONE wants to put himself first. Shame on Barack & sympathy to those who support him.
A debate can be reschedule easily. World markets are being affected now. If something isn’t done in congress before this weekend, we could be looking at a meltdown. McCain realizes the stalemate in congress and the presidential campaign might be a part of the cause. All economists agree that action is required now. It is in Obama’s best interest (politically) that this isn’t solved now; the evidence is in the poll numbers. If this isn’t solved by Friday, we have some serious problems in the world markets. The world economy if facing the collateral damage of a financial “nuclear bomb”.
Robert-
Joe Klein at Newsweek agrees with you:
“Perhaps, if he’s really interested in this financial stuff, McCain should propose that he and Obama change the topic from foreign policy to economics this Friday night–they could even stage the debate in Washington, so they wouldn’t have to stray far from the bailout negotiations.”
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/09/gimmicks_r_us.html
What a low blow and ludicrous question.
By the way Jeanne Shaheen, taxing machine was a disaster for NH.
Jeanne Shaheen’s Senate campaign is off to a typical shady start. In her announcement speech there are at least two false statements: She claimed that her record as Governor “did it all while still balancing the budget and holding the line on taxes and we want to get back to fiscal accountability”
The facts are that it took 79 governors two hundred years to bring State spending to $1 Billion. In six years as governor Jeanne Shaheen doubled state spending up to a whopping $2 Billion. Is that the type of fiscal accountability she wants to bring to Washington?
As for her claim of a we did it with a balanced budget do you remember when she left office with an estimated deficit of $300 Million. Craig Benson whittled that down before the end of the fiscal year but her claim of leaving the state with a balanced budget is clearly false.
As for her alleged holding the line on taxes remember Jeanne Shaheen imposed the first broad based statewide property tax and fought vigorously for a statewide sales tax. It was the legislature that stopped the state sales tax not Jeanne Shaheen.
On 9/19 Shaheen told the Concord Monitor that she did not regret her 2002 position supporting the Iraq war saying “I think that I represented the position of most of the american people” (she is really saying as usual I took a political poll and thats what the poll said)
One half hour after the interview her press agent called the Monitor and said “Shaheen misheard the question” Later Shaheen herself called the Monitor and said she “regretted her 2002 Iraq question and if I had known what I know now, I would have taken a diferrent position.”(That means she has seen a new poll.)