As a follow up to this mornings article about how Obama has failed the leadership test yet again… yeah, 3 times now, we find out today that John McCain steps up to the leadership plate once again.
From CNN,
Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign to return to Washington and focus on the “historic” crisis facing the U.S. economy….
He also urged organizers of Friday’s presidential debate at the University of Mississippi to postpone the event….
“I am calling on the president to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself,” McCain told reporters in New York. “It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.”
So once again, John McCain is putting off parts of his campaign that are traditionally essential to winning the race to the White House.
The first was when McCain decided to cut short the Republican National Convention in the face of Hurricane Gustav and was even prepared to go down to the gulf coast, skipping the convention all together and giving his acceptance speech by satellite. (Here)
And now, he is calling for the delay of the debate that was scheduled this Friday, a debate whose topic was to surround Foreign Policy (McCain’s strong suit and the debate where he was expected to shine), so that he can return to Washington, DC and lead the debate on the Bailout legislation.
Contrast this with Barack Obama’s statement yesterday…
Although Barack Obama argues that the financial meltdown is an “emergency situation”, he said today that he may remain on the campaign trail, rather than returning to the Capitol, to vote on the $700 billion plan.
And let’s looks at how he characterizes the rationalization
“Look if we get a consensus and everybody is popping champagne – then I will probably be going back to campaign with folks who are having a tough time in places like Ohio, and Michigan and Pennsylvania,” Obama said adding, “If this ends up being a close vote or a vote where the outcome is an open question then obviously this is a top priority.”
Popping Champagne? Really? While the country is going bankrupt, when Obama thinks about legislation getting passed, he thinks of people “popping champagne?”
Is the champagne served with a side of arugula maybe?
Like I said yesterday,
We don’t need someone to hold our hands. We don’t need you in our high school gym telling us that our lives suck and we all need some sort of ambiguous “change” that apparently only you can bring.
We need someone to LEAD US, to DO SOMETHING, to STAND UP FOR WHAT’S RIGHT.
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Well, apparently John McCain heard me… and yet again, as Hillary Clinton put it, John McCain proved that he has passed the leadership threshold, while Barack has not.
John McCain FTW.
Barack Obama Teh Fail.
That is all.
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BTW – I am testing out a Blogger blog… please go vist and let me know what you think. HERE
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UPDATE: Obama responds to McCain… nothing new.
From CNN
But he disagreed with McCain’s call for postponing Friday’s first presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi.
“It’s my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person will be the next president,” Obama said. “It is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once. It’s more important than ever to present ourselves to the American people.”
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This is an interesting spin on the situation, so let’s talk about the reality. This is political positioning.
Barack Obama has pulled ahead a bit in the polls for one reason and one reason only… the economy.
The economy is THE most important issue to voters, getting like 40% polling as the number one issue, as opposed to things like foreign policy and the war on terror, which only gets about 10%.
So when John McCain makes a move like calling off a debate and suspending his campaign to deal with the bailout, he is trying to change the narrative… trying to show leadership on the economy.
Obama must prevent this from happening.
If Obama agreed with McCain and went back to Washington, that opens up the possible perception that Obama is following McCain’s lead, and that it is McCain and not Obama that is really leading on the economy, that McCain is the real leader. It also allows McCain to have some economic problem solving spotlight, which could potentially help John McCain.
So what does Obama do? He moves to prevent McCain from being able to move into that economic problem solver mode by attempting to force him to keep the scheduled debate, a debate whose topic is Foreign Policy, keeping McCain out of Washington and forcing him off the subject of the economy.
This is not about Obama not thinking that he is not needed… it is about keeping McCain from gaining points, and possibly at the expense of the American people.
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We need leadership, Mr. Obama. Not political positioning.
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UPDATE #2
President Bush called Barack Obama and gave him the good old “Dude…WTF? Get back here and take some damned responsibility!”
Obama is now on his way to Washington.
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Way to be a leader Barry…
Man… you suck. Seriously.
Filed under: Barack Obama, John McCain | Tagged: Bailout, Bill, DC, Delay, Leadership, McCain, Obama, Postpone, Return, washington | 27 Comments »
