The shock and awe just keeps on coming this election season. In another incredibly bold move, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain announced he would suspend his presidential campaign on Thursday stating that he was returning to Washington to involve himself in the bailout negotiations between Congress and the Bush administration (transcript).
McCain also asked that the first presidential candidate debate - scheduled for Friday - be delayed.
The sudden announcement caught Barack Obama flat-footed, but he recovered quickly. At first, all Obama could offer was that he called McCain first, that he and Senator McCain were working on a joint statement on the issue. But he then said presidents should be able to multi-task and that he planned to be in Mississippi on Friday night for the debate. Obama said in response to a reporter’s question that he had been talking to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Congressional leaders on the phone and, if they needed him, they would call him.
Obama’s bizarre “call me” response prompted radio talk show host Sean Hannity, on the air at the time of Obama’s statement, to sing verses of the song “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (if you need me, call me, no matter where you are, no matter how far) to his chuckling guest for the segment, Sen. Joe Lieberman.
By the evening, President Bush came to Obama’s rescue by inviting him to join White House meetings with McCain and Congressional leadership from both sides of the aisle, which had originally been proposed to Obama by McCain. Obama accepted Bush’s invitation and is following McCain’s lead to Washington.
As of deadline, no decisions had been reached on whether the first debate of this presidential election would take place on Friday. In several news reports, differing spokespersons for the McCain campaign said if a consensus was reached in the bailout legislation by Friday morning, the debate would take place.
President Bush gave his prime-time speech about the financial crisis last night and failed miserably to explain to the American people the culture of corruption that exists among Democrats in Washington. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are Democrat creations that have been used as a personal piggy bank by Democrat politicians and their friends. Democrats led by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) have blocked attempts multiple times by Republicans for tighter supervision over the federal government-chartered entities, most notably in 2003 by President Bush and in 2005 by John McCain. Freddie and Fannie, now part of an FBI fraud investigation, were created by Democrats to loan money to their constituents, specifically people who could not afford to buy a house.
Michelle Malkin points out in the New York Post that a stunning number of those sub-prime loan recipients were illegal aliens.
In interviews with the Vice-Presidential nominees, Katie Couric glossed over another huge Joe Biden gaffe, pretending not to notice when Biden exclaimed that FDR got on television and explained the stock market crash to Americans in 1929. Palin would have been ridiculed right out of the race for such a bungle. In Palin’s interview, she was again grilled in Couric’s own uncanny imitation of a perky field marshal.
