McCain Was Called
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Yesterday John McCain announced he was suspending his campaign and returning to Washington to help deal with the current economic crisis. Many questioned this move, Barack Obama going so far as to reject McCain’s appeal for Obama to join him in helping deal with this issue instead of playing politics and saying leaders in Washington can call him if they need him.
The thing is, leaders in Washington spent the first part of the week doing exactly that.
Only they didn’t call Barack Obama.
They called John McCain.
Fearing a political backlash against Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has told the White House that it must serve up support from Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) if it hopes to ensure bipartisan backing for a massive economic bailout package by week’s end.
We need the Republican nominee for president to let us know where he stands and what we should do.
And when McCain answers the call on Wednesday and says he’ll do exactly what Reid and Washington have been asking him to do, that he’ll come to town and help form legislation he can support and show exactly where he stands, Reid changes his mind.
[I]t would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations and risk injecting presidential politics into this process or distract important talks about the future of our nation’s economy. If that changes, we will call upon them. We need leadership; not a campaign photo op.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, needing help in creating a bipartisan solution, called for John McCain, a man who has a record of reaching across party lines and leading.
When Washington needed someone to lead, John McCain was asked for by name. In private. In public. By leaders on both sides.
Now John McCain’s fortunes this Novemeber will not rise or fall based on the suspension of his campaign or even whether or not the debate goes off as planned this Friday night. It will be based on whatever solution comes out of Washington and whether or not it have McCain’s stamp on it.
Good or bad, this is called putting country first.
on 
Perhaps he was called. It makes sense that the Republicans would be very uncomfortable supporting a socialistic bill that is being rammed down their throats by a lame duck president. Democrats are uncomfortable with the concepts behind the bill as well. With McCain being in the spotlight as the potential next Republican president, perhaps he would be able to provide some party leadership and keep things from boiling over.
But a full suspension of his campaign, including the pulling of ads and the suspension of Palin’s campaign events as well? While I can’t say I’m fond of the ads his campaign has put out, I still think presidential politics is at the top of his list and this is just as much posturing to create the perception of “country first” as anything else.
Isn’t this kind of like of like calling Mom to make sure she’ll back you inviting Dad’s black-sheep brother to the wedding, but then having her show up at your door to help plan the whole thing?
Reid wanted to make sure McCain and the Republicans wouldn’t try to hang this albatross around the necks of the Dems. McCain could have easily given his support from the trail. This is political posturing, McCain wanting to be the hero who saved the day, or a combination of both. If you think his presence there will actually help, i’ve got a couple mortgage backed securities to sell you.
BTW, there are multiple reports of the ads still running, and his official campaign surrogates seem to be busier than ever crowing “Country First” into every mic they can find. As far as suspending his campaign, the only one who seems to have stopped doing anything is McCain himself.
Jeremy,
For once I’m going to completely call B.S. on you. Normally you don’t get into this political gamesmanship, but for some reason, here, you have.
If McCain did not suspend his campaign, and Democrats continued to say things like Reid had, you’d be all over McCain. The criticism would be incessant.
I want to know where all the Obama supporters were when McCain was calling for joint appearances of the candidates and Obama kept blowing them off.
Now that there’s work to be done in DC, suddenly, it’s important for the two of them to appear together?
Right. O.k.
Maybe Obama wants the debate because working in Washington is foreign to him because he’s been on the campaign trail so long.
If you’re going to call this posturing, then don’t forget to look in the mirror and at your candidate.
JR, personally i think both campaigns are doing the obvious and trying to figure out how to come out of this crisis not only unscathed, but stronger. I’m not accusing anyone of brinkmanship here, I don’t believe either of them are that craven. But it’s only natural for the campaigns to skate around the edges of this crisis and try to play the spin.
McCain is for bold moves, it’s his style. Palin, the convention, Georgia, now this. Obama is more cautious, measured. It’s natural that McCain is going full bore on this. Obama is following his script also, pulling lots of strings but laying back and carefully watching whats going on.
As for the joint meetings, this and what McCain proposed are two very different things. This is a joint statement, McCain proposed basically mini debates. I’m not one of those folks who think Obama’s debating skill matches his oratory and he’ll chew McCain up in the debate.
McCain is generally pretty quick on his feet, and from what i’ve seen a back and forth argument/discussion is one of his strong points, especially compared to his performance with a teleprompter. Everyone knows Obama’s got oration nailed, but in quick back and forth exchanges his speech patterns won’t play well against McCain’s. He pauses while thinking, and when he doesn’t the “uhs” come out. The townhall format would totally play to McCain’s strength. I do think that after the first few, Obama would start to get in stride and markedly improve, but its still McCain’s turf., and by then it may have been too late.
In a structured debate, i think its more of a tossup.
But back to original issue, I still say McCain could easily have done what was needed behind the scenes without being in DC. This whole “campaign suspension” is just a continuation of McCain’s pattern of going for the big and bold (or brash and overreacting depending on your viewpoint) move.
To act as though somehow the McCain stunt (cause, that’s what it was) was anything other than a political stunt is being willingly blind.
Are we to seriously believe that McCain woke up early Wednesday morning in a cold sweat, his soul writhing in agony, “I’m doing the wrong thing… I MUST allay the country’s fears of the economy! I must go to DC!” “oh but first I’ll announce my campaign is suspended and -then- go do an interview with Katie Couric along the way!”
Oh I don’t disagree that Wednesday morning when McCain awoke he started sensing something completely propped up, false, and made out to be what it really wasn’t… only it wasn’t the economy, it was the birth of his stunt.
How do we go from the “fundamentals of our economy are strong” to a suspension of a Presidential campaign? And then, if it really was THAT much of an importance… why wait 24 hours? Why not go immediately? Why stop for an interview with Katie Couric and speak the next morning at the Clinton Global Initiative? If it’s that important you can’t even have a debate… why wait at all?
It doesn’t add up guys.
And I’ll point out Jason that none of the quotes you have state anything more than Reid saying McCain needs to make his opinions on the economy clear. No doubt Reid thought he could do the full court press on McCain and challenge him on an issue McCain himself has identified as not one of his strong suits.
BUT nothing Reid said required anything more than McCain to turn to any of the throng of press pool that’s on the same plane/bus/taxicab/flying carpet as him and explain his opinion. Or hold a press conference and do it… or unveil it in a townhall meeting… there were any numerous ways it could have been handled, so to suggest that somehow McCain’s movement on the issue was somehow related to anything any Democrat said is stretching credibility.
Does anyone here really believe McCain was called? He isn’t exactly known as a GOP leader in the Senate!? Moreover, if he was called, why did he wait more than 24 hours AFTER suspending his campaign to fly to DC?
Perhaps his morning meeting with Bill Clinton on Thursday was more important than the nation’s crisis…?
It’s also interesting that McCain’s arrival coincided with the demise of whatever deal Bush and the two parties had put together by Thursday afternoon - when McCain dropped by.