Wednesday, September 24, 2008

McCain Suspends Campaign: Wants to Delay the Debate


MCCAIN: America this week faces an historic crisis in our financial system. We must pass legislation to address this crisis. If we do not, credit will dry up, with devastating consequences for our economy. People will no longer be able to buy homes and their life savings will be at stake. Businesses will not have enough money to pay their employees. If we do not act, ever corner of our country will be impacted. We cannot allow this to happen.

Last Friday, I laid out my proposal and I have since discussed my priorities and concerns with the bill the Administration has put forward. Senator Obama has expressed his priorities and concerns.This morning, I met with a group of economic advisers to talk about the proposal on the table and the steps that we should take going forward.I have also spoken with members of Congress to hear their perspective.

It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the Administration' proposal. I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time.

Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me.

I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.

We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved.I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night's debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.

I am confident that before the markets open on Monday we can achieve consensus on legislation that will stabilize our financial markets, protect taxpayers and homeowners, and earn the confidence of the American people. All we must do to achieve this is temporarily set politics aside, and I am committed to doing so.

Following September 11th, our national leaders came together at a time of crisis. We must show that kind of patriotism now. Americans across our country lament the fact that partisan divisions in Washington have prevented us from addressing our national challenges. Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country.

Is this a smart political move?
Shouldn't we want to hear from the candidates as soon as possible about these economic issues in a debate?

13 comments:

rubengomez01 said...

Is it a smart move yes but we should also want to hear the candidates’ as soon as possible. I believe that McCain wants to show the country that he puts people’s needs before politics. This was a good move for McCain but all he is really doing is stalling the debate which will just put America back money and on time.
I think it would be better to leave the debate as is and then find out our candidates’ economic views on this issue. So instead of just delaying it I think we should take both head on.

KelseyClark01 said...

It's a double edged sword. On one hand you see McCain pushing all his efforts and energy into postponing the debate to be there for the people, but on the other he's also postponing a serious opportunity to show the Americna people what his leadership is all about as opposed to Obama's. In my opinion the urgency for a successful package everyone agrees on, is greater than the urgeny for a heated debate on how to address the issues, mostly because it is imperitive that these decisions be applicaple before the market opens on Monday.

jakelabrec7 said...

i think mccaine just knows he is going to lose so he wants to post pone this as long as he can to come up with a better game plan

isaacpena7 said...

I am glad to see that Senator McCaine is actually very concerned of this matter because right now we are in a time of crisis with the economy in America. As a better word, I am very RELIEVED to see that our candidates and present president can just sit down and work on a more serious matter than just campaigning and worrying about getting votes of americans. This actually shows that Obama and McCaine actually care about us Americans. NOVEMBER 2008 needs to come sooner:)

~Isaac Pena

Ashley said...

It is one thing for the candidates to speak about the economic crisis and even debate about it, but debating and arguing in a setting not meant to resolve the issue, only exploit it, does nothing to help the American people. I would much rather see the candidates in action, working together to fix what has been broken and prove to me what they are capable of rather than put on a show of words. But on the other side, it really would be nice to hear both candidates views and plans of actions seeing as how one of these two men will be sitting in an oval office soon with these problems sitting on his desk.

Andrew Sweet 3rd said...

This may be a smart move for McCain to show that he wants to put the priorities of this people before politics. He may be doing this because he just wants to delay the debate. Anyway, I think it would be stupid to waste time on seeing what the candidates' views are in a debate. We are on the verge of another great depression. We can't be waisting time on a debate when we could come together as one political body and get this crisis resolved.

Yvonne Rojas 4 said...

I think that the candidates should join together in a time of crisis. Right now, it should not be of concern who will win but how much Obama and McCain are willing to work together to resolve this problem. Since Bush is who knows where, it's good that McCain wants to take initiative on the issue.

reneesparza01 said...

I think this is a great move for McCain. It shows his concerns for the people and the issues/problems going on. The debate can wait for a little longer. All that is going to happen if the debate were to go on is the people find out how McCain will resolve these issues. and right now this is what he is showing. He is showing us how he is going to help the U.S. and our crisis. By asking Obama to join him is just getting more help. There is nothing bad with this, but people may think that McCain is doing this just to get some "brownie points".

JordanGutierrez1st said...

I think that McCain did make a smart move by addressing that he wants to solve the economic crisis first then the debate second. I agree with McCain, I think that both parties should come together and solve this crisis before it gets any worse. Why debate about it when it needs to be solved right away.

SajaKhweis04 said...

i'm kind of stuck in the middle on this one. i actually do think that McCain's proposal to delay the debate in order to resolve the economic crisis that we're in was a good idea. but, the thing is that it could have just been a political move to make obama look bad or give McCain time to think of how to respond during the debate. like most have mentioned, debating is not going to solve our economic crisis and coming together and formulating a plan, might.

paigeallison1 said...

I think that this was a mistake from McCain. He created his own flaw: lack of diplomacy. Being the president of this country requires one to balance politics and negotiations or legislation. By suspending his campaign he is displaying the fact that he does not want whatever position he supports to have any reflection on his campaign. He should have used this time of crisis to take a firm stand and show the American people what he would do if he was in the President's shoes. McCain is old enough and has been in this business long enough to know that it is impossible to "temporarily set politics aside." I mean it's a really great ideal, but someone needs a reality check.

TanliSun01st said...

I think the fact that McCain is trying to delay the debate is a strategic mistake. McCain wants the American people to know that he cares about the current economic issue, but this plan may backfire on his campaign for presidency. The American people are looking forward to the interests of each candidate and of their further plans for this nation. It would not be wise to back out of this debate during this period of time. Obama obviously denies this request because he realize that he has an infallible advantage in terms of speech and verbal communication.

mirandamartell7 said...

In a way it was a good and a bad move for McCain. Its good because it shows us that he's willing to put politics aside and come together with Obama and discuss the real issues. Its bad because not very many people like McCain to begin with and by post poning the debate we dont get to hear the candidates views on how they plan on running our country.