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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

The Debate is Back On

McCain says there is enough progress that he will debate. Meanwhile, he’s taken Obama so far out of his zone that the debate should really be fun tonight.

We’ll be here with a live blog for it tonight.

The McCain campaign has also issued the following statement:

John McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign was made in the hopes that politics could be set aside to address our economic crisis.

In response, Americans saw a familiar spectacle in Washington. At a moment of crisis that threatened the economic security of American families, Washington played the blame game rather than work together to find a solution that would avert a collapse of financial markets without squandering hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ money to bailout bankers and brokers who bet their fortunes on unsafe lending practices.

Both parties in both houses of Congress and the administration needed to come together to find a solution that would deserve the trust of the American people. And while there were attempts to do that, much of yesterday was spent fighting over who would get the credit for a deal and who would get the blame for failure. There was no deal or offer yesterday that had a majority of support in Congress. There was no deal yesterday that included adequate protections for the taxpayers. It is not enough to cut deals behind closed doors and then try to force it on the rest of Congress — especially when it amounts to thousands of dollars for every American family.

The difference between Barack Obama and John McCain was apparent during the White House meeting yesterday where Barack Obama’s priority was political posturing in his opening monologue defending the package as it stands. John McCain listened to all sides so he could help focus the debate on finding a bipartisan resolution that is in the interest of taxpayers and homeowners. The Democratic interests stood together in opposition to an agreement that would accommodate additional taxpayer protections.

Senator McCain has spent the morning talking to members of the Administration, members of the Senate, and members of the House. He is optimistic that there has been significant progress toward a bipartisan agreement now that there is a framework for all parties to be represented in negotiations, including Representative Blunt as a designated negotiator for House Republicans. The McCain campaign is resuming all activities and the Senator will travel to the debate this afternoon. Following the debate, he will return to Washington to ensure that all voices and interests are represented in the final agreement, especially those of taxpayers and homeowners.

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COMMENTS

  • PaRep

    .

  • Flagstaff

    I agree with your observation:

    Meanwhile, he’s taken Obama so far out of his zone that the debate should really be fun tonight.

    It seems strange to admit it, but it seems that McCain has the ability to get under Obama’s skin, and to mess with his mind.

    The Big O never knows what McCain will do next. That was one of Reagan’s most endearing qualities. It served him well in international politics with the bad guys.

  • unoacto

    Was it ever?

    I can’t imagine what this debate will be like.

  • Moe_Lane

    …and neither can anybody else.

  • RobW

    It’s silly for McCain to issue a press release decrying the “blame game” and then spend the rest of the press release blaming people. Is he the one who actually gets things done or does he just blame politicians for blaming other politicians?

  • bk

    1) He knocked out a day or two for Obama prep, so he’ll sound even more befuddled than normal.

    2) He can say that he got everyone talking, because until he got there the Dems were ignoring the House GOP concerns.

    P.S. Shouldn’t Obama boycott the debate anyway? It doesn’t get any more racist than saying “Ole Miss Rebels” even if you can’t wave the confederate flag at football games any more and they no longer officially use the rebel mascot or sing “Dixie”.

  • deltar

    Well, well, well, it appears there are a few economic conservatives left in Washington! And they recognized that this bailout proposal is a travesty. And they grew enough spine to oppose the President and the suddenly-populist John McCain. McCain was entirely irrelevant in the negotiations yesterday.

    Let’s hope the econ. conservatives can kill off this socialist bill. It remains to be seen if they can keep their spines for a 2nd day.

    McCain had to know he would look like ridiculous if he skipped the debate.

  • jimmuy8

    “It is not enough to cut deals behind closed doors and then try to force it on the rest of Congress — especially when it amounts to thousands of dollars for every American family.”

    Something about “Comprehensive something or another Reform?”

  • SeanH90050

    Jim Geraghty’s opinion about this move from McCain. Something really doesn’t sit right about it, absent a deal. As much as I’ve been crying about spin, it seems the move really played into my fears about it.

  • BillBjar

    The whole suspending campaign and debate idea was executed poorly IMHO. He got some bad PR from the Letterman cancellation (though Letterman’s audience is not really a McCain crowd), and he really was a wallflower yesterday during negotiations. Now he heads for the debate and people are just saying “Wait, what?”.

  • popdaddy

    “It is not enough to cut deals behind closed doors and then try to force it on the rest of Congress — especially when it amounts to thousands of dollars for every American family.”

  • Carl_WI

    Didn’t we really all know deep inside that John would never miss this debate? Think about it – there is NO way that he would give BO 90 minutes of free primetime TV.

  • Maggie_in_Indiana

    thanks for bursting my bubble.

    Now for the popcorn!!!!!!!!!!