McCain to attend first debate

Republican presidential nominee John McCain has agreed to participate in tonight's presidential debate in Oxford, Miss., according to his campaign.

McCain's announcement came less than 10 hours before debate time and two days after he had threatened to pull out of the debate should congressional leaders not reach a consensus on a proposed givernment bailout plan. Despite the fact that no such agreement has been reached, McCain changed his position.

Some had speculated that McCain's decision not to attend the debate would have altered the debate cycle, including a possible move of the first preisdential debate to Washington University instead of the vice presidential debate on Oct. 2. Such speculation has ended.

In a statement released today, the McCain campaign attributed the Arizona senator's change of heart to what he saw as the failure of Washington politics to improve the economic crisis.

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

Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.), McCain's Democratic rival, had always planned to go to the debate. McCain and Obama were in Washington yesterday to help solve the stalemate on the bailout plan. Congressional leaders came close to striking a deal before negotiations collapsed at day's end.

Comments

1 comments

Payday Loan Advocate

Tue Oct 14 2008 05:22

Like many Americans who make up that growing class of “disillusioned” voters, I watched the latest “town hall”-style TV debate between Barack Obama and John McCain with my expectations held firmly in check. No matter how many direct questions you ask a politician, regardless of their party affiliation, the answers you receive will resemble generalized sound bites. The New York Times described it as “90 minutes of forced cordiality,” and I must agree. While the exchange was “mercifully free” of personal attacks (according to the Boston Globe), the result was that it was free of much of the tension that makes for compelling television. McCain continued to trumpet experience, his “stay the course” stance on Iraq (seriously, he could have been G.H. Bush’s understudy) and his oil drilling policies. Obama continued to criticize Republican policies that he claims have led America into its current recession. If all were based upon the candidates’ performance here, we’d have no idea exactly how either of them would work to avert pending economic catastrophe. A coherent economic proposal is what America needs. Obama’s stance on “predatory lending” – effectively sanctioning payday advance lenders – is not a coherent solution to the real economic problems we face. That’s just a juicy steak to feed the banking and credit union dogs.

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