Political posturing or genuine concern?

It’s difficult to tell, with politicians.

The only way you can tell when one is lying, is when his/her lips are moving.

Not surprised… I mean, he’s gonna have to debate Barack Obama. I’d be postponing it too.

What are Obama and/or McCain going to do about it anyway.—vote? They aren’t needed at this point in time. It’s political posturing all the way

Posturing. There is nothing he can really do—he’s not on any of the committees that are working on it. Also, he could work on it during the day, then fly wherever and debate Obama. Or he could learn to use the internet and work on it from the road. It can be nothing but posturing. I can’t wait to see what Obama does.

It’s posturing, no doubt in my mind. He wants to seem caring this way, but it just makes him look like a lying, coward. Oh, wait… He already seemed that way…

Posturing posturing posturing!!!

Neither Senator McCain nor Senator Obama are on ANY subcommittees related to the financial crisis. It’s a reaction to the big leads that Obama showed on the polls recently, and an effort to distract away from the VP debates. It’s an effort to politicize the regulation vote.

What’s next, postpone the election?

The thing is that to the people I know who are leaning to undecided John McCain does pretty good in a debate. I know that most of us here can’t stand him, but to people who are not looking at substance only delivery, John McCain has his talking points memorized and delivers them with confidence, even if he’s not answering the question being asked. Obama tends to listen to the question and thoughtfully answer. I like that, but people who are just looking at delivery see him as hesitant and less “forceful.” I would think that McCain would welcome a debate, unless he’s just trying to postpone it to try to get a bounce out of it closer to election time.

Posturing. He will have a greater audience than any 10 senators on the road and in the debates. His points will be heard by the other senators, the governments, the businesses, the media, the country and the world. All he has to do then is vote.

He doesn’t have a plan. This is his 3rd try at an appropriate response.

Here was Obama’s first response.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/obama-picks-up.html

If you’re McCain, and you’re trying to beat Obama, and you’ve been a fan of deregulation your whole career, and as recently as 2 weeks ago said that our economy was fundamentally sound.

#1 – would you want to debate Barack Obama this week, when it’s become clear that the debate which was SUPPOSED to be ALL about foreign policy could not POSSIBLY help but veer into economic territory.

#2 – would you see an opportunity to show the American people that you were concerned about the economy by making the “altruisitic” step of “suspending your campaign” until after this issue was resolved?

#3 – would you see an opportunity to attack Obama if he did not agree to do the same?

If he’s forced into it, he makes Obama look bad for pushing forth, he can paint Obama as opportunistic, and someone who doesn’t care about America as much as he does because Obama refused to stop campaigning. He can pull out the “I’d rather lose an election than allow our economy to be destroyed” line (unlike his opponent). And it allows him plausible deniability over the issue of whether or not he’s too chickenshit to debate Obama during an economic crisis which arguably he helped create!

@Judi do the people you know live in the OC too? That would explain anyone seeing McCain’s rethoric anywhere close to Obama’s. The rest of us realize that he’s got no chance at a debate.

@ judi – wow, I have not seen him answer a question with confidence for a while. He has been a dodgers fan on every interview I have seen. He gives a good speech but has not done one good interview yet that I have seen.

@dalepetrie: Yes, and unfortunately I think most Americans are stupid enough to fall for his bullshit.

@ Dale, Drastic, so you really think that people would tie the success or failure of the economy of this country to the participantion of a candidate who did his own part to create the situation to begin with, and has as much an effect as not, by going through with the debate? my god we are in trouble.

My boyfriend says Obama says the debates will continue on Friday. Will update with source.

@Bri “He has been a dodgers fan”. Ha ha ha… Had to give you lurve for that one.

hehe thanks

I attended the Civil Forum at Saddleback Church. I was impressed with Obama, and was confused at the cheers when McCain avoided a question by telling a story about being in a prisoner of war camp. Living both in the OC and Bakersfield (where the Bible belt snaps and stings at the end) I have seen how really good people reduce their vote to who they would like to have a beer with, or who they would most likely see sitting in the pew next to them. I would like to think that the situation would shock them into looking at the issues, but I am still scared that they won’t.

@Bri: McCain said not that long ago that the economy was in a perfectly fine position. Obama and him are neck and neck in the polls – what does that tell you about the Americans that are voting?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/mccain-not-comm.html

The debate is on!
“We can handle both”!!!

now I’m going to go read my source, right now I’m just trusting the BF

“What’s changed today in the financial crisis other than John McCain’s poll numbers tanking? Isn’t this the campaign equivalent of faking an injury when you’re down late in the 4th quarter? Note too that McCain was in the midst of debate prep when he made this decision.

Look at what appears to have happened. Obama reached out to McCain privately to agree to a shared set of bailout principles. McCain went off the handle again and tried to use the crisis as a way to call off the debates.”

From Talking Points Memo.

@drasticdreamer: Actually, today McCain took a significant dive in the polls. ABC has him 9 points behind. That’s what this is about.

Yeah, 9 points might be considered a dive to the media or a lot of other people, but in actuality, 9 points is not that much. McCain is scared, yes, that’s obvious. But I think a lot of Americans will view his cowardice as caring, because they’re just that stupid.

Guys, we need to ask Judi to tell us more about the people we’re calling “stupid”.
How do we connect with them enough to influence them? Not by
deciding they don’t count. They’ll be turning out to vote in enormous numbers.

@ drastic – a tad f’d up that is.

@ susanc – good point!!!!

An aside – say what you will about Obama’s inexperience, wether or not you agree with that. but if you go to this link

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/obama-picks-up.html

you cannot deny that this is a well thought out plan and approach that looks at the total picture. He contacted people who had experience. He met with people, advisors and came up with solutions that provided accountability for all. It reaches across all economic and party solutions to solve the whole problem and pave the way for avoiding it. It isn’t a 700 billion dollar band aid.

Or something like that. I get riled up some times and miss things. I am open to other interpretations.

@susan, @Judi: we can connect with people emotionally or intellectually. The intellectual connectors are going to vote for who they agree with and they’re looking at the issues. The emotional connectors are going to vote for who they just like better (because he’s got experience, white, older, got a woman on the ticket, is someone “like me”, a hero, whatever). The challenge is in how to make the emotional connectors either become intellectual connectors OR how to change their emotional experience.

Because as of right now McCain and Palin are lying daily to the press or in the press and the press is calling them out on it and the emotional connectors DON’T CARE. They just connect more because the media is being mean to McCain and Palin and everybody likes an underdog. Seriously. What can we do?

Well put, EmpressPixie. People just don’t care. Which is pretty much what I was saying when I was calling everyone that is still going to vote for him stupid. :D Heh.

It’s funny because most of my friends are hardened Republicans. I know most of them from church. Over the years they have gone from being repulsed by my politics to respecting me for them. I challenge them to look deeper into their faith and see the heart of what it means to be a Christian. Not that I am saying that Jesus is a Democrat or a Republican, but I know that I have made it dififcult for them to just blindly follow. This year a few of them have actually told me they are voting for Obama. They won’t be wearing buttons or bumper stickers, but it warms my heart to know that they went out of their way to tell me.

Smells like bullshit to me. It’s a simple stunt and it forces Obama to play along, otherwise he’ll look like he doesn’t care about “the great unwashed masses.”

But what’s McCain gonna do? Call for more deregulation?

I’m sure that McCain has genuine concern about the economy, and wants the economy to get back on its feet. Whether you agree with his politics or not, he’s still an American, and his own livelihood is strongly tied to the American economy.

I also think that McCain is trying to derail Obama’s recent popularity. The best way to do that (aside from having more popular ideas) is to sweep the carpet from underneath Obama, and force Obama to play on his playing field. By moving the political arena into his own court, he’ll have a better chance of being able to out maneuver Obama.

Obama doesn’t really have a choice in the matter either, since if he doesn’t agree to follow suit, A) he’ll look like an opportunist by exploiting a national crisis for political gain, and B) he’ll look like his commitment to unifying the country is only skin deep. He’ll look like more of a polarizing figure, if he doesn’t play ball.

I know, that if I were McCain, I’d be doing the same thing for political advantage, whether I cared about fixing the economy or not.

He’s giving a press conference right now (Obama is) about this whole thing.

running to TV

And he has TWO flags behind him AND a flag pin on.

I know, I know, not important, but it amused me.

Damn, at work, can’t watch TV! Update, update!

He’s laying out his plan. He said something about wanting to make a joint statement with McCain, but perhaps McCain came out with this instead? “There are times for politics and there are times to rise above politics and do what is right for this country.”

He was asked this (the fluther question).
He called McCain to issue a joint statement.
McCain called back and agreed, then said they should also have a meeting in Washington.
He said why don’t we get the joint statement out first to say what we both agree on and get the signal out that this isn’t partisan.
Then Obama got back to his hotel and saw McCain on TV saying that about the debates.

“This is exactly the time when the American people NEED to hear from the person… [who in whoever many days will be president, I got behind on typing]. In my mind, actually, it is more important than ever…”

Ah… Obama swoons

“There are times for politics and there are times to rise above politics and do what is right for this country.”

I thought poltiics were supposed to handle things exactly like this. What are they campaigning for, if not for the power to decide how to handle these situations in the future?

He could be doing both. At the same time.

as promised

Smell like McCain’s political advisers to me. Nervous, perhaps?

What happens if McCain refuses to debate? Can he be forced into it?

He will look like he’s “on the run”

So now he wants to postpone the VP debate as well. Same reason.

This might deserve it’s own question.

McCain’s trying all he can to stay “In the Green” by the larger sum of the American people

However, sometimes making no decision is the wrong decision.
(Unfortunately he’s full of them)

Yes! This is the deal! Empress Pixie nailed it! The Repubs would do anything to
avoid having to put Ms Pa… er, Governor Palin up against smart, experienced, humorous,
agile-minded, clever, wise Joe Biden – they’d even make their presidential candidate look like a coward (since the “emotional base” can’t factor such a thought into their brains, so saturated are they with images of his POW stalwartness).

Cynical?

McCain cancelled his appearance on David Letterman due to the “economic crisis”. See Dave’s take on it here. He gets pretty pissy towards the end, when he sees that McCain has not jumped on a plane…