You’re probably not reading here if you want current news regarding the historic meeting between Obama, McCain, Bush and Congressional leaders, but since you are here, check out these links for sites that are monitoring the developments.
National Review – Larry Kudlow
Politico.com
Meanwhile, economiic numbers out today smell like recession…
Bush says the meeting going on now is designed to gain consensus regarding the rescue plan…
Tag: McCain
Obama initiated the proposed summit with McCain; doesn't want to postpone debate
According to the Associated Press,
The Obama campaign said in a statement that Obama had called McCain around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday to propose that they issue a joint statement in support of a package to help fix the economy as soon as possible. McCain called back six hours later and agreed to the idea of the statement, the Obama campaign said. McCain’s statement was issued to the media a few minutes later.
“We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved,” McCain said. “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.”
I think this signals how severe the financial crisis looks to the politicians. It appears both candidates are convinced that quick action is necessary in order to stabilize the markets and the economy as a whole. Developing…
UPDATE: Oh my, they are going to argue over who had the idea first. This does not look like a good sign for jointly working out a economic plan. From Jonathan Martin at Politico.
Senator Obama phoned Senator McCain at 8:30 am this morning but did not reach him. The topic of Senator Obama’s call to Senator McCain was never discussed. Senator McCain was meeting with economic advisers and talking to leaders in Congress throughout the day prior to calling Senator Obama. At 2:30 pm, Senator McCain phoned Senator Obama and expressed deep concern that the plan on the table would not pass as it currently stands. He asked Senator Obama to join him in returning to Washington to lead a bipartisan effort to solve this problem.
Obama campaign no-show at clergy forum
I received the following press release this morning:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 /Christian Newswire/ — A top-level advisor and ten-member delegation for Sen. Barack Obama were no- shows at yesterday’s Reese RoundTable on Capitol Hill, a forum for the campaigns to present their respective candidates’ worldviews and how that informs their ideas about government.
The Obama representative, the Reverend Evna Terri La Velle, Senior Advisor Religious Affairs for Obama for America, inexplicably cancelled only hours before the event. When event organizers appealed to Democratic Party Officials, they were told someone would “look into it,” but that these decisions are made in Chicago, meaning Obama campaign headquarters.
Event host, Rev. Rob Schenck, who moderated the discussion, said he was profoundly disappointed. He released this statement:
“Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean assured me last year in a private meeting in his office that his party would do everything possible to constructively engage Evangelicals, traditional Catholics and other moral conservatives. He even pledged to participate in events like this. Barack Obama has made similar promises. They did a couple of high-profile media events, but it appears they were not serious at a grass- roots level. Yesterday’s last-minute unexplained cancellation was nothing short of a snub. Our capacity crowd was insulted by their absence.”
I called National Clergy Council chief of staff, Peggy Birchfield who said John McCain’s campaign sent Robert Heckman, Senior Advisor. Birchfield said that Obama representative, Rev. La Velle, confirmed her attendance on Monday but backed out via text message the day of the event.
The forum went on anyway with 75 people in attendance, including some Obama supporters who left early, according to Birchfield. The audience was made up of local clergy, congressional staffers and members of the media. The forum was videotaped and is scheduled to be available of the organization’s website later today.
Two new polls show Obama with a tiny lead
The AP reports on two new polls. The Pew poll has the candidates even up when considering the poll’s margin of error while the Gallup poll has Obama up 4.
Democrats want Obama to put the smack down
When McCain-Palin moved ahead in the polls, Obama’s supporters began to worry. McCain’s lead is not sizable and not even uniform in all polls, but the perception that “we’re gonna frickin’ lose this thing,” as one columnist at the Huffington Post recently wrote, is driving some panic. Ariana Huffington wants Obama to get all huffy and put the smack down.
Various Dems have offered support, including President Bill Clinton. I am also hearing that the word is ignore Palin and attack McCain, specifically on the economy.
Given the ongoing, bad economic news, finding lots to criticize won’t be hard. However, it is very difficult to pin that on McCain since he has been a persistent critic of Bush administration spending.
In any event, the campaign promises to get uglier and uglier.