US Presidential Elections

[Guard Dog]

n00b & Gorgon hit it right on the head... it is just a campaign stunt. This move coincides with a new gallup poll that has Obama not only ahead but gaining a greater than 50% share of likely votes for the first time since the Dem convention ended.

 

I think the strategy here is this: He is falling behind in the election so he tries this to set himself above the election and try to make Obama look petty by baiting him to attack the move. Which will work if Obama does attack, if Obama ignores this McCain will just look a little melodramatic and foolish.

 

The problem here is if McCain and Obama actually did return to the senate to work on the bail out legislation all it would do is inject Presidential politics into the process and probably polarize the Senate to boot. Neither would be helpful.

Edited September 24, 2008 by Guard Dog

[Killian Kalthorne]

Holy crap, Obama wants to go on!

 

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/...ould.debate.cnn

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Yeah!

[random n00b]

Another mantra.

 

At any rate, I doubt this will have much impact, and it's looking like just another PR stunt. The ball's in Obama's court now, though.

 

[retarded talk]I think the elections should be postponed indefinitely and G.Bush remain president, best thing for US and the whole world because people just don't realize what a great leader he is [/retarded talk]

Grow up.

[Meshugger]

Hoho, this sounds more and more like a "Uh-huh? You think that you're awesome? You better think again, i call on your bet of awesomeness and raise it by the double. Let's see the flop."

 

This goes for both sides of the candidates.

[Hildegard]

Grow up.

 

In the morning.

[Humodour]

It hasn't hit the polls yet obviously, but general reaction towards McCain's little debate suspension stunt is not good. Here's a summary:

 

McCain says let's suspend presidential campaigns because we're needed in congress to fix Wall street: "Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington."

 

Congress tells them to go away: "It would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations and risk injecting presidential politics into this process or distract important talks about the future of our nation's economy. If that changes, we will call upon them."

 

The debate organisers say they were not informed of any changes to the debate: "The University of Mississippi is going forward with the preparation for the debate. We are ready to host the debate, and we expect the debate to occur as planned."

 

Obama says the debates should go forward as planned: "This is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who, in approximately 40 days, will be responsible for dealing with this mess." and "Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time. It's not necessary for us to think that we can only do one thing and suspend everything else."

Edited September 25, 2008 by Krezack

[random n00b]

Heh, looks like a by-the-numbers crash & burn for McCain.

[Hurlshort]

I like McCain's idea of suspending the campaign to do his job, but if congress is saying stay away, then he should heed that.

[taks]

"This is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who, in approximately 40 days, will be responsible for dealing with this mess."

apparently he doesn't understand how the constitutional process of electing a president works. said person won't be responsible till 2009.

 

taks

[Gorgon]

So he'll be president elect for two months, that seems like rather a long time.

[Humodour]

This is gold. McCain bails out on his interview with David letterman, citing his campaign suspension as the reason and indicating he's on his way to Washington, then Letterman catches him doing an interview with some broad on another show instead. It's required viewing:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjkCrfylq-E

 

Needless to say, Letterman wasn't exactly bouncing off the walls with glee.

 

The senator himself called Letterman to explain, “I have to go back and fix the economy. I’m going to get on a plane now and go.” The show scrambled and at the last minute booked Keith Olbermann. When it was time for tonight’s taping, Letterman explained to the cameras why McCain was a no-show and even had nice things to say about the guy. That is, until the behind the scenes people in The Late Show control room were shocked to see a live feed of McCain being miked in Katie Couric’s CBS News studio at the same time he was supposed to be in Dave’s studio. Letterman was informed of this during the commercial break, and, when the show came back, ordered the control room to cut to the live McCain/Couric feed. Then Letterman bashed McCain for not being honest. “He doesn’t seem to be racing back to the airport, does he?” Letterman asked the audience.

 

http://coloradoindependent.com/9206/letter...te-cancellation

Edited September 25, 2008 by Krezack

[taks]

So he'll be president elect for two months, that seems like rather a long time.

uh, no, at least, not really. the president is not officially voted into office until the electoral college meets in december, and their votes are passed on to congress. inauguration is then held on january 20 of the following year.

 

all of this is in some ways rather silly, but it does provide for time to deal with issues such as those that went down in the last election (er, two elections ago).

 

taks

[Enoch]

So he'll be president elect for two months, that seems like rather a long time.

uh, no, at least, not really. the president is not officially voted into office until the electoral college meets in december, and their votes are passed on to congress. inauguration is then held on january 20 of the following year.

 

all of this is in some ways rather silly, but it does provide for time to deal with issues such as those that went down in the last election (er, two elections ago).

 

taks

Yeah, but as soon as the outcome of the election is certain, the winning campaign begins it's "transition team" effort, opening lines of communication with the appointees they'll be replacing and the civil servants and military commanders they'll be overseeing so that they can be up-to-speed on the important issues before they show up for work in January. While they aren't responsible for any of the decision making in the interim, the president-elect's people generally have someone at the table in all the major meetings, and all but the most immediate of crises tend to be put off until the new administration anyway. (By this point, the exiting appointees are usually more interested in getting their resumes out to their favorite think tanks, lobbyist firms, media companies, etc.)

[Guard Dog]

Actually beginning in September-October both candidates will get full Secret Service details as well as daily briefings from the NSA, State Dept, and other cabinet departmnets so the transitions actually begin before the election os even held.

[Lare Kikkeli]

USA deserves McCain

[taks]

what the US deserves has not run for office in over 100 years, closer to 200. for that matter, what the US deserves cannot run for office as long as the US government feels fit to control private enterprise through legislation.

 

taks

[Gorgon]

What the US deserves cannot run as long as private enterprise controls the grease needed to get elected.

[taks]

typical socialist ignorance.

 

private enterprise could not control "the grease" if government did not provide the means to do so. think about it for a minute... your ideology supplies the means by which corruption can even exist. duh.

 

taks

[Gorgon]

Isn't the point though that the US government should have stepped in long ago to stop questionable loan practices, that's what started the trouble in the first place. Loans with very bad security.

[taks]

Isn't the point though that the US government should have stepped in long ago to stop questionable loan practices, that's what started the trouble in the first place. Loans with very bad security.

you mean, the system that started out broken due to government intervention?

 

what you don't seem to get is a) my comments had nothing to do with the current problem and b) the quasi-governmental organizations were handing out bad loans because of the myth (propagated by politicians) that everyone should own a home. what i was getting at is that if the government got out of the business of regulating business, there would be no reason for business to grease political wheels (why bribe a politician when he can't influence your bottom line).

 

to your point:

 

home ownership in the US is much higher than anywhere else in the world, and it shouldn't be. the simple fact of the matter is that most people aren't responsible enough to make the proper decisions regarding home ownership. morons took on low interest loans, on mortgages they would not have otherwise been able to acquire, assuming the economy would keep on trucking as-is (er, as-was) and they'd be fine when their rates went adjustable. news flash, it is a cyclical thing, aggravated by government controls (which ultimately make it less predictable, paradoxically). had they simply left it up to private enterprise, completely, from the beginning, none of these high-risk loans would have been granted and there wouldn't be the bailout.

 

taks

[Enoch]

Isn't the point though that the US government should have stepped in long ago to stop questionable loan practices, that's what started the trouble in the first place. Loans with very bad security.

All the stuff with the financial crisis gets very complicated, and it certainly doesn't fit neatly into the mindless ideological shouting match between "It's all the government's fault!" and "It's all the greedy corporations' fault!". (It probably doesn't fit into a thread on the Presidential Election particularly well, either.)

 

Did government fail by giving the investment banks pretty much anything they wanted during the good years? Of course. Did the powers-that-be at said investment banks fail even worse in the management of their business? Aboslutely. Did the independent institutions in both the public and private sector (bond rating agencies, auditing firms, audit standards-setters) fail to keep up with changes in the way the financial industry was being run? You bet.

 

Housing happened to be the area that got hit first, but that's merely a symptom of the larger problem-- the combination of of too much freely available credit, too much leveraged investment, and too little clarity in the public disclosures of the major players in the financial industry. The current crisis is really the result of the failure of a generation of leadership among the nation's business and governmental elites.

[Laozi]

what you don't seem to get is a) my comments had nothing to do with the current problem and b) the quasi-governmental organizations were handing out bad loans because of the myth (propagated by politicians) that everyone should own a home. what i was getting at is that if the government got out of the business of regulating business, there would be no reason for business to grease political wheels (why bribe a politician when he can't influence your bottom line).

taks

 

 

Thats crap and you know it, there has never been a point in american history where the two didn't overlap. Who do we buy all those nifty toys from that secure national security? who does all that drilling and resource exploitation on government owned land? who builds all those federal buildings across the country? sea ports? air ports? roads?

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

McCain's had a very bad week, hasn't he?

[SteveThaiBinh]

McCain's had a very bad week, hasn't he?

It does look like it. I suppose we'll know a bit more when next week's polls come out.

 

So, who thinks McCain will turn up to the debate?