The financial crisis continues and Congress is deadlocked.The President's speech can be read here, if you're interested.
John McCain leads by suspending campaign, postponing the debate, and urging the president to call a key leaders summit, to include himself and Barack Obama.
Obama refuses McCain's call, demands the debate go forward, and sputters about being available if he's needed.
President Bush convenes the meeting that John McCain suggested.
Obama blinks and agrees to attend.
The president addresses the nation, explains the history of the cris, and describes an outline of the proposed action. "It should be enacted as soon as possible," is the president's bottom line. "In times of real trial, elected officials rise to the occasion," the president noted. That's where we are tonight. Let's hope he is right. The Congress needs to act soon.
These events should impact the presidential election in a profound way.
Today was Obama's Katrina moment and an example of great leadership by John McCain. This contrast was telling and will matter.
Obama's complaint about the debate postponement made him look exceptionally petty given his refusal to debate all summer long. Obama's reversal suggests he did not understand the seriousness of the moment and was pursuing a purely political approach to the crisis.
John McCain, by contrast, acted with speed and resolution. McCain did not wait to see which way the polls were trending and he did what he has often done over the years --demanding what he saw was necessary action and appealing for bipartisan support. I have opposed some of these calls in the past, but today's call was clearly the right thing to do.
What an extraordinary demonstration of the differences between these two nominees.
I have not seen anyone disagree with the idea that something major needs to happen, and fast. That's not the argument. The argument is, essentially: how do we fix the problem? The two choices, if you boil things down, are to turn toward socialism or capitalism.
The Democrats are quite clear in saying that capitalism has failed, but that's patently false. If you've been reading my blog over the past few days, you understand that the very conditions that snowballed into this financial disaster were forced upon us by Congress. In essence, government control of private industries is socialism. The failure was not of capitalism, but of too much government intervention in the free markets - socialism. So, if socialism is what got us in trouble, who in their right mind would actually believe that even more socialism will get us out of trouble?
The Democrats also like to say that a failure to regulate was the problem. Also untrue - the financial industry has more regulations than you can shake a stick at! The problem is the unethical leadership of people who were willing to ignore those regulations in favor of their own personal gain.
McCain's gamble on suspending his campaign until the crisis is still in question. Some think it was a big mistake, some are applauding it as a bold leadership move, especially in the light of the opposite reaction from Obama. Ultimately, it will be the American voters that determine its validity at the polls. It does seem odd that Obama says that this is "the worst economic crisis to face the country since the Great Depression", and yet seems reluctant to head back to Washington to deal with it. One of these two candidates will have committed a serious mistake, but we have no idea yet which candidate it is.
Here are a couple initial opinions from people I've come to trust, for what it's worth.
Rich Lowry:
I'm a "the show must go on" guy. I didn't like that McCain cancelled the first day of the Republican convention. So I don't see why we can't have a presidential debate even in the midst of this crisis. On the other hand, my preferences aside, there's the politics of McCain's move, which may work to his advantage. 1) He needed to change the story line and flush out the "fundamentals of the economy strong" mis-step from last week, and this does it; 2) it's not going to strike most people as wrong or unreasonable for a senator to go to Washington and participate in a senate debate over this historic bailout package; 3) as long as it isn't perceived as gimmicky, people will like the anti-politics-as-usual feel of McCain "suspending" his campaign; 4) they can still have the debate next week. Earlier this evening, as I was wondering how this would play out, I thought either Obama was going to drag McCain to Oxford and that'd be the sign Obama won this mini-duel, or McCain would drag Obama to Washington and it'd be a sign McCain won it. Now, with an assist from President Bush, McCain has Obama following him to Washington.Newt Gingrich:
Today john McCain showed what it meant to put country first.I have to say that I'm disappointed in Bush for seeming to back the socialism angle to this bailout, expanding the power of the federal government beyond all reasonable bounds. Fortunately, there are a number of staunch Republicans (Mike Pence, Jim DeMint, Richard Shelby, and others) who are standing up against this bill in its current form. Our elected leaders are working together to make some kind of deal that both sides can live with.
He put everything on the line to try to put together a bipartisan sizable economic package to replace the failed Paulson bailout package.
This is the greatest single act of responsibility ever taken by a presidential candidate and rivals President Eisenhower saying, ‘I will go to Korea.’
Every House and Senate Republican should join him in seeking the best ideas and the best solutions from across the country.
This is the day the McCain-reform Republican Party began to truly emerge as a movement which puts country first, solutions first, and big change first.
If House and Senate Republicans can help McCain put together a three part economic package history could be made.
We need:
An economic growth component;
An energy solution; and
A work-out (not a bail-out) for the financial sector.
If McCain can develop this plan, bring enough Democrats to support it to get passage, and then convince President Bush to sign it, this will be one of the most amazing achievements in the history of presidential campaigns.
It will also be a great service to the country and proof of what putting country first really means.
Newt on Senator Obama Refusing to Suspend His Campaign:
As Speaker of the House, I know what being in deep negotiations is and what it takes to get members in Congress to get something done. We were able to work through welfare reform and a balanced budget. Let me just tell you first hand, what Senator McCain is proposing will take extraordinary hard work and it is going to take many long hours.
It is surprisingly irresponsible and politically dangerous for the Obama campaign to try and insist on a debate Friday night.
While both of these men are candidates for president, they are still both currently serving as United States Senators. The American people, in this kind of economic situation, want to see their elected leaders working to solve this crisis, not debating. They want this problem fixed and that will mean getting real bipartisan agreement. .All members on both sides in both houses including Senators McCain and Obama are going to have to roll up their sleeves, sit down, listen to each-other, and work very hard to get it done.
I’m not sure Senator Obama has ever participated in a crisis of this magnitude at this level, but he should set aside politicking and commit to working with Senator McCain to find a solution to this problem.
The economy can’t wait, postpone the debate. We can get back to talking later. For the moment, let’s produce a real solution for America.
There are a lot of suggestions flying around out there on what we need to do to correct things. I'm sure you'll be surprised, but I firmly believe that this monster bailout with no oversight is the absolute worst thing that can happen. I would favor implementing several items that I've heard and read about, including:
- quick passage of the comprehensive energy bill (the GOP all-of-the-above plan)
- temporarily suspend the capital gains tax
- temporarily suspend or drastically reduce corporate taxes
- ditch the mark-to-market method, or change it to a rolling 3-year average rather than a snapshot
- allow failed businesses to fail, and prosecute (for fraud) the executives to the fullest extent of the law
- break up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into numerous smaller companies to prevent future too-big-to-fail situations
- eliminate so-called 'golden parachutes' for executives who lead companies into failure
All of these fall back to fundamental conservatism: individual responsibility, smaller government, less regulation, etc. That's why I like them. If you see other plans that make sense to you, feel free to drop me a comment to let me know.
What will happen? We don't know. Congress and the White House are wheeling and dealing like mad behind closed doors, and will likely produce something in the next day or two. I'll give you the highlights as they happen, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, I urge you to call your Senators and Rep to give them your opinions. They're jumpy right now, which means there is no better time for you to weigh in as a citizen with an opinion!
There's my two cents.
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