McCain Seeks Debate Delay - Obama Responds

In a calculated move that appears to portend a funeral coach approaching his campaign, Juan Bush McSham(e) requested Friday's presidential debate with rival Barack Obama be postponed so he could return to Washington to help save the United States from its second great depression.

Barack Obama, in an 8:30 a.m. phone call to McCain (which McCain didn't return until 2:30 p.m.), had suggested both candidates issue a joint statement about the economy and the bipartisan effort in Washington to resolve the crisis before tonight's address to the country by President Bush.

Without notifying Obama in the phone call it came as a surprise when McCain responded 20 minutes later by announcing he would suspend all campaign activities, events, fund raising and advertising to return to Washington to improve the bipartisan effort required to pass the Bush administration's $700 BILLION bailout of Wall Street that is before Congress. His photo-op return and any resulting vote will mark the first time he has been in Washington to vote on legislative matters since early April.

In watching opening statements made by every Congressional (Republican and Democrat) member of the hearing committee formed to assess and make recommendations on the administration's bail out proposal, this writer actually had a bit of his pervasive cynicism about government restored. Every committee member spoke eloquently and clearly to the issue before them (us). Thoughts, ideas, suggestions were articulate and concise and bipartisan in their uniform agreement on the key issues, ideas, and safeguards on how to resolve the pending economic crisis centered on Wall Street but headed to America's Main Streets.

In response to McCain's announcement, Barack Obama indicated his campaign will continue and that he speaks regularly with Congressional leaders and administration officials including Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen and Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke. He indicated he would return to Washington to vote on the final bail out bill.

Obama, in response to McCain's request that the debate be delayed declared,

"It's my belief that 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." "It's going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once."

continue to have the debate," he said. "I think that it makes sense for us to present ourselves before the American people, to talk about the nature of the problems that we're having in our financial system, to talk about how it relates to our global standing in the world, what implications it has for our national security, how it relates to critical questions, like the war in Iraq and Afghanistan."

And if it turns out that the candidates must be present in the Senate on Friday, "We've both got big planes. We've painted our slogans on the sides of them. They can get us from Washington, D.C., to Mississippi fairly quickly."

Nevertheless, Obama and his senior campaign aides were roiled by rival John McCain's announcement, describing it as a stunning twist to what they had thought was unfolding as a quiet and deliberative effort to show bipartisan solidarity before Bush's speech tonight.

In back-to-back news conferences on Tuesday, Obama and McCain outlined nearly identical priorities for what should be included in the bailout legislation, including benefits for taxpayers, restrictions on executive pay, and bipartisan oversight. Later that evening, Obama received a phone message from Sen. Tom Coburn, a conservative Oklahoma Republican he had worked with on previous bills. According to Obama, Coburn suggested that a joint statement outlining these shared principles might be helpful.

Obama raised the issue with a few of his aides, who concurred. At 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, Obama placed a call to McCain to run the idea by him.

"There are times for politics, and then there are times to rise above politics and do what's right for the country. And this is one of those times," Obama explained.

At about 2:30 p.m., Obama was leaving a rally at a minor league baseball stadium in nearby Dunedin, Fla., when McCain returned his call. In a conversation that lasted about five minutes, Obama said the two men discussed the joint statement idea and exchanged contact information so their campaign aides could follow up.

Obama said McCain also raised the idea of suspending his campaign and delaying the debate. Obama said he didn't rule out either option, but told McCain he wanted to see how events unfolded and suggested the candidates first address the immediate priority of speaking with one voice before Bush's address.

But by the time Obama returned to his hotel, about 20 minutes later, McCain had made his announcement. "I thought this was something that he was mulling over," Obama said. "Apparently, this was something that, you know, he was more decisive about in his own mind."

Obama said he was in daily contact with Democratic leaders in Congress and with Paulson, and said he would return to Washington if he thought his presence would be useful in striking a deal. But Obama said that, given the stakes, he viewed the debate as a valuable use of the candidates' time.

"It is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once," he said. "I think there's no reason why we can't be constructive in helping to solve this problem and also tell the American people what we believe, and where we stand, and where we want to take the country."

He continued, "So in my mind, actually, it's more important than ever that we present ourselves to the American people and try to describe where we want to take the country and where we want to take the economy, as well as dealing with some of the issues of foreign policy that were initially the subject of the debate."

"There's something bigger going on here," said David Axelrod, Obama's chief political strategist.

Indeed.