Wow, you take a day off and catch up on sleep, and the campaign season goes all topsy-turvy. OK, so McCain suspends his campaign, wants to delay the debate, and wants to “delay” (read, cancel) the VP debate, so he can go back to Washington and help try to do something about the looming economic crisis?
If he weren’t the most absentee Senator in the 110th Congress, this might be laudable. According to the Washington Post’s Congress database, as of September 9, 2008 McCain has missed 408 out of Senate 639 votes cast in the current 110th Congress, or 63.8%; the worst Senate attendance record of the current 110th Congress. Even Tim Johnson (D-SD), who had a BRAIN HEMMORHAGE back in December 2006 and spent several months recovering only missed 311 votes. Now in the interest of fairness, Obama missed 291 votes missed, or 45.5%.
They are both running for President, so absence is to be expected, but to then try to pretend to come charging back into DC like some sort of cavalry to save the day? Ironic that, considering that he was one of the Keating Five back during the Savings & Loan crisis of the 1980s, and he helped champion the de-regulation (along with the author of the de-regulation bill, and McCain’s economic advisor, Phil Gramm). And now we are seeing some sort of deathbed conversion? Deathbed because his campaign is in the toilet, and his brain seems to be confused and awkward in these past two weeks? It seems that the strain of campaigning is taking its toll on this 72 year old man.
Bush is Chicken Little. Yes, we are facing a serious problem, but remember the Patriot Act? In the wake of the September 11th attacks, the Bush administration rammed through one of the biggest power grabs and threat to the civil rights of American citizens in history. This is the exact same thing being played out all over again. Let the Congress take the necessary time to craft a good solution: one that offers help to financial instutions with some serious strings attached. Be patient, take a deep breath, stay calm and deliberative, and we’ll solve our problems together.
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Great article all around. I think that that McCain could take a note from Obama, saying the next president needs to “deal with more than one thing at once.”
-Nate
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