Obama rejects postponing of debate
Rebuffs McCain move, says issues need airing
WASHINGTON — John McCain called Wednesday for delaying the first debate of the presidential campaign so he and Barack Obama can devote themselves to solving the Wall Street crisis— a dramatic gesture that shook up the Republican nominee’s campaign but drew taunts of grandstanding and an inability to multitask.
The gambit blindsided Obama, boxing the Democratic nominee into a choice between looking weak by giving into McCain or coming off as petulant if he insisted on going ahead with Friday’s debate on foreign policy — a topic whose urgency has dimmed amid dire warnings of a market meltdown.
Late Wednesday, President Bush invited both nominees to meet with him and congressional leaders from both parties today in the White House, putting into action McCain’s insistence on an all-hands assault on the crisis.
McCain announced he was suspending his campaign moments after a phone conversation with his rival on the possibility of issuing a joint statement of principles to shape a $700 billion financial bailout.
“We must pass legislation to address this crisis,” McCain said. “If we do not act, every corner of our country will be impacted.”
Democrats accused him of injecting politics into the crisis in the guise of offering leadership and legislative acumen.
Obama said he would proceed with the debate, set for Friday night in Oxford, Miss.
“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,” he said, jabbing at McCain about the GOP nominee’s ability to handle multiple duties. “It is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once.”
Both the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates and the University of Mississippi said they were pressing ahead with plans for the forum.
McCain won’t debate unless Congress and the White House agree on a solution to the financial crisis, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S. C., his point man on debate negotiations.
McCain said he would return to Washington today, pulling television ads and canceling an appearance Wednesday on “The Late Show With David Letterman.” He challenged Obama to do likewise.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told McCain thanks but no thanks on the idea of dropping everything and returning to Washington to midwife a bailout deal.
An Obama-McCain statement on principles for a deal would be great, Reid said, but “we need leadership, not a campaign photo op.”
Graham said he was “dumbfounded” that Reid would rebuff the idea of the nominees throwing themselves into negotiations. Warren E. Buffett, the billionaire investor, has called the crisis a “financial Pearl Harbor,” Graham told CNN. “We need a solution on this crisis more that we need a foreign policy debate.”
The McCain campaign floated the idea of holding the first debate next Thursday in St. Louis, using the slot set aside for the vice presidential debate. It was unclear whether that would mean there would be two rather than three presidential debates. It also wasn’t clear if or when a debate would take place between Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, and Sen. Joe Biden, Obama’s running mate.
Democrats accused McCain of pulling a stunt to halt a slide in the polls. They also tweaked him for declaring the economic situation so dire it requires suspension of his campaign, a week after he declared the fundamentals of the economy are sound.
Some independent analysts agreed.
“It is a stunt. It is a ploy,” said David S. Birdsell, dean of the school of public affairs at Baruch College in New York, an expert on presidential debates.
He called it a “very high risk strategy” for McCain to take responsibility for brokering a solution to the economic crisis.
“He’s not president yet,” Birdsell said, adding that pulling out of a debate is unprecedented. “That notion that we take one of the most sacred obligations and rituals of American politics and suspend it because there’s an urgent national question is highly problematic.”
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, DN. Y., an Obama backer, called McCain’s move a counterproductive attempt at “one-upmanship.” It’s “weird” and “odd,” he told CNN, especially since the GOP nominee has been uninvolved in bailout talks so far.
“The last thing we need in these delicate negotiations is an injection of presidential politics,” Schumer said.
But former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., praised McCain’s move. He called Obama’s insistance on sticking to the original debate schedule “irresponsible and politically dangerous.”
“I’m not sure Sen. Obama has ever participated in a crisis of this magnitude at this level, but he should set aside politicking,” Gingrich said. “The economy can’t wait. . . . We can get back to talking later.”
