Thursday Morning: Tomorrow's Debate Remains Uncertain; Palin on Couric; and Biden Hits McCain on Iraq
Good morning!
Well, it's one day before the first scheduled presidential debate, and the candidates are spending it similarly -- first at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York this morning, then in a meeting about the bailout package -- sorry, structured rescue plan -- with President Bush and congressional leaders this afternoon.
But the candidates' mirrored schedules belie this week's political tension. After gratuitously pious grandstanding from both candidates yesterday on how best to respond to the crisis, tomorrow night's debate in Oxford, Mississippi is still up in the air. Obama has said he'll attend with or without his opponent, but McCain says he'll only debate tomorrow if negotiators have settled on an economic package. And bloggers and op-ed writers are taking to this story like pigs in, um, mud. If you're looking to vomit before noon, we suggest taking a sip of milk every time you read the word "gamble" as a description of McCain's call-to-arms yesterday. But start with the WP's ever-wise Dan Balz:
The standoff over the debate left both candidates in potentially awkward positions, although there is plenty of time for it to be resolved. McCain may be reluctant to climb down from his insistence that the debate be delayed until there is an agreement on a package, but he could be seen as scuttling an important event for voters eager to see the two candidates side by side. Obama, on the other hand, may look high-handed if he insists on going ahead as negotiations in Washington reach a critical moment by this weekend.
At a minimum, voters were treated again to contrasting styles of leadership Wednesday, with McCain willing to act boldly, if impulsively, to inject himself into the middle of delicate negotiations to force a solution, and Obama adopting a cooler approach designed to show calm in the midst of crisis while preferring to give long-distance encouragement to all parties in the talks.
McCain's surrogates are reportedly floating an alternate scenario: that the first Presidential debate replace next week's scheduled VP debate in St. Louis, and the VP candidates debate in Oxford at some later date.
Elsewhere, last night GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin made her third interview appearance, on CBS's evening news with Katie Couric. (According to the Obama campaign, notoriously chatty Democrat Joe Biden has been interviewed 89 times since his veep selection a week prior to Palin's, but who's counting?). Palin took Couric's bait about the possibility of an impending Great Depression -- a characterization McCain managed to dodge in his own Couric interview last night.
Couric: If this doesn't pass, do you think there's a risk of another Great Depression?
Palin: Unfortunately, that is the road that America may find itself on. Not necessarily this, as it's been proposed, has to pass or we're going to find ourselves in another Great Depression. But, there has got to be action - bipartisan effort - Congress not pointing fingers at one another but finding the solution to this, taking action, and being serious about the reforms on Wall Street that are needed.
But Palin came up short when pressed by the anchor about McCain's legislative history on regulation.
Couric: But he's been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.
Palin: He's also known as the maverick though, taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he's been talking about - the need to reform government.(snip)
Couric: I'm just going to ask you one more time - not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation.
Palin: I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you.
And finally, Joe Biden stuck with foreign policy yesterday, though he was overshadowed by economic news and also by the fact that no one is really paying attention to him these days. The Democratic VP nominee spoke for 42 minutes in Cincinnati, hammering John McCain for having tunnel vision on Iraq and ignoring the fight against al-Qaeda. The Cincinnati Enquirer points out that Biden spoke in the same venue where President Bush laid out the rationale for invading Iraq.
-- Evie Stone
9:52 AM ET | 09-25-2008 | permalink
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