well fuck, this is all kinds of unprecedented, isn't it.

i mean, it sure looks at first glance to me like someone is chickening out on the debate.

I think it's actually funny that he's suddenly chickening out. Every time I hear him on the tee-vee, he's challenging Barak to an honor du-el...debate.

It's really impossible to guess what the McCain campaign wants with this move. Seems like another rash McCain decision that was not fully thought out.

"McCain said if Congress does not pass legislation to address the crisis, credit will dry up, people will no longer be able to buy homes, life savings will be at stake and businesses will not have enough money"

That's quite a change from 'the fundamentals are strong'...

gingher - Why would you ever doubt him? Oh, maybe cause of this little stunt?

"The Obama campaign said in a statement that Obama had called McCain around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday to propose that they issue a joint statement in support of a package to help fix the economy as soon as possible. McCain called back six hours later and agreed to the idea of the statement, the Obama campaign said. McCain's statement was issued to the media a few minutes later."

Let's do a joint statement... ME FIRST!

The poll you linked to is from October 4-8, 2007. I am guessing that's an error and not really what you mean by "recent."

Honestly, I am so goddamn sick of McCain and his stupid, god-awful shenanigans. This is bullshit. After eight years of the terror that is the Bush Administration, there is nothing more important right now than the election of our new president. He's just afraid of his inevitable loss. What a dick move.

AP is reporting that Obama has agreed to postpone the debate.

Honestly, I am so goddamn sick of McCain and his stupid, god-awful shenanigans.

[sarcasm]C'mon man. John McCain is all about "Country First", there's no way he would use Obama's pledge to not publicly question his actions as being politically motivated in such a cynical way.[/sarcasm]

jamie yes, whoops, wrong link. Should be fixed now.

Why does McCain feel it is so important to devote his entire focus to the bailout, when he's already proven to have a complete lack of understanding of the economy, and no respect for economists and other experts on the matter. This is clearly just another highly-political attempt to weasel out of public accountability, while simultaneously contributing to a problem for which he will do more harm than good. We need economists--and lots of them--focused on the economy. And we need McCain and Obama to continue the political process, so that the public is educated enough to make the right decision in November.

He needs to learn to multi-task. He's not going to be able to put the entire government on hole every time there is a "crisis".

Sounds like Obama will be at the debate on Friday, probably regardless of what McCain thinks.

@fuckregistering: Oh really? Wow. I guess I didn't think of it that way. Thanks for enlightening us. Gee whiz, here I am thinking that a man who said verbatim in a recent press conference "I know nothing about the economy" will be completely worthless in Washington! Holy cow, and I also thought that this might have been a goddamn publicity stunt! But thank the lord for you, fuckregistering, otherwise we stupid liberals would have very little guidance to truth.

I'm not really understanding where all this attitude is coming from here. I, for one, am sick of campaigning and wish these guys would actually, um, I dunno, Govern, like they were elected to. The debates should all still happen, but if a national crisis emerges, I expect my elected officials to do what's best for the country at the time, not stubbornly hold to some arbitrary scheduled event when it can easily be rescheduled. I don't care if they're on the finance committee or not, there's a national problem here that needs addressing, and someone who was out campaigning at the expense of the economic well-being of American citizens does not deserve to be president. And I would say this whether it was McCain or Obama making this move.

this is just a precursor to them later canceling the election due to national crisis, just making sure we all just go along with it

@fuckregistering: How did you manage to sneak 9/11 in there? WTF? Wow. Twice, nonetheless. That was very Giuliani~esque.

Anyway, in all honesty, a presidential candidate should be able to show his/her ability to multitask and keep the train going throughout a crisis. This is a serious crisis, nobody is denying that one. But the fact of the matter is that this will not be the last crisis. What would McCain do if he were president and a similar crisis arose? Cancel all his meetings and put the entire country and international community on hold to focus on one thing?

It's hilarious how he has NO power at all in determining the fate of the economy other than casting a vote for a potential solution....which, by the way, wont be happening on Friday. Not sure if you knew that.

fuckregistering, if this is the "biggest crisis" since 9/11, then I'd think that McCain would:

-not make stupid, brash, and incorrect statements about "firing Chris Cox"

-actually show up for other important votes too- "There have been 643 votes taken in the current Senate session: McCain has missed 412 of them. McCain has not voted in the Senate since April 8th. Since March, he has missed 109 of the last 110 votes."

-Fire Phil Gramm (the "architect" of this mess) from his team and explain what campaign manager Rick Davis' company was doing for the $15,000 per month that they were getting from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac.

that's a start, there's probably others. and if the crisis gets worse, do the debates get cancelled? What about the elections?

McCain and Obama are running to be our next President, not just Secretary of the Treasury or Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. For them to focus only on the bailout would let America down on so many other issues for which we hold our chief executive responsible, especially when there are 533 other Senators and Representatives available to dice the economic situation down with economists by their side. These two men represent our only realistic options as our next President, and we need them to debate and address all of the issues, and not just the economy, so we can make an informed choice. They can certainly spare an hour or two to serve the democratic process, even if they also devote a lot of work to the economic crisis.

amen, nate. couldn't have said it better.

Blatantly false Mojo:

"campaign manager Rick Davis' company was doing for the $15,000 per month that they were getting from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac."

But you know what isn't this:

Top Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008

1. Dodd, Christopher J S D-CT $133,900

2. Kerry, John S D-MA $111,000

3. Obama, Barack S D-IL $105,849

4. Clinton, Hillary S D-NY $75,550

opensecret.org

I don't know what you think you thought, but I don't think you thought about it much when you said "I thought so".

As of today, Obama has missed slightly fewer than 40 percent of his Senate votes since the beginning of 2007, while Clinton’s absentee rate is just under 30 percent.

But McCain has topped both candidates, missing a staggering 58 percent of his votes during the 110th Congress, according to the Washington Post’s congressional votes database.

To put this in perspective, McCain has now missed more votes than Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota, who suffered a brain hemorrhage in December 2006 and was unable to return to the Senate until fall of last year. McCain has now missed nine votes more than Johnson.

He missed more votes than the guy with a brain hemmorhage. All candidates miss votes when running for president, but McCain has been a LOT worse than others and doesn't address the fact that he's calling this "emergency" when he's been the most absent of everyone. Notice you sidestepped all the other points I made...

No, i actually know all about that, but thought we were discussing McCain and what I specifically thought he should do if he really thought this was the "biggest crisis" since 9/11. "But he took donations too!" isn't an excuse for having a lobbyist campaign manager's company pulling in $15K a month for nothing (yet at least). Please let me know which part was "patently wrong", will correct it if you can.

Fannie and Freddie’s political contacts exist deep in the two presidential campaigns.

At least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, netting at least $12.3 million in fees over the past nine years.

Political insiders Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., picked by McCain to vet his vice presidential nominees, and Jim Johnson, picked by Obama to perform the same function, once worked for the mortgage giants.

And for years, Rick Davis served as president of an advocacy group led by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that defended the two companies against increased regulation.

So far this election cycle, Freddie Mac’s political action committee and employees have contributed $555,567 to Senate and House candidates, and Fannie Mae’s PAC and employees have given more than $1.1 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
...

McCain campaign manager Davis headed the Homeownership Alliance, a lobbying association that included Fannie, Freddie, nonprofit groups, real estate agents, homebuilders and consumer advocates. The group’s stated goal was to increase affordable housing. But it also worked to oppose congressional efforts to tighten controls on Fannie and Freddie....

Other McCain aides with ties to the two companies include economic adviser Aquiles Suarez, who worked as Fannie’s director of government and industry relations; congressional liaison John Green, who lobbied for Fannie from 2004 to 2007; and finance co-chairman Frederic V. Malek, a former Freddie board member.

Jamie S. Gorelick, deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration and a chief policy adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton, is rumored to be a possible attorney general in an Obama administration. She was vice chairman of Fannie Mae and sat on its board of directors.

Yep, Obama's taken money from them but his campaign manager wasn't a paid lobbyist who specifically fought for less oversight.

I stand corrected, 64% missed for McCain, 46% for Obama. Whats blatanlty false is the claim Davis is being paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He hasnt gotten any money from his company since 2006 and was not active as a lobbyist since 2005. His FD's clearly states this, yet mojo tries to paint him as being paid by them. But clearly avoids who is 3rd on the list in contributions from those same companies.

Frankly i don't think either candidate is chickening from the debate. I think they want it bad.

What's wrong with the debate delayed a few days or week if the american voter gets better educated candidates and perhaps even better questions because of a delayed debate.

I would even consider a delay in the election date too if it meant more meaningful debates from more intelligent candidates. Oh wait my god what am i saying?! ...

I'm with the folks that explained the fact that neither candidate is on a relevant committee nor has any expertise in the matter. What they need to do is show up and vote which doesn't take particularly long. Blue line from national to capitol south can't possibly take more than half an hour?

Krisa: Obviously being an expert is not a requirement, as most anyone can be elected to the position. However, given that there are other legislators who are much more familiar with the necessary details, and have already been negotiating for days, doesn't it seem like they should handle it?

If you want to argue that this is a great political move, that's fine.. because that's really all it is. I just don't see how McCain's or Obama's presence would make a practical difference, and that is the reasoning behind my comments yesterday.

I know for a fact that Matthew Yglesias did not inherit the gorgeous singing voice or extraordinary wang-wielding talents of his uncle Julio. But he is a pretty good blogger.