Profiles in courage? McCain, Obama may skip bailout vote

Here's a quick one this morning: The website Politico reports that  Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama may skip the vote on the Paulson bailout plan -- if and when the plan comes to a vote in the Senate. From Politico:

Sen. John McCain has no plans to return to Washington this week, even though on Monday he expressed discomfort with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson 's trillion-dollar bailout plan and has offered his own rescue proposal.

... Senior Obama strategist Robert Gibbs said the campaign would be monitoring the process as it unfolds this week, but as of Monday, the campaign would not commit to Obama making the trip back to Washington – even though the bailout proposal has taken a central role in Obama’s stump speeches.

The bloviation part: I hope no one will argue with a straight face these guys are too busy to go to Washington to vote. They both have access to jet airplanes. They make their own schedules.

This is a chance to show leadership. To date neither of these guys has shown much leadership on the subject -- neither bothered to even mention the credit crisis in their convention speech. Were they unaware of it? Forgot about it? Are they afraid to take a stand? Do these guys want to lead, follow, or do they want to get out of the way?

--Peter Viles

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to Peter Viles.

Photo Credit: L.A. Times

Comments

[Giacomo]

And I find it alarming that "leadership" and "courage" is being defined as IMMEDIATELY taking a stand on an issue which almost everyone is having trouble judging accurately. Someone else might just call that recklessness.

I'm deeply suspicious about the sense of urgency that is being put on this.

[Drew]

Convention speeches are for the bigger picture.
I for one prefer how the economic concerns of the American people were addresses in this one, at 11:00 and 21:20, check for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ato7BtisXzE

[Nick]

As much as I think it would be an excellent opportunity for either candidate to both show leadership and capture a huge percentage of the votes by taking a stand against enormous payoffs by taking a firm stand against this absurd plan, I don't see it happening.

As for the actual voting, I agree: it's not going to make much difference. The conspirator "representatives" on both sides are already beyond any notion of discussing if dismembering our economy is really a good idea, and have moved on to ironing out how much money each favored lobbyist group will be allowed to steal from the taxpayers as amendments to the "New Socialism Deal" bill of 2008.

[Huh]

Make Ron Paul the Treasury Secretary.

[Amazing_Happens]

The motto for the Obama and McCain campaigns should be "lead, follow,get out of the way, or get elected".

[Todd]

Either candidate with the cojones to stand up and vote NO on a bailout gets my vote.

[puckhead]

LOL's on people that say that Obama and McCain are both staying away from voting just because they are too busy campaigning. You can bet that if this vote was for an important bill that had wide voter approval that they would both be present for the vote and if they were not, that the candidate that WAS present for the vote will be out campaigning that his opponent turned his back on a piece of important legislation and was instead out raising money. Obama and McCain are both staying away because they know this issue is a landmine and neither wanst to get a foot blown off. Jeez, that's how politics work.

[Mucker]

Ron Paul was the candidate that presented as the real maverick. I believe he has stated that the bailout is a bad idea. Geez from the web site of my representative in the house he is in agreement with near 80% of respondents. That matches what Senator Brown of Ohio said the phone is ringing with universally negative reaction.

Write in Ron Paul on your election ballot. I will. Pass it on. We need a leader not hypocrites.

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

What we need is a computer savvy senator who will modernize congressional voting with encrypted, you-can-vote-from-anywhere Blackberries.

Too bad there isn't one around.

[Louise]

Giacomo - I'm with you on this. Everytime the government tells us we need to do something RIGHT NOW. IMMEDIATELY. OR. WE. WILL. ALL. PERISH. it ends up that our Constitution was somehow circumvented and a little bit of our rights were taken right alongside with the urgency.

We can't take a week to formulate well thought ideas? C'mon people... this is another power grab.

[hesingswithfrogs]

Republicans,

Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I [state your name] do solemnly swear that I have been wrong about the role government regulation should play in our markets. I hereby acknowledge that unfettered laissez faire economics places the health, safety, and well-being of our citizens at too great of a risk to be allowed. From lead contaminated toys to tainted medicine to an unsafe food supply to the current Wall Street Meltdown, it is now clear to to me that that my beliefs were foolish. While I still support the streamlining of government regulation, I now recognize that government regulation is necessary for the protection of our citizens and of our economy from stupidity, greed, and corruption. I apologize to my fellow citizens for my support of the disasterous policies that have wreaked havoc on our nation. In an effort to make amends for screwing the pooch on this one with my foolish thinking, I will abstain from voting in November's election. It has become obvious to me that my judgment is lacking.

[Cynt]

boooooooooo to obama and mcCain. where can we find some good leadership around here?

[sheila]

maybe mccain's just waiting till this month's check from Freddie Mac clears his campaign manager's bank before he takes a position.

woops? rick davis still cashing in on $15,000 a month from freddie mac? why, mr. mccain. i do declare. you protesteth a bit much when the NY Times mentioned ole ricky boy's old deal of $30,000 a month. but you neglected to mention the new deal, negotiated based on his role as your campaign manager, which scores him $15,000 a month.

profile of a puppet...

[Gene]

hesingswithfrogs
While I agree that we do need government regulations to monitor our stupidity I do not think abstaining from voting in November is the right thing to do. Far to many abstain as it is, and it might be why our government has failed us. It seems to many government officials have the mentality of " I want you to vote for the bailout, but I'm not." THey are more worried about their personal elections than America. We need to stand up as citizens, and to quote a phrase from the past, yell; "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"