Opinion: Harry Reid floats a Barack Obama debate trial balloon?
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(UPDATES: Two updates added below.)
Responding to John McCain’s proposal to postpone Friday’s presidential debate so he and Barack Obama could return to Washington to deal with the financial crises, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid said such a move would be nothing more than ‘a campaign photo op’ and urged the debates to go forward.
Reid is a generally crabby fellow and could merely be expressing his opinion. Why? Because Congress, with its 9% approval rating, has been running so smoothly in addressing these problems in recent months?
Or, if we were to be skeptical, the Nevada Democrat could be testing public and media reaction if Obama were to decline McCain’s proposal.
(UPDATE: Turns out, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats agree with Reid, characterizing McCain’s campaign suspension and call for bipartisan meetings with Obama a political trick.)
The Senate majority leader in his own words:
This is a critical time for our country. While I appreciate that both candidates have signaled their willingness to help, Congress and the administration have a process in place to reach a solution to this unprecedented financial crisis. I understand that the candidates are putting together a joint statement at Senator Obama’s suggestion. But it would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations and risk injecting presidential politics into this process or distract important talks about the future of our nation’s economy. If that changes, we will call upon them. We need leadership; not a campaign photo op. If there were ever a time for both candidates to hold a debate before the American people about this serious challenge, it is now.
(UPDATE: Later, the McCain campaign issued this statement:
“While Senator McCain has suspended campaigning in order to return to Washington and lend his assistance to the negotiations now underway on Capitol Hill, Sen. Reid has put out a statement informing McCain that his presence would ‘not be helpful.’ In fact, this is quite a reversal from yesterday, when Senator Reid told reporters ‘We need the Republican nominee for president to let us know where he stands and what we should do.’
“Unfortunately, Senator Reid is putting partisan politics ahead of the business of the American people. But there should be no mistake: 24 hours ago Reid and his Democratic colleagues on the Hill couldn’t have been more desperate for Senator McCain’s help in resolving this crisis. Now they’ve got it.”)
‘Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham, speaking on McCain’s behalf on CNN, slammed any attempt to color McCain’s gesture as campaign strategy. ‘This idea that this is politics, to benefit one person or the other, is crazy,’ he said.
-- Seema Mehta