Barack Obama says the show must go on; Debate Commission agrees but McCain camp says whatever

(UPDATE: The McCain campaign responds below.)

Barack Obama rejected John McCain's proposal that the first presidential debate, scheduled Friday, be postponed to deal with the increasingly fragile prospects of the federal government bailout of financial firms.

"This is exactly the time the American people need to hear from the person who in about 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess," Obama said. "In my mind, [the debate] is more important then ever."

To read more of Obama's remarks, click here.

Senior advisor Robert Gibbs weighed in more bluntly: "My sense is there is going to be a stage, an audience, a moderator, and at least one presidential candidate."

The Commission on Presidential Debates agreed, issuing a statement that said the debate is moving forward as planned.

UPDATE: The McCain camp seemed unfazed by the commission's remarks. Campaign spokesman Brian Rogers told The Times' Bob Drogin that while the GOP nominee looks forward to going mano-a-mano with Obama, the meeting will just have to wait.

"Debates can be rescheduled," Rogers said. "Dealing with an urgent national crisis cannot be rescheduled."

" ... his only focus now is to bring people together to work out a deal to take some action to deal with the crisis we have," Rogers said. "If we can hammer out a deal by the time of the debate, sure, we'd love to do a debate."

Earlier today, McCain announced that he was putting his campaign on hold to return to Washington, and urged Obama to do the same, calling for the debate to be postponed.

The Obama campaign appeared to be caught off-guard by McCain's announcement, though a stream of comments criticizing McCain's proposal from high-ranking Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, appeared to indicate which way Obama was leaning.

— Seema Mehta

Comments

[I agree with Obama here]

McCain is pulling a stunt here, trying to mess with people and make it look like what he is doing is noble. Sorry J-Mac but this one is transparent as it gets. He is obviously trying to buy time because he knows he is going to take a beating in these debates. We are 40 days....40 DAYS AWAY from the end of this and he wants to delay some more? It is not McCain and Obama who are not on the hook for this economic issue, not yet anyway, it is not yet their job to solve it as McCain says....give him this inch and 20 days from now we will have had ZERO debates and going into an election blind....

Bush is not going to fix this problem in 40 days, it will fall in the lap of the next administration and it is time we choose one already.... ON WITH THE SHOW!!!

[Buck Buckingham]

When you're down 9 points in a poll about leadership of the economy, and your campaign manager got caught accepting a 1/2 million from the major source of the economic failing, you might wanna put it on hold so americans will all forget how stupid and corrupt you look. He got the call from Obama first, then went on TV with a good idea to show leadership and turn attention away from the scandal that is about to rock him and his whole campaign. He just better be glad he is filthy rich when he wastes all this time spending people's money to end up being the jackass that gets landslid in the election.

Maybe he might have to put one of his 10 houses up for sale, or maybe one of his 13 cars.

[Joe]

Does anyone here have a brain?!?!?!

They (Obama and McCain) are Elected Senators that need to go back to Washington and do their job! Don't just tell me what you WOULD do, GO DO IT!

Obama has nothing to offer in terms of a solution or consensus building. That is why he doesn't want to return to Washington. He is afraid that if he returns he will look like a little school boy trying to play in the Majors.

Give me a break Obama. You're all talk no action. Real Change! HA!

[baseball sensei]

Don, put down the Koolaid and look at some facts. McCain did disagree with Bush on Iraq. Geez, would you mind looking at history and not some BO BS.

[Oregon4obama]

I see this a couple of ways:

McCain is trying to go back to washington because he wants to show the American people that he wants to find answers, but basically he wants to show that he is fighting the image of de-regulation that he has championed for 25 years......so its a faulty reason

Plus, what does mccain think he can accomplish.....other problems have been dealt with in his absence and they will continue........its his philosophy on the economy and Rick Davis, his campaign manager that caused these problems, or at least helped quite a bit

Listen for mccain to say that obama puts politics or the election before the people.....mark my words, he's that predictable

Oh and one more thing.....McCain said the other day that Obama is a great debater and raised doubts on how well he would do with the economy the way it is......McCain is SCARED, Obama will murder him in a debate and McCain knows it

[Jared]

Yes. Let's get Obama back to Washington right now so he can vote "present" on the issue.

Or I suppose Barack could hold a National debate with himself this Friday while McCain takes care of business within his presently elected office.

[JB]

Obama is right. We want to know what the candidates are planning to do when they get elected. And McCains real motives behind this attempt to display presidential bipartisanship are too obvious, and seeing this old man grasp for such petty tricks to regain some ground is pathetic. Makes me almost feel sorry for him.

[Anonymous]

Typical of Obama. Let's just talk about what we want done (and even forget about how it will actually be done), instead of actually doing something ourselves.

[No Way No How...]

Obama Leads
McCain Defers

[Dave Peters]

Once again Barrack Hussein Obama is proving he is just a politician. This guy does not give a damn about this country. Just wants his day in the news. I wonder is he that afraid of actually having to cooperate with other Senators or having to share the spotlight with a true American Hero? I'll tell you what he is doing here. PUT COUNTRY FIRST Mr. Obama. Go back to Washington and PUT COUNTRY FIRST for a change.

[T. Thompson]

John McSame is not weird... he's just chicken!

What's weird is how he is so ready to fight, be captured... and to later run for President - telling the American public long-winded war stories about how he put country first.

I commend him for his valiant efforts "in the past", but it's true... he's out of touch and HE's actually the one not ready to lead. He needs to retire in on of the 6,7, or 8 homes he and Cindy have.

To me... a demonstration of bravery for McSame today would be to push forward and go on television versus Obama - facing the American public and explaining why one day he says the country's economy is fundamentally strong and then hours/days later he reverses himself ...when it's politically expedient and clear his statement is incorrect.

McSame, again, isn't weird... he is just chicken and out of touch!

[M. Soga]

I'm not worried anymore; Obama knows what to do.

[Jack]

I think Obama meant to say "...the person who in about 120 days [4 months] will be responsible for with dealing with this mess", rather than "40 days". The presidency changes on Jan. 20, 2009, not Nov. 5, 2008.

[Patrick Henry]

When McCain wins the debate, Obama is going to look very bad.

[TimL]

Umm,

Obama has offered the heads of the democratic party to show up if he will be "help"

McCain is a "No one can do it right if I'm not there" kinda guy who is WAY to full of himself.

On top of that:

Obama apparently can do more things than one at a time. Is it McCain's age or his mental capacity that prevents him from multi-tasking?

[kd]

Why does John McCain suddenly want to suspend his presidential campaign and postpone Friday's debate? His campaign surrogates are saying it's a typical "maverick" move, that McCain is simply "putting country first." Let's look at the evidence:

1) As Ben Smith notes, McCain's move "is a mark, most of all, that he doesn't like the way this campaign is going. ... The only thing that's changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling."

2) The idea of uniting the campaigns to find a bipartisan solution to the Wall Street crisis wasn't even McCain's idea. A few minutes ago, Obama spokesman Bill Burton emailed to reporters:

"At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama's call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details."
3) John McCain has skipped more votes during this session than any member of the Senate except for Tim Johnson, who had major brain surgery. He has cast a single vote in five months, since April 9. All of a sudden, McCain is demanding that the presidential race shut down so he can return to Washington?

4) A reminder: President Bush was able to debate John Kerry while he was president. For all of his sudden urgency, McCain acknowledged just yesterday that he had not even read the administration's three-page bailout proposal.

5) It's not clear at all that having McCain and Obama back in DC will actually help. "What does seem apparent, though, is that putting the two candidates in the negotiating room is far more likely to distract--and derail--negotiations than having them out on the hustings," Jonathan Cohn writes at the New Republic.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/24/mccain-wants-a-time-out_n_128991.html

[Tom]

Obviously Obama thinks "campaigning" is more important than "doing his job".

McCain is showing something Obama knows nothing about, and that is Leadership.

[Sean Winter]

If they go back to Washington, do you really think they will work 24/7 on this issue?

If you can't do a debate and then fly to Washington to take care of economic issues, should you get the huge job of being president?

Come on, this election has gotten more publicity than ever. What do we really know about our candidates?

Bring on the debate!

[Lee]

Campaign and debate in a national economic crisis? That's our Obama!
How about doing something of substance, taking tough decisions and choosing not to vote "present" when things require reason and judgment?
McCain is making the junior senator look like a self-centered fool.
OOps! He's running for President.

[3rd party is the future]

Seriously, debates rarely if ever really reveal anything important about a candidate than what you should already know. They are mearly vote getters and not an in depth source of information about the candidates plans for what they will do for this country when in office.

So if I have to choose between just basically listening to campain commericals or seeing the candidates actually working on solving this serious financial crisis, I'll take the latter.

[Zaidi]

Don't be fooled by McCain's latest attempts to disuade the American public's ability to make up its mind as to who is best qualified to lead America out of this economic mess.

While it is true that McCain released the first public response to delay the debate, it was Obama who initiated the call for a joint statement on the economic crisis. Instead of agreeing to a bipartisan initiative, McCain used it as an opportunity to do a 'Hail Mary', and call for a suspension of the campaign and debate, to cover up for his obvious unpreparedness and collusion with the Bush Administration's position, and go hide amidst the chaos in Congress.

This is further evidence that McCain represents 4 more years of the Bush! The Republicans simply cannot help themselves from rewarding their super-rich friends who got us into this mess in the first place.

This campaign is clearly about 'Speaking Truth to Power', and as you have witnessed, all attempts to derail this Divine Agenda has failed.

[captain america]

the people need answers from mccain and obama, about a number of issues ,that affect america now! we need to evaluate both men thoughts and decide on future leadership ,the american voters deserve that! mccain is the so called reformer and maverick ,he should be ready to address any crisis ! we have a lack of leadership in this country and it is causing a ripple effect across the globe .mccain be man and stand up and debate and show us ! what you are all about !

[Richard]

Now its "Mortgages of Mass-Distruction" and "Economic Mushroom Clouds". Hurry, Hurry, give me another TRILLION and I'll save you. People, please wake-up! We have been here and done this.

[Rick]

How do you suspend a presidential campaign at this point? We are going to have this election, whether McCain is ready or not. When I saw the headline, I thought maybe he was suspending like Hillary suspended.

This was an inappropriate stunt to make himself seem more important than he is.

There are 47 other useless GOP senators that can more than pull us into a depression. They don't need to carry his dead weight also.

To be honest, I think he just needs to take a nap and he'll feel better. This is more proof that he's too freaking old to be president of the United States of America. He's now just a parody of very old politicians.

[Ahmed]

Bush an dMcCain say that the 700 Billion give away is a do or die. Must do now. That's what the uses car salesman told yesterday when he offered me a car. Said you have to buy it right now.... Sounds VERY familiar...
And why can't John McCain multi-task? Too old perhaps...
Too much for his nerves....