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George Stephanopolous contends that if John McCain does not support the bail out bill, than it will die.
[I]t's not a free vote for him, Charlie. Everything I've heard today backs up (others are reporting) that if (McCain), that he goes no, this package would likely fail, and then he would bare the consequences for that. That is a huge political gamble. Which is why the administration is betting that, in the end, McCain will be for this package. But McCain's aides say he has not made up his mind, and one (aide) told me that McCain is determined to, quote, "be the champion of the little guy here."The implications of this are huge as well as fascinating, if George is correct.
Think of the permutations of McCain's decision on the Fed plan itself, as well as the Democratic oversight provisions. If McCain votes with the Dems for oversight, and against the full $700 billion dollar package, what does that do to his base?
If he votes for the package, and against oversight, what does that do to any Main Street appeal he has?
If he votes for the $150 billion compromise the Democrats are floating, what does that do to the people funding and running his campaign?
You get the idea -- use the comments. While I have questions, I have no answers, and am looking forward to reading yours.
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Vicki 51p · 859 weeks ago
also sounds like he needs to decide one way or another, by Friday.
I'm trying to avoid schadenfreude (or however you spell it, my German classes were a loooonng time ago)
tmess2 70p · 859 weeks ago
SLCScott 74p · 859 weeks ago
So OK--this comes down to which candidate I trust more on this issue. No way I trust McCain--if I don't understand this well enough to form an opinion, I bet he doesn't either. Obama, while the financial system is not his passion, has shown signs that he knows something about it, and he certainly has the temperament to get good information and then make an informed decision, rather than a panic move (see: vice-presidential choices).
This really is a big deal--potentially even bigger than the election itself, because if this goes wrong we do have a chance of triggering a world-wide depression. And we can't wait until January to take whatever action needs to be done. This isn't posturing, this isn't the candidates showing how they would behave in a crisis; this is the real deal. Neither may be President yet, but what they do in the next week matters almost as much as if they were.