John McCain: The Definition of Leadership … America First … Suspends Campaign … Debate Second?

DEBATES DO NOT SHOW LEADERSHIP … ACTIONS SHOW LEADERSHIP

What does America ask of their President? Generally, the basically ask two things. One, they demand their President he ethical and have character. Two, and most importantly … they ask their President to lead. Not watch polls, not see which way the story turns in order to create an opinion. AMERICANS DEMAND LEADERSHIP FROM THEIR PRESIDENT!

Republican candidate John McCain has suspended his campaign and goes back to Washington, DC to help try and hammer out a deal with regards to the $700 billion financial bail out crisis. McCain asked Barack Obama to postpone the Presidential debates on Friday night so that the two Senators could do the work of the American people. After all the debate is supposed to be on foreign policy, not the economy. Now before anyone who opposed McCain says this is grandstanding and a politic gimmick, John McCain has precedent of putting Country before Politics. Was it a gimmick when McCain said no to his Vietnamese captors and stayed a POW? Was it a gimmick when John McCain backed the surge in Iraq when nearly everyone was against it?

No, it was no gimmick … it was called leadership.

A debate is much a do about nothing and pre-rehearsed talking points … what McCain is doing is giving America a glimpse into how he would act as a President and put Country before party. Conversely, so is Obama and his actions. First he said that the debates will go on, in the same breathe that he is claiming that the financial crisis we are in is the worst since the Great Depression. First he said he was not going back to DC, then he changed his mind.

AMERICA … LEADERSHIP IS NOT TALK … LEADERSHIP IS JUST THAT … LEADERSHIP.

UPDATE I: Deal or No Deal

Democrats can complian and point figures of blame all they want at John McCain, the fact is that a majority of Americans are angered over the bail out.

The Treasury secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. quickly returned to Capitol Hill to try to revive the proposal.

One critical snag seems to be opposition to the $700 billion plan by conservative House Republicans.

“My hope is that we can get a deal,” said Senator Christopher J. Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, hours after House and Senate negotiators had announced that an accord was at hand. President Bush had hoped that an agreement could be announced after the late-afternoon meeting.

Mr. Dodd, looking tired and annoyed, complained that the late complications were making the episode sound more like “a rescue plan for John McCain,” the Republican presidential candidate, than one for the financial system.

UPDATE II: John McCain Stated that there was Never a Deal on Wallstreet Bail Out

Republican White House hopeful Sen. John McCain denied Thursday there ever had been any deal in place between Congress and the White House on a $700-billion Wall Street bailout plan.

McCain said on ABC News after talks at the White House that also included his Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama that he still hoped to go to the scheduled presidential debate Friday night in Mississippi.

But his senior campaign adviser Steve Schmidt accused Obama of putting himself before his country, by continuing to run campaign ads while the high-stakes political drama over the economic crisis was playing out.

McCain said he knew going into the White House meeting called by President Bush that there was no deal, after having said Wednesday the debate should be canceled if a bailout wasn’t secured

UPDATE III: Democrats play the blame game against John McCain; however, he is the only one in people’s eyes working for the People. As Town Hall.com states, hey Democrats, “If the bailout is so great, then why don’t you pass it with your majorities in the House and Senate and President Bush will certainly sign it.”  

• The Weekly Standard: Barney Frank Slams McCain
• The Weekly Standard: Not on Their Watch?

Watch the Fox News report John posted on how we got into this mess, and then chuckle at Obama’s quote to the AP:

“Keep in mind House Democrats and Senate Democrats and me and the leadership are all pretty burned up about this thing,” Obama said at a news conference after the TV interviews. “This wasn’t happening on our watch. We weren’t preventing some of the regulatory reforms that might have prevented us from getting here.”

Audacity indeed.