John McCain has done it again. He has put his country first. While the democrats are sitting around hand wringing and talking about solutions, McCain took action. The only person who seemed surprised by the announcement yesterday that John McCain would suspend his campaign to return to Washington to work out the deals of the hotly debated rescue package, was Obama. What? Obama cried, you want to go to work instead of self promotion? I won't hear of it. Obama himself called this the "greatest financial crisis in our lifetime" and yet his response to this great crisis seems to be "if you need me call me on my cell". McCain has put his political ambition aside many times before when he felt that it was more important that do what he believed to be as right for the country, rather than just doing what would curry popular opinion.
I will admit when I first heard the announcement yesterday I thought, McCain is setting himself up for ridicule. I was right of course, as the media pounced on the chance to call this a "stunt", but is it really a stunt when the majority leader of the senate, Harry Reid indicates that consensus can't be reached without McCain's help? Certainly we know Reid doesn't "know what to do" about the financial crisis, as he said that himself less than a week ago. What about his counterpart in the House, what was her initial response to the crisis? She went on TV and assured Americans that congress would still be taking their vacation on time. Whew. I feel better now. Maybe you can work yourselves a raise into this new bill for your time.
Since then of course the democrats have came out saying that McCain and Obama really didn't need to return to the Senate to help construct the bill. Oh Really? Tell me, Mr. Reid do you think the citizens of Arizona and Illinois would agree with you? Something the democrats forgot long ago is that they work for the people. They were elected to represent the people of their state in Washington, DC. They were not appointed by you, Mr. Reid or you Ms. Pelosi they were elected, just as you were and they can be voted out of office just as easily, as I hope and pray daily both of you will be.
McCain has made it clear that he believes it is his duty as a Senator of the United States to return to Washington to work out a deal that will get passed and get our economy moving again. He is taking a big risk considering house republicans are vehemently opposed to the current bill. If his return results in a bill that is acceptable to both parties, which gets signed into law: John McCain is the hero. However, if he makes his trip to Washington and the bill gets bogged down with partisan infighting McCain comes up looking like part of the problem. McCain takes a Big Risk, but it could pay out a Big Reward. Either way McCain has taken the position of a leader that is willing to put his country first and his political career second.
Barrack Obama on the other hand has tried to avoid making any decisions on the financial crisis since day one. He even called McCain yesterday morning to see if they could issue a joint statement, as though that would solve the problem. After McCain told Obama that he planned to head back to Washington during their heavily reported 2:30 phone conversation, Barrack thought McCain was "mulling it over" according to a statement he made during his press conference in reaction to McCain's announcement. Here in lies the real difference between Barrack Obama and John McCain, if McCain says he is going to do something, he does it. He doesn't just sit around 'mulling it over'! Obama also criticized McCain for his inability to "multi-task" what Obama clearly sees as equal priorities promoting himself and saving the country from economic collapse.
So what was it that is so important to Obama that he would be in dereliction of duty as a United States Senator during a time of crisis? Debate Prep. According to many reports on tuesday, Barrack Obama planned to hunker down during the next 48 hours to prepare for his foreign policy debate with John McCain. Stop! Read that sentence again. Barrack Obama thinks his 'training' for a debate is more crucial then his responsibilities as a US Senator. Interesting. I've got another catchphrase for Obama that I like more than "multi-tasking": "Prioritizing"
Does anyone remember the way the media went after President Bush on 9/11 simply because he sat calmly for a few moments in front of the classroom of children in an attempt to keep the children from panicking? Where is the Media outrage on this one? Warren Buffet said this was the equivalent of "Pearl Harbor", so why did it take a Presidential invitation to get Barrack Obama back to doing his job.
Now all the world is watching to see what happens when Mr. McCain goes to Washington. I think Sarah Palin said it best during her interview with Katie Couric last night, "they are waiting to see what John McCain will do".
