PRESIDENTIAL POLITICAL POSTURING

In the wake of perhaps the biggest economic bailout in American history, Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain has decided to suspend his Presidential campaign in order to go back to Washington D.C. and do his job as a United States Senator and help in solving this economic and financial crisis we are upon according to many sources. While Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has said he is not suspending his campaign and that a President should be able to do more than one thing at once. What a joke people from both Presidential candidates. Both care more about winning an election than actually solving the current economic crisis issue.

Where do I begin in addressing this issue? Let’s begin with Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill continuously making comments that they need Republican Presidential candidate to lay out his plans for the economic crisis and let the members of Congress know whether he supports President Bush’s $700 Billion bailout plan. Now that McCain has decided to stop campaigning and return to his job, Democratic leaders are saying they don’t need McCain and his Presidential politics in Washington. However many Democratic leaders in the House fear that Republican Congress members will not vote on the bailout bill leaving Democrats siding with an unfavorable Republican President and if the economy spikes let’s say in a week or two from the acceptance of the bailout than it could spell dome for the Democratic Party hopes of making larger gains in the U.S. House and Senate and winning the Presidency. Therefore Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have been calling on McCain to help get some of these conservative Republicans to go alone with the bailout plan so it could truly be a bi-partisan effort. While Republican Congressional leaders have been calling Senator McCain to express that they don’t support the bill and are fearful of it and will not vote eyes on it.

Thus McCain had no choice but to respond to these grumblings as well as take the spotlight off of President George W. Bush’s prime time speech that could hurt McCain’s Presidential chances. It is clear that Presidential political posturing is in full effect because let’s be real McCain’s poll numbers are spiking and seeing President Bush in the limelight will not help him. However McCain is doing something that is right in the sense that he is a current United States Senator, his party’s leader and perhaps the next President of the United States of America so he should be involved in the process and his own party congressional leaders have asked for his help as well as Democratic leaders have asked for his up. Now Senator Obama doesn’t feel he has a job to do as a United States Senator and neither does Senator Joe Biden. Both are elected officials and have decided to only release statements & make statements regarding it while on the campaign trail but have not made any effort to go back to Washington to make sure such a bailout plan takes place and isn’t killed in Congress.

I commend Senators and Obama and Biden for wanting to bail out main street as well as Wall Street but the reality is that probably won’t happen because while progress has been made, many Republicans are fearful of this bailout plan not being for the people and are fearful that it won’t solve the current economic crisis. Thus it is clear that Obama and Biden need to go back to DC and do the job they were elected to do which is helping to pass legislation that will help the American people during tough economic times. McCain might have beaten Obama to the punch of saying let’s go to DC and work to help our party’s come together, however Obama choose politics over doing the right thing but saying he is not suspending his campaign and let the first Presidential debate which will be on “Foreign Policy” take place this Friday. What a joke? In the wake of an economic crisis, we are going to have a Presidential debate talking about “Foreign Policy” and Obama is talking about the American people want to hear from both candidates on the economic crisis. Obama must be out of touch because the debate will be about foreign policy not the economy and domestic issues. While the candidates can try to link the economic crisis to foreign policy issues but the reality is, they risk looking stupid if they continuously talk about the current economic crisis and link it to literally every foreign policy issue that will be on the table at the debate. Give me a break. Senator Obama should have said that the campaign should be suspended only if the topic isn’t changed to the “Economy and Domestic Policy.” Also Senator Obama isn’t fooling me because he has been in Florida quote on quote debate preparing since yesterday and he will be doing the same thing tomorrow because he is in 3 days of debate preparing. Obama’s campaign have down played Friday’s debate as favoring McCain with recent comments over the week but the reality is, I don’t believe Friday’s debate favors McCain but it favors Obama because everyone knows Obama is not strong at debating. Thus it is all the more reason why Obama will do well this Friday the debate takes place.

Nonetheless, I would rather see a debate on the economy and the domestic policy than on foreign policy. However I do know that a bailout or rescue plan is needed for both Wall Street and Main Street because our economy is declining and right now it is standing still in hopes of this rescue or bailout plan. Thus as both Presidential candidates continue to politically posture, it clear that both care more about winning this year’s election than making sure the American people are safe and secure until the next President takes office in January 2009. Senator Obama, Senator McCain and Senator Biden should be in DC doing the job they were elected to do which is voting and taking place in this bailout plan discussion. Stop making political speeches and statements but take action and use your bi-partisan talk and reaching across the aisle talk in order to truly unite both Republicans and Democrats in a time when politics needs to be set aside in order save the American economy and the American people.

The reality is that Presidential political posturing is on both sides as we are in the wake of an economic decline. Economic security is a part of foreign policy but one or two questions on it is not enough. There needs to be a larger debate on the economy and that’s why neither one of these candidates get it right now. Our congressional leaders don’t get it and we already knew our President didn’t get it. So the hope for a better America lies in our hands as the American people and some of us will be voting this year for the lesser of two evils but for me, I have 41 days to hear one of these major party Presidential candidates give me straight talk that this is what they wanted to but in the wake of this economic bail out, I might have to scale back some of my Presidential programs in order to make sure the budget is balanced, however I will focus on these initiatives no matter what like improving health care, education and energy. Until than I am against both candidates and their policies because they are political posturing too much and are trying to outperform each other in a time when many people and their families are suffering.

STOP POLITICAL POSTURING!