After watching much of the television coverage of the Money Market Meltdown ™ I find it rather depressing to note that I had to go to the L.A. Times to find this story. In the midst of possibly the most critical debate of this year, where are Senators Obama, McCain and Biden? Let’s see…
Profiles in courage? McCain, Obama may skip bailout vote
Here’s a quick one this morning: The website Politico reports that Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama may skip the vote on the Paulson bailout plan — if and when the plan comes to a vote in the Senate.
Hold on here… isn’t McCain on the banking committee? (And was previously the chair, if I recall correctly.) And though he seemed to be confused, didn’t Obama think he was on the banking committee? And Joe Biden often just seems plain confused, but he’s still in the Senate, right? Wouldn’t you think that these three would be leading the charge back to Washington to grill the actors in this play, get their positions out in front of the public and cast their votes before nearly a trillion taxpayer dollars go sailing off to Wall Street? You aren’t even going to vote on it????
Ok… I can see Palin not being there. She’s a state governor and probably isn’t much up on Wall Street matters, (and she’s busy ducking the press while meeting with the first foreigners of her experience) but the Senate needs to be present and accounted for. These three in particular. Hello? Is this thing on? Am I the only one wondering about this? Couldn’t these clowns miss out on one podium appearance in Intercourse, Pennsylvania to sit in on this?
Let’s go back to the L.A. Times for a moment.
This is a chance to show leadership. To date neither of these guys has shown much leadership on the subject — neither bothered to even mention the credit crisis in their convention speech. Were they unaware of it? Forgot about it? Are they afraid to take a stand? Do these guys want to lead, follow, or do they want to get out of the way?
Well said, sir. Well said.