Leadership involves more than just showing up (or not showing up)
McCain swooped into Washington yesterday in the name of “Country First”. Now, I’m not sure I’m for the bailout or against it, but guess what? Neither is McCain. Seriously, where does he stand on this bailout? What is his plan?
A statement from the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.:
“At today’s Cabinet meeting, John McCain did not attack any proposal or endorse any plan. John McCain simply urged that, for any proposal to enjoy the confidence of the American people, stressing that all sides would have to cooperate and build a bipartisan consensus for a solution that protects taxpayers. However, the Democrats allowed Sen. Obama to run their side of the meeting. That did not work, as the meeting quickly devolved into a contentious shouting match that did not seek to craft a bipartisan solution.”
Leadership requires vision. It requires leading. And this lack of vision is what’s turning McCain’s actions of the last few days into a political stunt. It’s one thing to show up, take charge, and lay out what you feel needs to be done. It’s quite another to claim your presence is desperately needed while offering no solutions to the matter at hand. And that’s what McCain has done. He’s in Washington, but he’s not saying anything. He’s not leading. He’s hindering in the name of hindering.
Leadership involves risk. Real risk, not the phoney “I’m suspending my campaign, canceling the debate, and if I lose the election because I look too Presidential, so be it” martyrdom nonsense that McCain is spewing. So if McCain has to be in Washington then he has to take a stand on the bailout. He must state why he is for or against the bailout. He must be specific. He can’t just be there.
McCain has deliberately inserted himself into this situation. He has deliberately cast himself in the role of savior. Savior of his political campaign or the economy? Or savior of “no matter what it takes we can’t let Sarah Palin debate!”
McCain’s spokesperson on NPR this morning was very candid about that fact that McCain was present in DC to provide followership.
This is all quite surreal indeed. Fake campaign suspensions, Rick Davis on the Freddie payroll, that Palin “interview” or whatever that was suppose to be with Couric last evening, threatening to skip tonight’s debate at Ole Miss. All in the last two days no less. Is this really happening?
I’d say that even if you disagreed with Obama on each and every issue, 100%, in total, you would still have to vote for him because the alternative is, well, what’s the adjective I’m searching for here?… words fail. Horrendously inept maybe. Would you rather hire an intelligent professional with whom you disagreed or… whatever McCain/Palin is exactly?
Hey McCain… don’t panic or anything buddy.
McCain will now attend the debate. What an idiot. Rule #1: Don’t bluff unless you’re certain your opponent won’t call you on it.
Making a big deal out of not attending the debate until the economic crisis was resolved only to attend without resolution… Oh my. I’m with you DG. Words fail.
So, in Palin and Bush world does this mean McCain blinked?
You know its funny that McCain would show up with not even a plan, just ready to pose for the photo op.
And can we talk about the House GOP plan for a minute? Is that the most clownish thing these guys could do right now or what?
Cut capital gains — well, Sherlock, the securities that are bad are worth less than their purchase price so there would not be capital gains tax on them anyway. Get rid of the tax and there are no accompanying writeoffs that are still valuable. If Warren Buffett is any indication, there is private money to go into the system already.
Insurance on these securities — really? We already know that underlying assets on these are bad. So you know that taxpayers are paying out on this. And how do you set the premiums on this crap? If not one can really value what is there, the prudent thing is to set a really high premium which would likely force a fire sale of these assets. And isn’t that what Paulsen is trying to avoid?
They are clowns, every last one of them.
McCain sat like a lump during the discussion. Leadership we can believe in?
The McCain campaign is turning into the Jerry Springer Show. What crazy stunt will McCain pull next week?
Apparently conservatives are cringing at Palin now. Kathleen Parker wrote a devastating column about her and some McCain campaign leaks said that Palin was awful in her debate prep.
It is pretty well established that Bush was following the lead of Rove and McCain with the contrived meeting and outburst of contention by the GOP House Minority Leader.
Since JPMorganChase calmly took up WaMu today without a market downslide drama and Buffett swept in to shore up Goldman Sachs, the GOPers are going to have to back down from the ridiculous Paulson do-or-die perch.
It is not beneath the GOP to false-up a drama (been there with WMD and mushroom clouds). The DEMs are going to have to once live down being spun-like-drunks on Main Street because it is beyond most of our ken to be so dishonest as to use the nation’s life and treasure as simple backdrops to greed.