McCain Suspends Campaign

John McCain has announced that he's suspending his campaign to go back to DC to work on the financial meltdown. He's also called for Friday's debate in Mississippi to be canceled/delayed.

Politically, this could go one of two ways. Either McCain will be seen as being a "leader" for making such a bold gesture (suspending his campaign) or he'll look like he's running away from the race and the debate (which I don't think should be canceled/delayed, regardless).

McCain said he is calling on President Bush "to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem."

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton released a statement reacting to the news.

"At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal," Burton said. "At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama's call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details."

Meanwhile, Paulson and Bernanke are testifying in front of the house financial services committee this afternoon. Online on C-SPAN3.

Paulson: "I'm not looking for extraordinary power."

Excuse me?

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

More to come, obviously...

Update:

Video of McCain's announcement -



Unofficial Obama campaign response: 'The Debate is On'

Apparently, Obama will be debating himself. Nothing new there (flip flops). Or maybe he could debate Biden since Joe seems to think he's been running against Obama again lately.

Update:

Obama press conference: "I believe we should continue to have the debate."

I'll post a link to the transcript and/or the video when it's available.

The debate commission says 'Game on!' despite McCain's request.

Update:

Video of Obama on the debate issue -