mccain begs off

Just watched Obama's press conference. Really well done. Will look for a transcript later to pull some quotes but his overall message was "This is important. I have been working on it. I will continue to work on it. I will do whatever is most helpful. But ya know, presidents have to handle more than one thing at once. We can do both." (Paraphrase.)

...you have nothing of substance to offer here.

The Debate Debate [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Obama is on TV right now.

Some of this is a lot of nonsense, but if I’m just getting home from work and I only pay casual attention to these debates, Obama sounds reasonable and less gimmicky than McCain.

He says that there is no reason why we can’t do more than one thing at once. Obama says it is "more important than ever" to have a debate.

Obama says he called McCain this morning and announced that he wanted to do a no-politics-as-usual joint statement about addressing the market mess. He says that McCain wanted to insist on meeting with the president and congressional leaders too. Obama says Obama said: Let’s do the statement, go from there. Obama says he thought McCain was thinking about the joint statement, working on with staff, when McCain went on TV. So now Obama is on TV.

Obama says he's told Pelosi, Reid, and Paulson that "if I can be helpful, I am prepared to be [in dc] anytime" but I don’t want to infuse presidential politics on the hill and goes on about how presidents need to be able to multitask.

Obama may win this campaign moment yet. If McCain protests, he looks petty.

"The University of Mississippi is going forward with the preparation for the debate. We are ready to host the debate, and we expect the debate to occur as planned.

"At present, the University has received no notification of any change in the timing or venue of the debate.

"We have been notified by the Commission on Presidential Debates that we are proceeding as scheduled.

"We will keep you posted as information becomes available.".[quote/]

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/24/1442165.aspx

Ole Miss Official Says Debate Cancellation Would be 'Devastating'
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Share September 24, 2008 4:14 PM

ABC News' Tahman Bradley Reports: A senior University of Mississippi official reacted Wednesday to the news that Sen. John McCain R-Ariz., wants to postpone Friday's presidential debate, saying that such a move would be "devastating" for the university which has already invested millions in preparation for the debate.

Andrew Mullins, special assistant to university Chancellor Robert Khayat, told ABC News that the Ole Miss campus has been transformed to accommodate the candidates and the press. Road blocks are in place on campus and in the community and the debate television set for the candidates has already been constructed. He said the university has spent roughly five and half million dollars getting ready for the debate.

Mullins also noted that if the Commission on Presidential Debates asks the campus to hold the debate at a later date, he is not sure the university would be able to accommodate them.

This campaign is one of choosing a basic philosophy.

America's First Reaction: Friday's McCain-Obama Debate Should Still Be Held On Friday, But Perhaps with New Focus: Immediately after John McCain's announcement 3 pm ET today, Wednesday 09/24/08, that he was suspending his campaign and seeking to postpone Friday's schedule presidential debate, SurveyUSA interviewed 1,000 adults nationwide. Key findings:

A majority of Americans say the debate should be held. Just 10% say the debate should be postponed. A sizable percentage of Americans, 36%, think the focus of the debate should be modified to focus more on the economy. 3 of 4 Americans say the presidential campaign should continue. Just 14% say the presidential campaign should be suspended. If Friday's debate does not take place 46%, of Americans say that would be bad for America.

Obama made the statement to the effect that a candidate for president should be able to handle more than one crisis at once. Why not work on the financial crisis AND debate