Not a Traditional Republican

I was sort of surprised today to hear Bill Clinton "stick up" for John McCain. This morning on Good Morning America, Clinton said he believes McCain’s move to suspend his campaign and push back Friday’s scheduled debate was made in “good faith” and not “because he’s afraid” to debate Barack Obama. He also said that over the course of the summer McCain requested 10-12 town hall meetings with Obama which were denied. This shows that he is not afraid of debating and that he is just looking for a way to "say to the American people, ‘Hey, I'm not a traditional Republican. And I do take this seriously.’ Because otherwise this makes it much, much more difficult for him to win because this is associated with lax regulation and the absence of economic activity in this period.”

Clinton applauded the joint statement issued by McCain and Obama, but warned the presidential candidates about the appearance of “playing politics” with the proposed financial market bailout package. I read the statement and was not really impressed. Everyone is talking about this statement and how great it is but I didn't think that it really said anything important. I think it is interesting that the joint statement is displayed prominently on the main page of McCain's website-- I looked on Obama's site and couldn't easily find it.

I definitely think that McCain is using the current financial situation to his advantage and "playing politics" a little bit, but I think it is smart and not necessarily wrong. Like Bill said, he needs to be vocal during this time to show everyone that he’s not the traditional Republican. If he doesn’t speak out and do drastic things, he will most likely be lumped with the current administration and blamed for this situation. What do you think?