McCain Gives Traveling Press 10 Minutes

McCain Gives Traveling Press 10 Minutes
By Matthew DeLong 9/23/08 6:38 PM
Facing heavy criticism for not taking questions from his traveling press corps in 40 days, Sen. John McCain relented and held a press conference this afternoon in Freeland, Mich. It lasted for slightly more than 10 minutes, and McCain took a total of six questions — well, seven if you count the two-parter from Bloomberg’s Ed Chen.

Not surprisingly, all the questions focused on the government mega-bailout of Wall Street firms.

Before taking questions, McCain outlined five principles for the bailout legislation being debated on Capitol Hill. I’ll briefly list them:

~snip~

Aside from that, McCain did not offer much in the way of new information. He twice declined to say if any of these points would be a deal-breaker. Asked about the “golden parachute” received by one of his advisers, Carly Fiorina, when she left Hewlett-Packard, McCain said he was proud of Fiorina, who he praised as a role model for millions of young women. He also said Democrats should not make their approval of the legislation contingent on whether or not he was on board, as news reports have suggested.

more:http://washingtonindependent.com/7012/mccain-gives-the-traveling-press-10-minutes

If Obama votes for the bailout bill and McCain votes against it, then McCain will have a powerful argument that he cares more about our money.

Poll:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/general_business/opposition_to_bailout_plan_grows_but_still_expected_to_pass

http://people-press.org/report/452/public-favors-bailout'

Given the wide disparity of opinion polling on the issue at the moment, I don't think it's possible to draw any firm conclusions one way or another.

And even assuming that public opinion is against, what are the systemic financial consequences of NOT bailing out banks? One suspects that they're rather worse in the long term.