If the federal government's bailout of Wall Street is as dire as policymakers said this week, you would think the two candidates running for president would be crystal clear on how they will vote on the matter. You would think.
But The Politico said it is possible that both candidates, who are busy preparing for Friday's debate, will SKIP the vote. The story said neither campaign currently has plans to go back to Washington.
The Politico pointed out it would not be a first:
Neither candidate trekked back to Capitol Hill to cast another important economic vote on July 26, when the Senate cleared a massive housing bill that aimed to shore up mortgage markets and prevent hundreds of thousands of foreclosures.
Biden, who had not yet been tapped as Obama's running mate, was there for the rare Saturday vote, voting "yea."
Obama, however, did return to the Senate July 10 to vote in support of stalled Medicare legislation, which had failed on an earlier attempt to clear the 60-vote filibuster hurdle. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, also made a dramatic appearance to vote for the bill, which blocked a scheduled 10.6 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements for physicians.
The legislation passed, 69-30. McCain was the only "not present" on the Senate vote tally that day.
An Obama aide suggested that for the bailout, Obama would repeat that past pattern of returning for votes where the margin is close.
So what are Obama and McCain saying about the bailout? They do seem to agree that any bailout should not benefit top executives. (See
this Boston Globe story.)
The Associated Press reported:
McCain, who only a week ago said the economy was fundamentally sound, now says the U.S. financial system is facing a major crisis. But he cautioned against giving too much power to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
"Never before in the history of our nation has so much power and money been concentrated in the hands of one person. This arrangement makes me deeply uncomfortable," McCain told an Irish-American group in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state. "We will not solve a problem caused by poor oversight with a plan that has no oversight."
McCain praised Paulson and said he had spoken to him several times over the weekend. But the Republican candidate nonetheless called for a bipartisan oversight board for the proposed bailout, to be headed by Warren Buffet or another broadly respected business leader.
The AP
reported of Obama:
Obama ticked off seven conditions that he believed should be imposed on the Paulson proposal, joining some fellow congressional Democrats in raising warning flags and signaling the bailout mechanism might not make it out of the legislature by week's end as demanded by the Bush administration.
Obama said any bailout must include plans to recover the money, and protect working families and big financial institutions and be crafted to prevent such a crisis from happening again.
"This plan can't just be a plan for Wall Street, it has to be a plan for Main Street. We have to come together, as Democrats and Republicans, to pass a stimulus plan that will put money in the pockets of working families, save jobs, and prevent painful budget cuts and tax hikes in our states," Obama said during a campaign stop in North Carolina.
The Washington Post's The Trail blog explained why the candidates might be so cautious:
A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted Friday through Monday shows a roughly even divide on the recent steps taken by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department -- 44 percent approve and 42 percent disapprove of their actions. At this stage, there are twice as many holding strongly negative as strongly positive views of the government response to the financial crisis (18 percent to 9 percent).
