POLITICS: FACE OFF / OBAMA ON FINANCIAL CRISIS / MCCAIN PLAYS RACE CARD?

Monday, September 22, 2008

Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are gearing up for their first debate on Friday, September 26, at the University of Mississippi. Both campaigns have agreed to an unusual free-flowing format, but the McCain camp fought for and won a much more structured approach for the questioning at the vice presidential debate.

The Oct. 2 debate between Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden, moderated by Gwen Ifill, will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees. McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

Friday’s debate will be broken into nine, 9-minute segments. Jim Lehrer will introduce a topic and allow each candidate two minutes to comment. After these initial answers, the moderator will facilitate an open discussion of the topic for the remaining five minutes, ensuring that both candidates receive an equal amount of time to comment.

The debate begins at 9pm ET, and will broadcast on major networks ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, in addition to cable news channels such as C-SPAN, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.

At a rally in Charlotte on Sunday, Sen. Barack Obama addressed how the government should respond to the financial crisis and criticized the Bush Administration’s lack of a plan to combat the problem.

He said, “As of now, the Bush Administration has only offered a concept with a staggering price tag, not a plan. Even if the U.S. Treasury recovers some or most of its investment over time, this initial outlay of up to $700 billion is sobering. And in return for their support, the American people must be assured that the deal reflects the basic principles of transparency, fairness, and reform.”

Obama added the following points on how government should address the problem:

First, there must be no blank check when American taxpayers are on the hook for this much money.

Second, taxpayers shouldn’t be spending a dime to reward CEOs on Wall Street.

Third, taxpayers should be protected and should be able to recoup this investment.

Fourth, this plan has to help homeowners stay in their homes.

Fifth, this is a global crisis, and the United States must insist that other nations join us in helping secure the financial markets.

Sixth, we need to start putting in place the rules of the road I’ve been calling for for years to prevent this from ever happening again.

And finally, this plan can’t just be a plan for Wall Street, it has to be a plan for Main Street.

“This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman,” writes Karen Tumulty.

The Obama campaign says former Fannie Mae Chairman Frank Raines is not an Obama adviser and that McCain’s campaign knows it because Raines sent an email to Carly Fiorina, a top McCain adviser: “Carly: Is this true?” Raines asks above a forwarded note informing him that Fiorina was on television saying he was an Obama housing adviser. “I am not an adviser to the Obama campaign. Frank.”