Should McCain ask Sarah Palin to step aside?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/29/art.palin.vp.gi.jpg caption="Palin is being criticized by conservatives and liberals alike on her lack of knowledge on economic and foreign policy."]
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The chorus of calls for Governor Sarah Palin to step aside as John McCain's vice presidential candidate is getting louder in the wake of that disastrous interview Palin did with Katie Couric.
Kathleen Parker, a well-respected conservative columnist writes on The National Review website that, after watching Palin's recent media appearances, her "cringe reflex" is exhausted.
She says that Palin's interviews with ABC's Charles Gibson, Fox News' Sean Hannity and CBS's Katie Couric have, quote, "all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who is clearly out of her league."
Parker admits she'd been pulling for Palin as a woman and as a conservative, but her lack of understanding of economic and foreign policy issues is troubling. Parker now says " If B.S. were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself."
Here’s my question to you: Should John McCain ask Sarah Palin to step aside?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Is McCain playing politics with the nation’s financial crisis?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/25/art.mccain.global.gi.jpg caption="John McCain announced that he was suspending his campaign and pulling TV ads."]
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Senators Barack Obama and John McCain are in Washington to meet with President Bush and other lawmakers... After the president summoned them there to help hash out a bipartisan resolution to the big 700 billion dollar financial bailout plan. It's another grand but empty political gesture. But you can't let a good photo-op go to waste.
Hours earlier, Congressional leaders reached an agreement on a bipartisan counter-proposal to the Bush plan... Without the help of either candidate or the president. The lawmakers are hopeful they'll have a vote within days and a bill on the president's desk soon after.
Yesterday John McCain, in a grand gesture, announced he was suspending his campaign and rushing to Washington to save the day. A lot of people saw that as the naked political stunt that it was. House Financial Service Committee Chairman Barney Frank, one of the architects of the bailout plan, said, "We're trying to rescue the economy, not the McCain campaign." McCain's plane had barely touched down when lawmakers announced their deal.
Now presumably he won't have an excuse for not showing up to debate Barack Obama in Mississippi tomorrow night.
Here’s my question to you: Is John McCain playing politics with the nation's deepening financial crisis?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Should the first presidential debate be postponed?
Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say.
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Senator John McCain suddenly announced this afternoon he is suspending his campaign and returning to Washington to lend a hand in the search for a solution to the nation’s deepening financial crisis.
President Bush is expected to address the nation later this evening and try to convince Americans the situation is so dire that Congress must pass the proposed $700 billion bailout bill. Trouble is, the public isn’t so sure it wants to hand the government another blank check for that much money.
McCain has also called for the postponement of the first presidential debate scheduled for this Friday night in Mississippi.
Watch: Cafferty: Postpone 1st debate?
Barack Obama says the debate should go on as scheduled. It might be helpful, particularly to voters who remain undecided, to hear the two men who want to lead the country for the next four years discuss their ideas for solving what is arguably the worst financial crisis to hit the United States since the Great Depression.
Here’s my question to you: In light of the financial crisis, should the first presidential debate be postponed?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Why won’t McCain let Palin talk to the press?
John McCain won't let Sarah Palin talk to the press. (PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
John McCain doesn't want reporters talking to his running mate. Why not?
The Straight Talk Express - which, by the way, is an expression you don't hear much from McCain these days - would prefer no talk at all if the conversation is between the news media and Sarah Palin.
Yesterday's photo op at the United Nations between Sarah Palin and Afghan President Hamid Karzai was a joke. The McCain people weren't going to allow any reporters in the room when the two met - just cameras. It was only after the networks threatened to not cover the event at all that the McCain people relented and allowed a pool producer into the room. He was permitted to stay for a total of 29 seconds before being escorted out. And of course, no questions.
This kind of cheap theatrics is beneath someone who wants to be president of the United States. Unless you're John McCain. Then apparently it's ok, and his campaign doesn't think the voters are smart enough to figure out what's going on. I think they're wrong about the voters.
Here’s my question to you: Why won't John McCain allow reporters more access to Sarah Palin?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
What will you look for at the Presidential debates?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/23/art.debate.split.gi.jpg caption="CNNs most recent polls have Obama at 49% and McCain at 44%."]
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
With the polls tightening, the stakes for the upcoming presidential debates are getting higher. The first of three debates is set for this Friday in Mississippi. Despite all that is already known about John McCain and Barack Obama, presidential debates are famous for sometimes producing a moment that will change the outcome of the election. The pressure is definitely on.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Obama's advisers are looking for ways for Obama to provoke McCain's anger or to show that he's out of touch with the average American. McCain's advisers are coaching McCain to pounce on certain phrases Obama may say like "as I’ve said before..." A McCain aid told The Journal Obama uses that phrase on occasions where he's actually changed his mind.
The first debate was supposed to cover domestic issues, but both campaigns agreed to change it to foreign policy. McCain's camp feels foreign policy is his strong suit. Obama's advisers want to hold off on a domestic issues debate because they believe Obama will have the upper hand in that discussion.
Here’s my question to you: What will you be looking for when you watch the debates?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Do you care how many cars John McCain owns?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/22/art.cts.assemblyline.gi.jpg caption="The Cadilac CTS assembly line in Detroit, MI. One of McCain's thirteen cars."]
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
With just 43 days left until the presidential election, we've officially entered "silly season."
A new piece on Newsweek's web site points out the number of cars each of the presidential candidates owns.
John and Cindy McCain have 13 cars while Barack and Michele Obama have just 1. This is according to vehicle registration records. Two of McCain's cars - a Honda sedan and a Volkswagen convertible - are foreign-made... Even though he's said before that he only buys American.
The Democratic National Committee quickly pounced on this car issue and organized a conference call with United Auto Worker Union president Ron Gettelfinger. The UAW has endorsed Obama. Gettelfinger said on the call that the revelation about McCain's vehicles shows he is not being truthful with Americans. And he went on to say that owning these two foreign vehicles is undermining American autoworkers. The car McCain uses for personal business, by the way, is a 2004 Cadillac CTS, made by general motors.
Barack and Michelle Obama's only car is a 2008 Ford Hybrid Escape.
And why anybody cares about this is beyond me.
Here’s my question to you: Is the number of cars John McCain owns an important issue to you?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Wall Street Journal blasts John McCain
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/19/art.mccain.sec.ap.jpg caption="John McCain said 'Raising taxes in a tough economy isn't patriotic.'"]
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
When you graduate 894th out of a class of 899, eventually it will show up.
And John McCain's mediocre performance at the Naval Academy is showing up big time this week in his total lack of understanding of the nation's financial crisis.
He told us he didn't know much about the economy… now he's proving it.
So much so that the Wall Street Journal, perhaps America's leading financial publication, is blasting McCain over what its editorial board sees as inaccurate and, "unpresidential" comments about the crisis in America's financial system.
If you're a Republican running for president of the United States and the Wall Street Journal basically says you're an incompetent buffoon, you're in serious trouble.
Specifically the paper pointed to comments McCain made yesterday about SEC Chair Christopher Cox.
McCain pointed the finger at Cox and said if he were president, he'd fire him for "betraying the public's trust."
The Wall Street Journal called that assault "both false and deeply unfair."
The Journal also said, "In a crisis voters want steady, calm leadership… not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help."
Here’s my question to you: What does it mean when the Wall Street Journal slams Mcain on the economy?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Palin is more popular than McCain and Obama
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/17/art.palin.signature.gi.jpg caption="A self-titled 'hockey-mom' is getting all the attention."]
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Politics is a popularity contest and if you are keeping count on the blogs, V.P. candidate Governor Sarah Palin is the belle of the ball. On a single page of an ABC news blog, Palin's name appears 24 times, McCain's twice, Biden's once and Barack obama's– not at all. It's not scientific, but it's indicative of something bizarre.
And she's a big hit offline too.
When Palin and her running-mate John McCain– he's the one running for president by the way– appear together, people cheer for her. Then when he speaks they begin to file out. Ouch! When they campaign separately, her crowds dwarf his. What's wrong with this picture? He has all the experience and she has very little.
In today's New York Times, columnist Maureen Dowd suggests the Palin phenomenon is like a trip back to junior high school...Where the popular girl gets all the attention.
Here’s my question to you: What does it say about us that Sarah Palin is attracting more attention than the two men who would be president?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Will McCain’s statements about the economy cost him the election?
Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say.
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
We awoke this morning to news the government is loaning the nation's largest insurance company, AIG, 85 billion dollars to keep it afloat.
Then we sat back and watched the bottom continue to fall out of the stock market.
The former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, said we are experiencing a "once in a century financial crisis." which may be why democratic strategist and CNN political commentator James Carville said on the Situation Room yesterday that the comment from John McCain on Monday about the economy being “fundamentally sound” was a game changer.
Watch: Cafferty: Fatal McCain error?
That was the day that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the Dow lost more ground than it had in seven years.
Carville said unless something totally out of the ordinary happens, the stupidity of McCain's remark virtually assures Obama of a win in November.
Oh, and you probably won't be seeing much of McCain adviser Carly Fiorina in the future either.
She told a radio host yesterday that neither John McCain nor Sarah Palin, quote, "could run a corporation."
That's the kind of stuff you expect the Democrats to say.
Here’s my question to you: Was John McCain's statement that the economy is fundamentally sound a fatal error?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Which candidate is better equipped to handle the financial crisis?
Can McCain or Obama better handle the country's financial crisis? (PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan is calling it a "once in a century" financial crisis.
Lehman Brothers– one of the oldest investment banks on wall street– has filed for bankruptcy after it failed to find a buyer. Another financial institution, Merrill Lynch is being bought by Bank of America. And insurance giant AIG– the largest insurer in the country– is desperately trying to raise cash in order to stay in business. The stock market took a huge hit today...Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are already under federal takeover-their stock is worthless...And Wilbur Ross-a billionaire investor-predicts we could see 1,000 bank failures in the months ahead.
"Change" and "reform" are two words we hear a lot of on the campaign trail. When it comes to our financial system, we need both. And it seems clear that things are going to get worse before they start to get better.
Here’s my question to you: Which candidate is better able to handle a "once in a century" financial crisis?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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