Obama Irrelevant, Dems Want McCain to Help Fix the Financial Meltdown

By Larry Johnsonclose
Author: Larry Johnson
Email: larry_johnson@earthlink.net
Site: http://NoQuarterUSA.net

When it comes to dealing with the financial meltdown none of the Democratic leaders are asking for Obama to return to town? Why? He is irrelevant. But not John McCain. His participation and leadership are seen as critical, even by Democrats. Just listen:

Anybody hear Reid, Pelosi, or anybody clamoring for the golden child of Illinois to come to Washington to help out? Nope. Nothing but crickets.

So Reid insists McCain get engaged and then, when McCain calls his bluff, Harry Reid wets himself. I guess the Senator from Utah suddenly realized he had invited the lion for dinner. He flipped flopped.

Jake Tapper reports:

A Democrat tells ABC News that, in a phone call late this afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that it would NOT be helpful for him to come back to Washington, D.C., to work on the Wall Street bailout bill.

McCain this afternoon suspended his campaign and said he would skip the first presidential debate in order to return to Capitol Hill to work on the log-jammed Bush administration legislation, which, as of Wednesday afternoon, was in peril.

McCain had phoned Reid to ask about the prospects of him, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and others to sit down and work together on hammering out a bipartisan proposal.

“Sorry,” Reid said to him, a Democrat close to Reid says.

Reid then read McCain the statement he had just put out: “This is a critical time for our country,” says the Reid statement. “While I appreciate that both candidates have signaled their willingness to help, Congress and the administration have a process in place to reach a solution to this unprecedented financial crisis. I understand that the candidates are putting together a joint statement at Sen. Obama’s suggestion. But it would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations and risk injecting presidential politics into this process or distract important talks about the future of our nation’s economy. If that changes, we will call upon them. We need leadership; not a campaign photo op. If there were ever a time for both candidates to hold a debate before the American people about this serious challenge, it is now.”

A source close to Reid said McCain didn’t have much to say after that. Reid, the source says, thinks McCain’s maneuver is a gimmick born from bad poll numbers and the fact that “debate prep must not be going very well.”

Man, is Reid a pathetic wimp or what? First he wants McCain and then he does not. When faced with the financial equivalent of what Warren Buffet describes as “Pearl Harbor,” John McCain steps up, Barack Obama turns to Jim Johnson (one of the guys who helped create this mess), and Harry Reid is spinning like a top.