McCain takes credit for bill before it loses (Politico)

[jefferson_dem]

McCain takes credit for bill before it loses
By: Mike Allen
September 29, 2008 04:11 PM EST

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his top aides took credit for building a winning bailout coalition – hours before the vote failed and stocks tanked.

The rush to claim he had engineered a victory now looks like a strategic blunder that will prolong the McCain’s campaign’s difficulty in finding a winning message on the economy.

Shortly before the vote, McCain had bragged about his involvement and mocked Sen. Barack Obama for staying on the sidelines.

“I've never been afraid of stepping in to solve problems for the American people, and I'm not going to stop now,” McCain told a rally in Columbus, Ohio. “Sen. Obama took a very different approach to the crisis our country faced. At first he didn't want to get involved. Then he was monitoring the situation.”
McCain, grinning, flashed a sarcastic thumbs up.

“That's not leadership. That's watching from the sidelines,” he added to cheers and applause.

Wisely, in retrospect, McCain initially had been more modest. On Sunday, he said on ABC’s “This Week” that congressional negotiators deserve “great credit” for the bipartisan deal. “"It wasn’t because of me,” McCain said. “They did it themselves.”

But at almost the same time, McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt was saying on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “What Sen. McCain was able to do … was to help get all of the parties to the table. There had been announcements by Senate leaders saying that a deal had been reached earlier in the week. There were no votes for that deal.

“Sen. McCain knew time was short and he came back, he listened and he helped put together the framework of getting everybody to the table, which was necessary to produce a package to avoid a financial catastrophe for this country.”

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http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=AF9F10EC-18FE-70B2-A82949C5A24271A8

[sharp_stick]

1. Too damned funny

it almost makes my ulcers today worth it to see that skeeky prick eat crow again. He's got to be getting pretty used to that taste by now.

[seabeyond]

2. and winner of the debate HOURS before they had it. bah hahhaha. n/t

[RoadRage]

3. If McCain focused on actually winning.. instead of press releases about him winning

before he loses.. he'd be a lot better off.

[Schulzz]

4. Hahaha, exactly.

But they did the same thing with the debate ad :rofl:

[depakid]

5. McCain is the one who busted the deal

So I think many of the bitter loudmouthed DU'ers who don't understnd the issues (and run on emotion) should probably up and vote for him- and abandon Obama, who's trying to show some real leadership in the situation.

:sarcasm:

[Parker CA]

6. How much do you want to bet that the suspended campaign continues and McLiar

once again goes back to DC to help "really" push through the deal this time around? He's gonna pull some absolute bullsh*t out of his pocket because he's bleeding out as it stands right now. MEDIC!! WE NEED A MEDIC!!

[These Eyes]

7. You can't make this stuff up!!

McCain is like a walking disaster. It's like he has the Midas touch in reverse. I know that a lot of people are worried about this bailout, including myself, but this is downright funny!

[grandpappy]

8. It's just a ploy!

McCain told all his buddies to let the bill fail so that he can come back and show leadership and get them to pass the bill. Than we will have to listen to him crow about what kind of hero he is bring together everyone to get the bill passed.

[FrenchieCat]

9. Just like he said he won a debate that he lost!