160 words from John McCain's White House mentor during the week of worst crisis since Depression

[bigtree]

Bush Absent on Financial Crisis


Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- This week, President George W. Bush held a state dinner for Ghana's president, surveyed Texas hurricane damage, posed with Youth of the Year award finalists, and met with Army General David Petraeus.

During that time, Bush has publicly uttered 160 words about the worst Wall Street crisis since the Great Depression, saying the government is working to ``reduce disruptions'' in U.S. financial markets.

Last night, after three tense days of the financial crisis, Bush canceled plans to travel to political fundraisers in Alabama and Florida to monitor the situation from the White House.

As Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke confronted the collapse of Lehman Brothers Inc., the sale of Merrill Lynch & Co., the biggest stock market drop in seven years, and a government takeover of American International Group Inc., the president's absence thus far has been conspicuous.

Bush's only statement came Sept. 15, when stocks started tumbling after weekend news about Lehman's bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch's takeover. Standing with Ghanaian PresidentJohn Kufuor, Bush acknowledged public concern about market ``adjustments'' and said he had been ``in close touch'' with Paulson as the government worked to ``promote stability in the financial systems.''

The president, who hasn't held a press conference in more than two months, hasn't taken questions about the crisis and canceled plans to issue a statement after meeting Sept. 16 with advisers, including Paulson and Bernanke.


read: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aHClrffnwHRo&refer=home

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. 2 months w/o a presser.

He must be in worse shape than I thought.

[leftchick]

2. I think poopy and his friends should bail out Jr yet again

where are their saudi friends to bail out yet another bush business disaster?? Oh yes, this time he used OUR money!

:grr:

[Sam Ervin jret]

3. Maybe the less said the better from this president. We could go from worse to unrecoverable.