John McCain's Remarks on the Economic Crisis
New York, NY
Wednesday, September 24, 2008

America this week faces an historic crisis in our financial system. We must pass legislation to address this crisis. If we do not, credit will dry up, with devastating consequences for our economy. People will no longer be able to buy homes and their life savings will be at stake. Businesses will not have enough money to pay their employees. If we do not act, ever corner of our country will be impacted. We cannot allow this to happen.

Last Friday, I laid out my proposal and I have since discussed my priorities and concerns with the bill the Administration has put forward. Senator Obama has expressed his priorities and concerns. This morning, I met with a group of economic advisers to talk about the proposal on the table and the steps that we should take going forward. I have also spoken with members of Congress to hear their perspective.

It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the Administration's proposal. I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time.

Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me.

I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.

We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved. I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night's debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.

I am confident that before the markets open on Monday we can achieve consensus on legislation that will stabilize our financial markets, protect taxpayers and homeowners, and earn the confidence of the American people. All we must do to achieve this is temporarily set politics aside, and I am committed to doing so.

Following September 11th, our national leaders came together at a time of crisis. We must show that kind of patriotism now. Americans across our country lament the fact that partisan divisions in Washington have prevented us from addressing our national challenges. Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country.

Funny how that works eh. Remember last week? John McCain made a 30 second add congratulating Obama and ran it only after his speech that night. What's even funnier you ask? Turns out McCain's speech got higher ratings than Obama's did. This attention Mac & Sarah are getting is driving that narcissist (sic) crazy, so what does he do? He goes on O'Reilly and screams look at me look at me! Pathetic.

if you want to talk about judgement lets talk about mccains choice for chief economic advisor...or mccains choice of running mate (after meeing only twice)...ive said it before and ill say it again...i think the most important job of the prez is to pick the right people for the right positions and i just continue to feel less comfortable with a mccain presidency as i learn more about examples of him choosing people that i dont think are good selections... honestly...i dont know enough about the obama-ayers relationship to comment on whether or not they are close friends...but i doubt they are...at the very least because it would be bad for his political aspirations even if obama truly thought ayers was justified in his actions...but lets actually skip over all this "obama is a terrorist because he knows a guy who was a terrorist" bs...its insulting to me that you think i might believe it...please tell me what obama has done to give america (or at least some of it) the idea that he could be a terrorist...because that is what you are implying... frankly im sick of defending obama against these (in my opinion) outrageous attacks...to me this ayers relationship does not matter because i have confidence in my preferred candidate...i dont think obamas going to fool the country into electing him president and then in january after inauguration peel off his nice-guy mask and hand this country over to people who want to destroy it...his story is an inspirational one and a selfless one and to me it inspires confidence that this guy is someone who can meet a challenge head on and inspire people who wouldnt ordinarily work together to get the job done for the common good...im sorry that your candidate apparently doesnt do the same for you since you spend so much time attacking mine instead of praising yours... re: nuclear iran...bidens right...why do the us and israel get to say "i know we have nukes but you cant develop nuclear technology cuz...um...we say so" anyway?...the "do as we say and not as we do" approach has p*#@>d off a lot of people the last 8 years and really for a lot longer than that...i mean...remember a couple weeks again when the white house was saying "you cant just go into another nation and start a war" in regards to russias invasion of georgia?...how ridiculous and oblivious... re: palin...thats fine that she talks/walks the pro-life talk/walk...i have no problem with her having an opinion about abortion...and im not even sure where this came from...but at least youre praising a republican candidate instead of simply attacking a republican one...its refreshing to see that...i do have a question though...(vulgarity omited)