McCain Campaign Blames Obama for the Bailout Bill Failure

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:39 pm

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https://www.politicususa.com/en/McCain-Blames-Obama-For-Bailout-FailureIn a bit of farfetched delusional spinning, the McCain campaign is blaming Barack Obama for the House’s failure to pass the $700 billion bailout package. “This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country,” said McCain advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

McCain advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin said, “From the minute John McCain suspended his campaign and arrived in Washington to address this crisis, he was attacked by the Democratic leadership: Senators Obama and Reid, Speaker Pelosi and others. Their partisan attacks were an effort to gain political advantage during a national economic crisis. By doing so, they put at risk the homes, livelihoods and savings of millions of American families. Barack Obama failed to lead, phoned it in, attacked John McCain, and refused to even say if he supported the final bill.”

Holtz-Eakin blamed Obama for the bill’s failure, “This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country.” Let’s clear a few things up. Obama announced before McCain did that he would vote for the bill. McCain had to be pressed at the debate before he would say that he would vote for it. Secondly, John McCain put his entire campaign on the line to get this bill passed, and the failure of the bill reflects badly on his campaign and his ability to lead.

McCain is the candidate who injected presidential politics into this bill. He boasted that he got the House Republicans on board, only to see 67% of House Republicans vote against the bill. Republicans can try to blame Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but the Democrats delivered their share of the votes. It was the Republican leadership, and John McCain who failed here.

It is laughable that the McCain campaign would try to spin responsibility for this to Obama. McCain is the candidate who made this a campaign issue. McCain is the candidate who promised that this bill was done, and claimed credit for it. It is McCain who took the big gamble and lost. If anything, Obama’s position on the issue has made him look even more presidential.

The failure of the bill today should reinforce Obama’s message that Washington is broken and change is needed. The defeat of today’s legislation by his own party took McCain’s bad couple of weeks and made them exponentially worse, and there is no amount of spin that can hide the fact that McCain was not able to show the leadership that his campaign is built on when his country needed it most.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association