Just before noon EST today, it was announced that the debate between presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain will indeed go forward tonight as planned at the University of Mississippi. The debate had been in danger of being canceled as Washington legislators focus on keeping the nation\u2019s financial system, and perhaps the economy as a whole, from collapsing. McCain agreed to the debate and at presstime was about to leave Washington on his way to Oxford, Miss. Meanwhile, mixed messages were filtering out about Congressional efforts to hammer out a rescue plan. In a press conference at noon EST, Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd and Harry Reid presented their perspective on the negotiations to create a financial-markets bailout plan that both houses can pass. Reid, the Senate\u2019s majority leader, said \u201cWe\u2019re making progress\u2026. We\u2019re going to get this done.\u201d On the other hand, he also called for House Republicans to \u201cbecome more involved\u201d in the process and noted that \u201cprinciples of fairness\u201d demand that the legislation address the needs of the American people, not just Wall Street. Presumably in reference to the reportedly contentious meeting called last night by the White House, Reid said, \u201cInsertion of presidential politics has not been helpful.\u201d And referring to McCain\u2019s widely reported reticence about the substance of a bailout plan, Reid said \u201cWe still don\u2019t know where he stands on the issue.\u201d Dodd emphasized two aspects of the plan that he called \u201cnonnegotiable”: limitation of executive compensation and that \u201ctaxpayers will be covered,\u201d both in terms of a potential financial upside from companies that are beneficiaries and some form of relief on residential foreclosures. Reid smiled as he reported \u201csome degree of amazement\u201d expressed by the White House that members of Congress have constituents who have to be respected. \u201cWe have responsibilities to Main Street.\u201d Reid concluded by saying that if all goes well, probably a poor bet under the circumstances, \u201cWe could vote on this Sunday or Monday.\u201d He added, however, that Congress has other important legislation, such as a major Amtrak bill, that also has to be attended to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just before noon EST today, it was announced that the debate between presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain will indeed go forward tonight as planned at the University of Mississippi. The debate had been in danger of being canceled as Washington legislators focus on keeping the nation\u2019s financial system, and perhaps the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37301],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003855648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n