debate

Sen. John McCain was expected to fly to Washington later today, so he could take part in talks surrounding a new Wall Street bailout package when Congress comes back from its break for Rosh Hashana.
However, Politico’s Jonathan Martin reports that McCain has changed his plans. The GOP nominee is instead flying to Kansas City, Mo., [...]

Following conservative columnist Kathleen Parker’s call last week for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to step aside as the Republican vice presidential nominee, Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria is adding his voice to the din.
In the wake of Palin’s disappointing performances in several nationally-televised interviews, Zakaria writes:

We’re almost underway. If you haven’t read Sridhar’s debate preview, you have like 20 minutes to cram. And since I would only mislead you if I tried to discuss the economy, Mary will also weigh in on the non-foreign policy portions of the program.
Two things I’m looking for. First, the Surge vs. the War. McCain [...]

OXFORD, Miss –Large crowds of students and campaign fans are gathered across the Ole Miss campus here, excited that this long-scheduled presidential debate is actually going to happen. While the visitors wave signs and point out the political celebrities — on a single stroll by the debate site this afternoon I saw Sens Lyndsey [...]

… well, my Friday plans are then ruined. Thanks, John McCain! But let me do what McCain always implores and consider a cause greater then myself: ask what are the burning questions that the candidates will miss.
The New York Times does a great job rounding up foreign dignitaries and letting them pose queries to McCain [...]

Sen. Barack Obama reiterated his economic priorities in a major interview on NBC last night, telling Brian Williams that he is fighting for a bailout plan that treats taxpayers as investors and beats back plutocratic proposals to give CEOs “golden parachute” paychecks while regular Americans suffer.
Obama also added that he hopes “John McCain shows up” [...]

With the numerous appearances by McCain campaign staff and advisers today on the cable news channels — and McCain himself scheduled to appear on all three network newscasts tonight — one can be forgiven for wondering what exactly Sen. John McCain meant when he said he would “suspend” his campaign.
Campaign ads continue to air across [...]

The Obama campaign is calling out Sen. John McCain on his professed suspension of campaign activities.
On Thursday afternoon, the Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan emailed reporters about the McCain campaign’s suspension — in scare quotes — noting that “despite ’suspension,’” Gov. Sarah Palin was still attending a rally and holding a press availability. He pointed [...]

Holy instant gratification! SurveyUSA already has polling data on public reaction on whether Friday’s presidential debate should be suspended. They surveyed 1,000 Americans. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent.
Reason provides a summary:

This is interesting. A group of thousands of scientists, engineers and science buffs called Science Debate 2008 got Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain to answer 14 science policy questions.