The Debate is on...

Debate or no debate? That was the question all week. The New York Times top story this morning was that Senator John McCain stated that he will participate in the first presidential debate tonight, instead of postponing it to participate in the negotiations of the $700 billion bailout plan. After a flurry of phone calls and rearranging schedules, both senators are expected to arrive at the University of Mississippi this afternoon. There is the continuation of constantly trying to lower viewer expectations. The reason for doing this is: when viewers watch, their satisfaction with that particular candidate can only raise, not disappoint.

The main coverage of the article , however, turned into Senator Obama's talk on how he is "optimistic" at the way the Congressional negotiations are going for the bailout of financial institutions. He stated that there has been a lot of real progress that has been made in the recent hours, and it is important to remain calm and just move forward. The McCain statement this morning also stated that he was "optimistic" and stated that there was "significant progress" being made.



However, the NYTimes was quick to point out that this statement was also critical of Obama, portraying him as partisan and not as concerned as McCain. The direct quote:
"The difference between Barack Obama and John McCain was apparent durinig the White House meeting yesterday where Barack Obama's priority was political posturing in his opening monologue defending the package as it stands...McCain listened to all sides so he could help focus the debate on finding a bipartisan resolution that is in the interest of taxpayers and homeowners."
The NY Times was spinning the issue to portray Senator John McCain as a player on the offense. Many times in politics, if a candidate is putting out ads and statements that are critical of his/her opponent it means that they are losing in the polls. The more that the NY Times portrays Obama as the victim in this case, the better chance he has at winning. However, the Obama campaign has to be very careful because if he doesn't do anything, it could look like he is a weak candidate or that he has something to hide.





*Picture was taken by Win McNamee/Getty Images and can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/us/politics/27debatecnd.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin