The Obama and McCain campaigns have agreed to an unusual free-flowing format for the three televised presidential debates, which begin Friday, but the McCain camp fought for and won a much more structured approach for the questioning at the vice-presidential debate, advisers to both campaigns said Saturday.
While Senator McCain has not called for a full privatization of Social Security, he has supported the concept of allowing individuals to invest part of their payroll taxes in stock and bonds. But the idea has taken on a new air of political vulnerability because of the upheaval on Wall Street, which Senator Obama has sought to seize on.
The Bush administration’s proposal was stunning for its stark simplicity. It would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. And it would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt.
Opponents of the proposed same-sex marriage ban worry that many black voters, enthused by Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy but traditionally conservative on issues involving homosexuality, could pour into voting stations in record numbers to punch the Obama ticket — and then cast a vote for the marriage ban.
Propelled by discontent at Republican handling of the economy in light of the financial crisis, Senator Obama matched his record high of 50 percent in the latest Gallup daily tracking poll, against 44 percent for Senator McCain. Meanwhile, Mr. McCain tried to blame the turmoil on fraud at US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
After a week of economic turmoil and his damaging remark on Monday that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” Senator McCain aggressively sought to regain his footing. Battling to distance himself from the Bush administration and blame for the economic instability, Mr. McCain also called for the firing of SEC chief Christopher Cox.
The Palins have long denied wrongdoing, and the governor initially said she would cooperate with the bipartisan legislative inquiry. Now that she is Senator McCain’s running mate, however, the campaign says the inquiry has become a partisan political circus. It has accused Alaska Democrats of using it to hurt the Republican ticket.
Sarah Palin has spent most of this month out of state, campaigning with Senator McCain, and has endorsed neither Senator Stevens nor his opponent. But that has not stopped both candidates from trying to benefit from her enormous popularity in Alaska, which has only grown since she joined the McCain ticket.
As John McCain worked his way through Florida and Ohio this week as the Republican presidential nominee, he was a candidate transformed. He unsmilingly raced through a series of relatively brief speeches, reading often from a teleprompter, and served up a diet of the kind of sound-bite attacks that he used to dismiss with an eye roll.
In a reversal of position, a key Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday he may convene the committee that is conducting the investigation into whether Palin dismissed her public safety commissioner when he would not fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with her sister. This may be the first move in a push to delay the probe.