‘Everyone here is ready to vote for Obama, including the Republicans.’ ”

[impik]

BARACK OBAMA demonstrated his economic prowess at an extraordinary White House meeting several weeks before he was even elected president. As Jonathan Alter tells it in “The Promise: President Obama, Year One” (Simon & Schuster), this breakout performance occurred at a Sept. 25, 2008, confab requested by the Republican presidential candidate, John McCain.

The meeting was a calculated gambit by Mr. McCain to prove his leadership abilities after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. But the book says that when Mr. Obama asked, “What do you think, John?” Mr. McCain feebly joked his way out of an answer, saying, “I’ll just listen.”

Later, Mr. Alter says, Mr. McCain acknowledged that he had not yet read a three-page outline of the controversial $700 billion bailout plan by Henry M. Paulson Jr., then the Treasury secretary.

President George W. Bush was “poorly informed and detached,” the book says. But Mr. Obama, who had read Mr. Paulson’s plan and copious amounts of related material, stepped into the breach. He gave a cogent overview of the crisis and declared that the Democrats were close to agreement with Mr. Paulson on a deal to approve the bailout.

When he was done, Mr. Alter reports, “a Republican sitting some distance down the long table whispered to a pair of Democratic senators, ‘Everyone here is ready to vote for Obama, including the Republicans.’ ”

The anecdote is one of scores of compelling insider accounts in “The Promise,” an impressively reported, myth-debunking and timely combination of journalism and history.



More:



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/business/16shelf.html?src=busln

[xchrom]

1. That's nice. Nt

[Cha]

2. This book about the President so far..

sounds like it would be monumentally interesting to research..you cannot make this stuff up but at times it sounds like science fiction..especially with mccain as a character.

[lib2DaBone]

3. Sure...

[keopeli]

7. You could be right, but in a meeting like that, there are a whole lot of witnesses

so it'd be hard to get away with a lie for very long. I tend to think this example, while possibly favoring hyperbole, is a fairly true account of the meeting.

[Diamonique]

4. I remember that meeting.

I remember it being reported in the news. McCain called for the meeting as a way to make himself look engaged in the economic disaster during the campaign. But when the meeting actually occurred, he had nothing to say. Obama showed himself as a leader. McCain showed himself as a fool.

[firedupdem]

5. +1

Exactly.

[DrToast]

6. Yep, McCain "suspended" his campaign

There's been a lot written about that meeting and how McCain embarrassed himself.

[LiberalAndProud]

8. I knew this sounded familiar.

Was it here on DU I read this, or did Keith O. report it? I can't remember.

[Tarheel_Dem]

10. I remember it well. Thanks for the memories. (nt)

[AwakeAtLast]

11. Is that what he ditched Letterman for?

That was the beginning of the nosedive, crash and burn that was his campaign.

[DrToast]

13. LOL. YES! I forgot that part of the story

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/letterman-mccains-cancellation-not-funny/

[pkz]

19. yep....my talking point

made sure every person I talked too that was not supporting O knew this

[depakid]

9. Yep- that was a one off situation which we're not going to see again

The timing of the meltdown was as perfect for the Democratic candidate as the timing of the oil spill after the pandering announcement was awful.

People sometimes forget that McCain was ahead in most of the polls on September 15, 2008.

[Jennicut]

12. I know, it was making me bite my nails with worry.

McCain lost it and left everyone scratching their heads and Obama handled it really well.

[rug]

14. And why wouldn't they?

[girl gone mad]

16. Promising $1 Trillion, no strings attached..

And with such deference to the financial oligarchs.

[NJmaverick]

15. K&R

[WeDidIt]

17. And bipartisan pragmatic leadership saves the world from the brink of complete economic devestation

But Obama is allegedly not a leader.

[NJmaverick]

20. As we have learned he is a far better leader than his critics were judges of talent

[Phx_Dem]

18. A very similar report of the same event was detailed in "Renegade."

McCain is such an competent boob, I still have nightmares thinking where we would be now if he and the imbicile from Wasilla had been elected. Can you imagine going to a meeting at the White House to discuss an economy catastrophe and not reading the 3 page materials provided in advance? Boob is too kind.

I can't wait to get my book from Amazon when it's released.