McCain and Obama Must Debate on Friday

from CREDO Action at Working Assets:

John McCain thinks we don't need a presidential debate on Friday night.

We at CREDO disagree. We need a real debate on the economy, and we need it now. The presidential candidates, as Senator Obama says, should hold their debate Friday as scheduled, and address the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

We've been hearing a lot this week about how our economy is in a crisis — maybe the worst crisis since the Great Depression. Politicians on the left and the right have made all kinds of claims about exactly how much or little we should panic and what that means for the policies we should enact.

The Bush Administration, for its part, has continued to insist that we must give the largest free lunch in history to the Wall Street tycoons who got us into this mess to begin with, We at CREDO disagreed strongly with this position, and we put forth some of our own policy recommendations in accordance with Robert Reich's suggestions.

If these issues are so serious, then that's only more reason to have a national dialogue about them, and to understand how Senator McCain and Senator Obama would handle them as president.

Americans have a monumental decision to make this November, and we need as much information as possible in order to make the best choice. We reject the notion that canceling the debate is the best way to focus on the economy. Rather, let's use the debate to spotlight the importance of economic issues.

DO SOMETHING! Encourage Senator McCain to show up for the debate on Friday as planned, and to focus on the economic issues facing our nation. As Americans caught in a pivotal moment in our nation's history, we deserve nothing less.