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OPTIMISTIC ON BAILOUT, RIVALS DUEL OVER WAR

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By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and SHAILAGH MURRAY

The Washington Post

Published: September 27, 2008

Updated: 09/27/2008 01:11 am

OXFORD, Miss. - In their first debate of the 2008 presidential campaign, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama immediately discarded the scheduled topic of foreign affairs Friday night and waded into a discussion of the nation's financial crisis, with both saying they were optimistic that Congress would agree on a financial bailout plan in the coming days.

The Republican nominee, who had not committed to the debate until late Friday morning, said bipartisanship would carry the day.

"We have finally seen Republicans and Democrats sitting down and negotiating together and coming up with a package," McCain said.

Obama laid out his own priorities for the federal bailout plan before training his fire on McCain, linking him to the president.

"We also have to recognize that this is a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by George Bush, supported by Sen. McCain, a theory that basically says that we can shred regulations and consumer protections and give more and more to the most, and somehow prosperity will trickle down," Obama said.

The exchange over the fiscal crisis came before the two returned to a heated back-and-forth over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the fight against terrorism in Pakistan.

Although McCain has spoken critically of the bailout, and allied with House conservatives to drastically rework the original White House plan, he told moderator Jim Lehrer that he is likely to vote for the plan.

"Sure, sure," he responded, when the Public Broadcasting Service host pressed him on his stance.

McCain accused Obama of compiling "the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate" but the Democrat shot back, "Mostly that's just me opposing George Bush's wrong-headed policies."

Obama said his Republican rival has been a loyal supporter of the unpopular president over the past eight years.

McCain accused his younger rival of an "incredible thing of voting to cut off funds for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan," a reference to legislation that cleared the Senate more than a year ago.

Obama disputed that, saying he had opposed funding in a bill that presented a "blank check" to the Pentagon while McCain had opposed money in legislation that included a timetable for troop withdrawal.

Obama opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2002, before he was a member of Congress, while McCain voted to authorize the war as a member of the Senate.

"You were wrong" on Iraq, Obama repeated three times in succession. "John, you like to pretend the war began in 2007."

McCain replied that Obama has refused to acknowledge the success of the troop buildup in Iraq that McCain recommended and Bush announced more than a year ago.

The two presidential candidates stood behind identical wooden lecterns onstage at the performing arts center at the University of Mississippi for the first of three scheduled debates with less than six weeks remaining until Election Day. The two vice presidential candidates will meet next week for their only debate.

The 47-year-old Obama is seeking to become the nation's first black president. McCain, 72, is hoping to become the oldest first-term chief executive in history - and he made a few jokes at his own expense.

"I've been around a while," he said at one point. "Were you afraid I couldn't hear you?" he said at another after Obama repeated a comment.

It was a debate that almost didn't happen. McCain decided at the last minute to attend, two days after announcing he would try to have the event rescheduled if Congress had not reached an agreement on an economic bailout to deal with the crisis now gripping Wall Street.

The two men were pointed but polite as they covered most issues, although at least once, McCain sought to depict his rival as naive on foreign policy. That was particularly true when it came to Obama's statement that it might become necessary to send U.S. troops across the Pakistani border to pursue terrorists.

"You don't say that out loud," retorted McCain. "If you have to do things, you do things."

McCain also seemed eager to demonstrate his knowledge of foreign policy, recalling the names of three former leaders of the Soviet Union in one sentence.

McCain made a point of declaring his independence from Bush.

"I have opposed the president on spending, on climate change, on torture of prisoners, on Guantanamo Bay, on a long - on the way that the Iraq War was conducted. I have a long record and the American people know me very well ... a maverick of the Senate."

He jabbed at Obama, who he said has requested millions of dollars in pork-barrel spending, including some after he began his campaign.

As he does frequently while campaigning, McCain vowed to veto any lawmaker's pork-barrel project that reaches his desk in the White House. "You will know their names and I will make them famous," he said.

The stakes were high as the rivals walked onstage. The polls gave Obama a modest lead and indicated he was viewed more favorably than his rival when it came to dealing with the economy. But the same surveys show McCain favored by far on foreign policy.

The candidates are scheduled to debate twice more: in Nashville on Oct. 7 and in Hempsted, N.Y., on Oct. 15.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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