Matthews Blames Bailout Crash On McCain's Failed Leadership

Chris Matthews points to John McCain's failure to provide the leadership that he promised -- and took credit for:

McCain said he was going to lead the Republican charge, he was going to make sure that this was a bipartisan success...he called charge, and the Republican retreated. That's what happened here.

Here's video:

Here's what McCain staff and surrogates were saying before the vote:

"This bill would not have been agreed to had it not been for John McCain... This is a bipartisan accomplishment, a bipartisan success. And if people want to get something done in Washington, they just watch John McCain. He's been the guy whose name is at the top of major pieces of legislation for a long time."
-- Mitt Romney, NBC's Today show, 9/29/08

"What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all of the parties to the table, including the House Republicans, whose votes were needed to pass this"
-- Steve Schmidt, NBC's Meet the Press, 9/28/08

"We're optimistic that Senator McCain will bring House Republicans on board without driving other parties away, resulting in a successful deal for the American taxpayer."
-- McCain spokeswoman Kimmie Lipscomb, 9/26/08

Comments

[malrubius]

I'll bet the eight Democrats that watched this were very happy.

[dolphy]

Chris, did you get another call from your broker? IT HURTS!!!!!!!

[demfriend]

Matthews grew some when I looked away? That the GOP has been blaming the dems all day the failure of the GOP to put the US of A before the GOP is a sad fact. All the tiem Bush and cronies have cried like babies to get the deal done to save the country, the economy and apple pie the GOP was planning to play party politics and blame the dems for it? Funny thing about all of that is the republicans have the administration and the idiots in congress all tied up for a few more months. The knowledge that the GOP has preferred to point fingers today rather than work together after they pushed for it is very sad and will look as it does Party first and country not at all. How does this make the GOP look good?

[DCtrain]

good for Chris Matthews for speaking truth. No one really likes McCain... well maybe Bill Clinton, but outside of Bill and liebermann, no one wants to work with him.

[simkmer]

Chris I love it when you report the real news. Obama is the Real Deal.

[JungleRoses]

He's right about McCain's leadership; NOT!

[lynjs]

Matthews is right. McCain butted in and messed it up turning the matter into a political football; one that he and his Republican lead Congress from 1994 to 2006 caused by their wanton deregulation of the financial industry. They turned a blind eye and now the Democratic Congress is left with the mess of cleaning it up.

And for him to sat there and pretend that he had nothing to do with the beginning, middle and now ending of the mess is preposterous. I wonder how much he's made off of this melt down.

[margardner]

McCain lost again.

He can't even get his Republican congress to support him. They went against him!
Neither Bush, nor McCain have any clout. This should tell you something!

The polls are telling. Obama has held a consistent 6 point avg lead these past two weeks. If McCains decision making and judgement were right, he should be ahead in the polls.

[Manoo]

It appears that the only people John McCain could bring together were Levi and Bristol!

[gretcheno]

ROTL!!! And Levi probably wants out.

[arthur2008]

John McCain is a leader?

Here is the roll call vote on the bailout from his state and Sarah's:

ALASKA
Republicans " Young, N.
ARIZONA
Democrats " Giffords, N; Grijalva, N; Mitchell, N; Pastor, N.
Republicans " Flake, N; Franks, N; Renzi, N; Shadegg, N.

[DCtrain]

great post

[Tyrione]

Whiny, tweety, Roman Catholic, Bush voting Matthews blames McCain?

Please give back the paycheck you make. You certainly are robbing GE stock holders by not earning it.

[vsign]

Obama thinks he can give us all ice cream parlors in the center of our towns like Castro did in every village. Get your ice cream symbol out of here Obama!

[contemporarymom]

Matthews is so over done it's a wonder anyone puts him on the screen.

[lagumbo]

John Mccain and his surrogets must be dizzy by now. They are having to change their talking points every two hours. If those idiots he has around him would stop smoking that pipe maybe they could
function long enough to get a grip on whats happening around them. They are so busy tring to script
his campaign to fit the breaking news they forget to wait for the punch line. This man is dangeruos.

[Sugar78]

Palin is dumber than a bowl of di cks.