Summary

NAME: US CANDIDATES 20080922I TAPE: EF08/0965 IN_TIME: 10:58:52:17 DURATION: 00:03:29:14 SOURCES: ABC DATELINE: Various, 22 Sept 2008 RESTRICTIONS: No Access NAmerica/Internet SHOTLIST: Scranton, Pennsylvania 1 Republican Presidential Candidate Senator John McCain walking in to campaign event 2 Wide of McCain 3 SOUNDBITE: (English) Senator John McCain, Republican Presidential Candidate: I'm greatly concerned about the plan that gives a single individual the unprecedented power to spend one trillion (US) dollars, one trillion dollars, without any meaningful accountability Never before in the history of our nation has so much power and money been concentrated in the hands of one person, a person I admire and respect a great deal, Secretary Paulson This arrangement makes me deeply uncomfortable When we're talking about trillion dollars of taxpayer money, trust me just isn't good enough 4 Wide of McCain 5 SOUNDBITE: (English) Senator John McCain, Republican Presidential Candidate: This oversight board should be bipartisan and should have qualified citizens, who have no agenda but the protection of taxpayers and the financial markets People like Warren Buffet, who supports my opponent, Governor Mitt Romney or maybe Michael Bloomberg, an independent, to oversee this The firms we help need accountability too We can't have taxpayers footing the bill for bloated golden parachutes like we see in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy Green Bay, Wisconsin 6 Zoom to mid of Democratic Presidential Candidate Senator Barack Obama walking onto stage at campaign event 7 Wide of Obama on stage, cheering supporters in foreground 8 SOUNDBITE: (English) Senator Barack Obama, Democratic Presidential Candidate: This week, we have to work quickly, in a bipartisan fashion, to resolve the immediate crisis and to avert an even broader economic catastrophe As we do act, Washington has to recognise that true economic recovery requires addressing not just the crisis on Wall Street, but the crisis on Main Street that so many people have been feeling, in their own lives, long before the news of last week We need a plan that helps families stay in their homes and workers keep their jobs A plan that gives hard-working Americans relief, instead of using taxpayer dollars to reward CEOs on Wall Street 9 Pan from Obama to audience 10 SOUNDBITE: (English) Senator Barack Obama, Democratic Presidential Candidate: You remember this, George Bush called this the ownership society; lose your job, you're on your own, you don't have health care, you're on your own, you can't afford college, pull yourself up by your boot straps, you're on your own John McCain voted for those laws and those policies again and again and again, and he now claims that he is the one that can clean it all up I've got to admit, I don't know how these folks say this with a straight face I mean, who do you think has been running the government for the last eight years, whose been in charge for the last eight years? 11 Obama walking away STORYLINE: Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama raised doubts on Monday about the Bush administration's 700 billion (b) US dollar bailout and demanded conditions that could stall its quick passage through the highly partisan Congress Less than six weeks remained in the presidential contest as the candidates were preparing for their first debate on Friday, a confrontation on foreign policy and national security Those issues, despite ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have slid to a distant second place behind voter anxiety over the US economy, which is in the midst of a financial crisis not seen since the 1930s Great Depression McCain, who only a week ago said the economy was fundamentally sound, now says the US financial system is facing a major crisis But he cautioned against giving too much power to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Never before in the history of our nation has so much power and money been concentrated in the hands of one person, McCain told an Irish-American group in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state This arrangement makes me deeply uncomfortable McCain, while praising Paulson, still cautioned against granting unchecked authority to the treasury secretary When we're talking about trillion dollars of taxpayer money, trust me just isn't good enough, he said McCain said he had spoken to Paulson several times over the weekend But the Republican candidate nonetheless called for a bipartisan oversight board for the proposed bailout, to be headed by Warren Buffet or another broadly respected business leader McCain called on Congress to move quickly and work with the administration to restore stability to the troubled financial sector But he said the goal of any action must be to allow homeowners to stay in their homes and prevent Wall Street executives from profiting from a taxpayer bailout McCain also criticised Obama's stance on the current crisis in the US economy In Green Bay, Wisconsin, Obama sounded a number of populist themes, saying of the economic bailout that a blank cheque shouldn't be given without oversight and accountability He vowed to slash federal spending on private contractors by 10 percent in an effort to cut costs to help the failing economy, singling out Haliburton, the giant oil services company that won millions of US dollars in no-bid contracts in Iraq Vice President Dick Cheney ran the company before moving into the Bush administration Obama urged Congress to work in a bipartisan fashion to deal with Bush's bailout proposal Obama said we have to work quickly, in a bipartisan fashion, to resolve the immediate crisis and to avert an even broader economic catastrophe As we do that, Washington has to recognise that true economic recovery requires not only addressing the crisis on Wall Street, but the crisis on Main Street Obama said he's spent the last two years running for president on a promise of change, and he mocked McCain's argument he could bring change to Washington He also argued: You remember this, George Bush called this the ownership society; lose your job, you're on your own, you don't have health care, you're on your own, you can't afford college, pull yourself up by your boot straps, you're on your own John McCain voted for those laws and those policies again and again and again, and he now claims that he is the one that can clean it all up I've got to admit, I don't know how these folks say this with a straight face I mean, who do you think has been running the government for the last eight years, whose been in charge for the last eight years? he added Obama and his wife, Michelle, were campaigning in Wisconsin, another battleground state McCain was to be joined in Pennsylvania by running mate Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor who has brought new life to the Republican ticket