US Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain hammered away at unruffled front-runner, Democratic Senator Barack Obama, in Tuesday’s second presidential debate but failed to land the cutting blow likely to revive his sliding poll numbers.
The under-pressure McCain came armed with an ambitious US$300 billion surprise plan to buy up the bad US mortgages that helped tip the global economy into crisis.
The Obama camp later claimed the proposal was part of the rescue plan signed into law late last week and that “it was Obama, not McCain, who called for this move two weeks ago.”
The initiative, an apparent bid by McCain to twist Obama’s advantage on the economy in his favoar, made few ripples during a sometimes muted debate that got most heated in clashes on the financial crisis, Pakistan and Iraq.
McCain was under intense pressure to throw his sliding campaign a lifeline, as he trails Obama by widening margins in national polls and in battleground states with time running out before the Nov. 4 election.
Snap polls by US television networks awarded the debate, the second of a trio of presidential clashes, to Obama, who seemed as comfortable as his rival in the “town hall” format that McCain loves.
After days of nasty campaign trail rhetoric, the two senators strolled onto the stage in Nashville, Tennessee, smiling broadly, and shook hands, but tension soon bubbled to the surface.
McCain, criticized for rarely looking at Obama during their first debate two weeks ago, let his dislike of his opponent show again, when he referred to him as “that one” in a tense exchange over energy.
Obama repeatedly made a show of “correcting” McCain’s interpretation of his record and proposals, and hit his top talking point of tying the Republican to the unpopular economic legacy of President George W. Bush.
A CNN national poll after the debate found that 54 percent of those asked thought Obama won and 30 percent said McCain was victorious.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said the strengthening of military facilities would help to maintain security in the Taiwan Strait Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing. “The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” Former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani in January said that Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, but little progress
NO CHANGES: A Japanese spokesperson said that Tokyo remains consistent and open for dialogue, while Beijing has canceled diplomatic engagements A Japanese official blasted China’s claims that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has altered Japan’s position on a Taiwan crisis as “entirely baseless,” calling for more dialogue to stop ties between Asia’s top economies from spiraling. China vowed to take resolute self-defense against Japan if it “dared to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait” in a letter delivered Friday to the UN. “I’m aware of this letter,” said Maki Kobayashi, a senior Japanese government spokeswoman. “The claim our country has altered its position is entirely baseless,” she said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday. The Chinese Ministry
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