Bailout tests McCain, Obama leadership

by Jim Tankersley

One of the most important qualities in a president - and one of the hardest for voters to gauge on the campaign trail - is the ability to move key pieces of his or her agenda through Congress. As we learned in the Bill Clinton years, it's one thing to promise universal health care in a New Hampshire living room and another to gather the votes to pass it into law.

The tribulations of a power-sapped president were on full display yesterday, when a $700 billion financial bailout package that President Bush called essential for the nation's economy died in the House: "If there was any doubt that President Bush had been left politically impotent by his travails over the last few years and his lame-duck status," the New York Times' Jackie Calmes wrote in a news analysis, "it was erased on Monday when, despite his personal pleas, more than two-thirds of the Republicans in the House abandoned the plan."

Oddly enough, the failure gives both men running to replace Bush a rare pre-election chance to flex their vote-hoarding muscles.

It's simple math: Both John McCain and Barack Obama count, among their earliest and most fervant congressional supporters, at least 10 House members who opposed the bailout on Monday. These are representatives who endorsed McCain and Obama this time last year, well before the Iowa caucuses, at a time when Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney were leading their respective parties' Capitol Hill endorsement races.

In other words, these are the true McCain and Obama believers in Washington. If just 12 of them change their votes - out of 22 - the bailout passes.

The endorsement list, compiled by Roll Call last October and archived on the Wayback Machine, is here. Monday's final vote on the bailout is here.

The overlapping list of "nays" and endorsers, for McCain, includes three of his home-state congressmen and a pair from Illinois (Reps. Peter Roskam and John Shimkus). Obama's includes three from his home state: Illinois Reps. Bobby Rush, Jesse Jackson Jr. and Jerry Costello.

Both candidates have endorsed the bailout, and both say they're monitoring the situation from the campaign trail - with frequent phone calls to congressional leaders and administration officials.

If they're serious about passing this bill, maybe they should dial some old friends, instead.