Hopefuls play true to form on bailout

For Republicans, McCain’s performance proved mixed, however. His quick call to fire the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, then his decision to suspend his campaign and return to Washington even though he lacked an alternative to the bailout, risked making him look impetuous in a moment of crisis. He comes out of the flurry of activity in Washington without an easily definable role or set of obvious results, though his top advisers said he had bought time for House Republicans to raise their own concerns.

On Capitol Hill, Representative John A Boehner of Ohio, the House minority leader, said that McCain’s support had been critical to bringing the Republicans into the negotiations. Boehner said that without him, “They would have run over me like a freight train.”

For Democrats, the episode was one more reminder that Barack Obama was more analyzer-in-chief than firebrand — though in this case, they gave him high marks for his style. Still, given concerns among Americans about the economy, Obama risked seeming too cool and slow to exert leadership.

Aides and political allies to both men agreed on Sunday that perhaps no episode thus far in the campaign better demonstrated how they would approach managing problems as president. Their instincts, temperaments, and leadership traits were in the spotlight in Washington, as well as their limitations and foibles — characteristics that also showed through stylistically in Friday night’s debate.

Both candidates said on Sunday that they were inclined to vote for the bailout even though they were not completely happy with it. McCain advisers also began making the case that McCain had emerged as an important ally for House Republicans, while Obama criticized McCain for initially showing a “Katrina-like response” to the economic crisis when he said that “the fundamentals of the economy are strong.”

As McCain appeared as a man in motion last week, Obama’s cautious side was on clear display. He loathes gambits as too unpredictable, which is why, aides say, he would have never suspended his campaign like McCain did on Wednesday to join in the bailout negotiations in Washington.

McCain, meanwhile, thrives in the fray, which accounts for his lead role in the Gang of 14 talks on judicial nominations and in legislative wrangling over campaign finance reform and immigration. Yet Republicans acknowledge that no McCain imprint appears to be on the final bailout package moving through Congress, and some of them were trying Sunday to put the best face on his role by casting him as a man of action.

“By halting his campaign, he magnified just how important this bailout was to the nation, and showed that he would approach a crisis by locking everyone in a room and keeping them there until they had a solution,” said Anthony V Carbonetti, a Republican political adviser to former Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani of New York.

“And with Obama, you saw a kind of laissez-faire attitude —‘you guys know it’s important, deal with it,’” Carbonetti added.