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Obama Accepts Bush Invitation To Meet In Washington
WASHINGTON -- With extraordinary stakes on the line, President Bush has invited both presidential candidates and the leaders of the House and Senate to the White House on Thursday in hopes of securing a bill to rescue the economy.Bush took the unusual step Wednesday night of calling Democratic Sen. Barack Obama directly to invite him to the meeting, White House press secretary Dana Perino said. An Obama spokesman said the senator would attend. The White House has also invited Republican Sen. John McCain. Perino said the goal of the session is to make progress -- fast -- on a bipartisan solution to the biggest economic crisis in decades. Shortly after the announcement was made that Obama would attend the meeting, the presidential candidates issued a joint statement Wednesday night in which they said the American people are facing a moment of economic crisis. Moments before Bush's scheduled address to the nation, the Republican and Democratic candidates said now is the time for both political parties to come together in the spirit of cooperation for the sake of the American people. They said the $700 billion plan the administration has proposed to bail out the financial industry is flawed, but that the effort to protect the U.S. economy must not fail. Perino said the call between Bush and Obama lasted several minutes and was "a good conversation." Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the Democratic presidential contender "will continue to work in a bipartisan spirit and do whatever is necessary to come up with a final solution." Posted by: Steve White 2008-09-25 |
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