WASHINGTON -- In retrospect, it is widely perceived to have been a mistake. As the financial crisis shook the country in the backstretch of the 2008 presidential election, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) chose abruptly to suspend his campaign and head back to Washington to forge a solution. The idea was to look dignified and presidential. But it shocked Republicans, and Democrats largely pounced on the Arizona Republican for making a panicked, ceremonial and ultimately feckless move. What wasn’t widely known at the time was that one top Democrat was giving McCain political and economic advice, according to a newly released book.
That book, Clinton, Inc., says former President Bill Clinton was talking to the senator during the financial crisis even as McCain was running against then-Senator Barack Obama for president. The book gives the impression but does not say outright that Clinton persuaded McCain to suspend his campaign as the stock market tanked (a McCain aide said Clinton didn't make that case). Rather, according to the author, Daniel Halper of the Weekly Standard, Clinton offered advice on what to emphasize and say. The two, he writes, “flirted, quite obviously.”
"During the 2008 campaign I talked to President Clinton on several occasions," McCain tells me with a slight smile, as if realizing what he is about to let slip. "We talked about the campaign. We talked about various aspects of it."
McCain shied away from calling Clinton’s outreach "advice." "It wasn’t 'you should do this, you should do that,'" McCain says.
"It was sort of 'well, here’s where I think things are standing and here’s the issues I think you should emphasize.'" The conversations continued well into the fall, even after Clinton endorsed Obama at the conventions. McCain recalls that Clinton called him to share thoughts about the 2008 financial bailout, which had led McCain to "suspend" his campaign against Obama and urge a legislative solution.
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