Bush has failed' to arrest Wall Street meltdown: McCain

New York, Sept.22 : Seeking to distance himself from President George W Bush in the run-up to the November 4 presidential poll, Republican presidential candidate John McCain has accused him and his administration of failing to arrest the meltdown on Wall Street.

"I say the Bush administration has failed," McCain said on "60 Minutes" after agreeing that he placed "a great deal" of responsibility on the President for the financial meltdown," the New York Daily News quoted McCain, as saying. Then, perhaps trying to broaden his salvo, McCain added, "I say the Congress has failed, Democrats and Republicans. I remind you the Democrats have had the majority in Congress for the last two years. So everybody's failed."

The comments came as McCain and Democrat Barack Obama battled to cast themselves as the most responsible regulator in chief while Congress mulled a proposed 700 billion dollars taxpayer-funded bailout, the largest in history.

McCain, pitching himself as a bipartisan Mr. Fixit, even said he'd consider appointing New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo - heir to a proud liberal Democratic legacy - as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"I think he is somebody who could restore some credibility, lend some bipartisanship, to this effort," McCain told "60 Minutes."

McCain and his aides slammed Obama for failing to offer specifics on how he would help Wall Street, while Obama hit McCain for writing in an obscure journal recently that he wants to open up health insurance to greater competition, "as we have done over the last decade in banking."

ANI