Obama, McCain Mark 9/11 At Ground Zero

Candidates Also Appear Together At Presidential Forum On Service As Politics Put On Hold

(CBS/AP)  Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama made ground zero their common ground for one rare day, free of politics and infused with memory.

Putting their partisan contest on a respectful hold, they walked together Thursday into the great pit where the World Trade Center once stood and, as one, honored the dead from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

They walked down a long ramp flanked with the flags of countries, chatting at times, silent other times, and sharing a quick laugh at one point. Right behind them, Cindy McCain clutched Mayor Michael Bloomberg's arm - Michelle Obama was with her daughters in Chicago.

At the bottom of the ramp, the two rivals stopped to talk with a small group of family members of the attacks' victims of seven years ago. They laid flowers at the pit's commemorative reflecting pool - a pink rose from Obama, a yellow rose from McCain - bowed their heads and walked off to speak with fire and police personnel. There were no speeches.

"Thanks, we'll see ya," McCain told Obama as the Democrat patted the Republican's back and they shook hands and parted.

There was no mention of politics during the meeting, reports CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds.

Following the ground zero appearance, the candidates came together in the evening at the Service Nation Presidential Candidates Forum at Columbia University. McCain and Obama discussed their views on public service with journalist moderators, sharing a handshake in between their separate sessions.

McCain said he would have asked Americans to serve after the 2001 terrorist attacks by joining neighborhood watches or helping guard nuclear plants, offering an implicit criticism of President Bush's approach seven years ago.

"I would have called them to serve," McCain said. "We needed to, at that time, take advantage of the unity in the United States of America." (Read more on the Service Nation forum.)

Earlier today, the Republican nominee spoke briefly at a ceremony in rural western Pennsylvania. The event was held on a large hilly field close to where United Airlines Flight 93, the third of four airliners commandeered by terrorists, crashed.

McCain asked every person "to be as good an American" as the passengers and crew of Flight 93. Obama, meanwhile, asked Americans to "renew that spirit of service and that sense of common purpose" that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.

With 54 days left in the heated presidential campaign, Thursday was unusual - a mutual political cease-fire in honor of the day terrorists forced four airplanes into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, a field in Shanksville, Pa., and the Pentagon in Washington, killing nearly 3,000 people.

The 2001 attacks transformed the nation in many ways, and one is that every anniversary since has found those holding or seeking office struggling for ways to appropriately pay homage.

Obama and McCain agreed to suspend all TV ads critical of each other for the day. Their first acts marking the anniversary were separate.

McCain attended the simple ceremony in western Pennsylvania. Investigators believe some of the 40 passengers and crew rushed the cockpit to thwart terrorists' plans to use that plane as a weapon like the others that. All aboard were killed when the plane went down.

CBS News' John Bentley reports that McCain said that no American should ever forget the "the heroism that occurred in the skies above this field on September 11, 2001.”

“They, and possibly I, owe our lives to the passengers who summoned the courage and love necessary to deprive our depraved and hateful enemies their terrible triumph,” McCain added. (Read more from Bentley on the From The Road blog.)

McCain said the only way to thank those who died on the flight is to "be as good an American as they were."

"We might fall well short of their standard, but there's honor in the effort," McCain said in brief remarks.

The day's truce was evident in remarks thanking McCain for traveling to Shanksville by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat who occasionally speaks against the Republican nominee as an Obama campaign surrogate. "It's an honor to have him here, not just as a presidential candidate but as a great American patriot," Rendell said.

As the nation marked the seventh anniversary of the attacks, a CBS News poll found that most Americans believe the U.S. is adequately prepared to deal with another terrorist attack against the country.

Obama issued a morning statement, recalling that on Sept. 11, 2001, "Americans across our great country came together to stand with the families of the victims, to donate blood, to give to charity, and to say a prayer for our country," he said. "Let us renew that."

He included what seemed a subtle dig - though at President Bush, not McCain - with a reference to the work Bush is leaving unfinished. "Let us remember that the terrorists responsible for 9/11 are still at large, and must be brought to justice," Obama said. His campaign said no criticism was intended by the remark.

Obama's only other planned outing Thursday was lunch in New York with former President Clinton.

Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, went to an American Legion post in suburban Cleveland with an invitation-only gathering of area police, firefighters and other first responders. The Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, was in her home state of Alaska, attending an Army ceremony to send her eldest son, Track, off to duty in Iraq and taking interviews with ABC News.

Obama and McCain last appeared together in August when they shook hands at minister Rick Warren's megachurch in Orange County, Calif., where they spoke separately about faith and values. In June they attended the funeral of NBC newsman Tim Russert, sitting next to each other at the family's request.

[rjudy3]

Did anyone see Michelle at the 911 event? Heck no, they are keeping her in the shadows, lest she come out and say something stupid, anti-american,anti-white, anti-anything at a solemn 911 memorial.

[tapsettle]

"Obama, McCain Mark 9/11 At Ground Zero"

Did they mark it by planting the Saudi Arabia flag? Who else had so much involvement? When is the US going to invade Saudi Arabia, or at least tell them off?

[trrrorislamj]

STOP AMNESTY,,, VOTE GOP,,,

ummmm it is the DEMONIC-RATS that want to grant amnesty to illegals,,, including HUSSEIN,,,

HUSSEINs solution for illegals is to grant them amnesty and have americans learn SPANISH,,,

words out of his own mouth,,,

AMERICANS NEED TO LEARN SPANISH,,,

Obama to America--Learn Spanish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W7srmHLclw

Barack Obama: Your Children Should Learn To Speak Spanish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZprtPat1Vk

HUSSEIN SUPPORTS AMNESTY TO THE FULLEST,,,

from his own website,,,

Barack Obama On Amnesty
Barack Obama supports amnesty to the fullest.
http://www.barackobamawin.com/barack-obama-amnesty.htm

[trrrorislamj]

From Dreams of My Father:

''I ceased to advertise my mother''s race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites .''

From Dreams of My Father :

''I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother''s race.''

From Dreams of My Father:

''There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.''

From Dreams of My Father:

''It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.''

From Dreams of My Father:

''I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn''t speak to my own. It was into my father''s image, the black man, son of Africa , that I''d packed all the attributes I sought in myself , the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.''

From Audacity of Hope:

''I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.''


Obama admits he is a Muslim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Tz9D1wbT4

[downtowner97]

Look at picture 3. McCain has lapels, but no flag lapel pin. This is inexcusable.

[vixen_2oo8]

Distortions:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH0xzsogzAk

[downtowner97]

I''ll see you Obama''s thrown flower and raise you McCain''s missing flag lapel pin.

[katia327]

There''''s certainly more than two kinds of people in this world, but for now, let''''s just think about the two kinds of whom we find ourselves with in this country- one who just throws the flower onto your son''''s and daughter''''s grave, and the other who lays it down with gentle reverence.

Posted by SevanClaig
--------------------

VERY well said.

[downtowner97]

Free answers, you hit the nail firmly and squarely on the head. Christians are sheep! Go McCain!

[sevanclaig]

There''s certainly more than two kinds of people in this world, but for now, let''s just think about the two kinds of whom we find ourselves with in this country- one who just throws the flower onto your son''s and daughter''s grave, and the other who lays it down with gentle reverence.

[downtowner97]

His call sign is "Hadji," meaning "one who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca."

"It''s a pilot thing," explains Colonel Douglas Burpee, the highest ranking Muslim officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. Now in his 23rd year of military service, Colonel Burpee recently returned from flying helicopters in Afghanistan.

"Everyone knows I''m a Muslim. When I fly, attached to my dog tags, I wear a pendant with a passage from the Koran," he says. "I try to set a good example based upon what I believe.... I can be a soldier and a Muslim at the same time. I have no problem with that."

Those in this country who want to kill all Muslims will have a hard time killing the 10,000 or more Muslims in the US military.

Support our troops!

[downtowner97]

Lieberman cares only about Israel, to whom we have given hundreds of billions of dollars to over the last 8 years. They have not committed one single troop to the "coalition of the willing" in Iraq.

[martin9p2]

The reason McCain/Palin is a poor choice is that McCain himself is a poor chooser -- Sarah didn''t level with him about the number of skeletons in her political closet, and McCain didn''t ask enough questions. And did McCain know she would be promoting war with Russia so early in the campaign, when she''s still wet behind the ears and not fully indoctrinated in what to say to reporters? The McCain/Palin ticket scares the *** out of me.

[downtowner97]

Bush senior killed dozens of weapons development programs, including Raytheon''s Patriot Missile program. Nearly every weapon being used in Iraq was ordered by Clinton. From the F-35, to the F-117, to the Hummer, the Stryker, the Apache helicopter, and the Predator drones, Clinton placed the orders, and REDUCED the debt and had a budget surplus.

[willymack]

To: downtowner 97

Lieberman is a multi term elected democrat who finally
realized democrats are a raving *** group of radicals. He abandonded his party to be an independent and kicked *** in his liberal democratic state to win election against all media projecte odds.

You Dems must really be terrified of the truth. If Obama agrees with you, why does he not condem the US, which you believe is dominate by the Israel press? ......... answer is because he has no balls. Barack Noballs Obama is a puffed up media farce.

[downtowner97]

Ironic.......if Iraq is all about Oil.....why have the "geeen demon tree hugging supporting "liberal democratic congress" blocked both inland, off shore and ANWAR oil drilling. Ask the people in ANWAR and the Elks that live in ANWAR? ...... the people wonder why and the Elk relatives that live along the alaskan pipeline want to know if they could migrate north to propogate.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by willymack4

ROFL

President Bush senior was the one who banned offshore oil drilling. Is he a "green demon tree-hugging liberal"? You have been misled.

[downtowner97]

So many people are wrongly accusing Obama of being a Muslim. He can''t be. He doesn''t take off his shoes and kneel toward Mecca and pray, he smokes, he drinks, he eats pork, and he attends a Christian Church.

That being said, the people who condemn all Muslims here are being highly unpatriotic. Somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 men and women in uniform in the US military are Muslims. If you have a problem with them, you should remove your "Support our Troops".

[sean5002]

###########

There is a difference between EXPERIENCE and not EDUCATED.

Miss palin can be governor of alaska for the next 10 years and gather all this so call experience'' she still would not be fit to run for any major office ,reason is she doesn''t have enough education.

Now Barack have the education, And once you have that, you are ahead by MILES over anybody who have been sitting in office for 10 20 years who DOESN''T have the SMARTS and WASN''T EDUCATED ENOUGH.

AND THATS A FACT.

[willymack]

Ironic.......if Iraq is all about Oil.....why have the "geeen demon tree hugging supporting "liberal democratic congress" blocked both inland, off shore and ANWAR oil drilling. Ask the people in ANWAR and the Elks that live in ANWAR? ...... the people wonder why and the Elk relatives that live along the alaskan pipeline want to know if they could migrate north to propogate.

[downtowner97]

No one mentions that a half million Christians were forced to flee Iraq when we invaded because they knew Saddam would no longer be able to keep them safe. Tariq Aziz, the number two man in Iraq was a Christian. No Christian is safe in Iraq now, including the ones with guns and American flags sewn on their uniforms.