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Sen. Barack Obama was forced to eat his own words tonight after taking a phone call from President Bush and agreeing to a White House meeting.

In a call that lasted about 6 minutes, Bush summoned Obama to Washington to meet with both houses of Congress to get the $700 billion rescue plan passed.

It was the same request made earlier today by Republican presidential candidate McCain in a phone call to Obama.

But Obama initially refused McCain’s request to postpone his campaign and meet with Congress. Obama decided instead to focus on the first presidential debate on Friday. McCain had earlier said he would skip the debate and return to Washington.

In an embarrassing display of hubris, Obama mocked McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign by saying a President should be able to do more than one thing at a time.

But Obama’s words may have backfired. On the liberal blog The Huffington Post, the reaction was mixed, with one reader saying any candidate who expects to be President in 40 days should put the needs of the country first.

Another reader wrote, “I hate to tell ya’ll this but in the end Mcain will look golden and O will like a self-centered moron.”

Some members of the liberal media are calling McCain’s chess move “brilliant,” because it caught Obama completely off guard.