Obama, McCain to meet in September — but probably not sooner
In June, the McCain and Obama campaigns considered some proposals for expanding the presidential debates beyond the three approved and organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Obama’s team proposed that both sides agree to the CPD events, plus a debate focused exclusively on foreign policy, plus a town-hall debate, for a total of five joint events. McCain said that wasn’t good enough, and proposed a total of 13 events.
Talks between the two sides, not surprisingly, broke down. As of yesterday, it appears we’re back to the original plan.
Obama’s campaign released a letter this afternoon from campaign manager David Plouffe to the Commission on Presidential Debates only agreeing to the traditional three sanctioned fall debates and single vice presidential forum.
“Due to the late date of the two parties’ nominating conventions, and the relatively short period between the end of the conventions and the first proposed debate, it is likely that the four commission debates will be the sole series of debates in the fall campaign,” Plouffe writes.
Not said is whether Obama is any longer considering meeting McCain for any town hall meetings outside the Commission’s debates. After initial indications in June that some would take place, it appears increasingly unlikely that the two candidates will meet on stage before the first debate at Ole Miss in September.
Plouffe also noted that Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) will be the campaign’s representative when the CPD hosts negotiations on the logistics of the three scheduled debates.
In the letter, Plouffe said that Rep. Rahm Emanuel would serve as the campaign’s debate representative for negotiations with the commission and McCain’s campaign.
The McCain campaign responded by, well, acting like the McCain campaign.
Take a wild guess what the McCain message was.
“John McCain looks forward to debating Barack Obama as often as possible, but it’s disappointing that Senator Obama has refused his offer to do joint town hall meetings. We understand it might be beneath a worldwide celebrity of Barack Obama’s magnitude to appear at town hall meetings alongside John McCain and directly answer questions from the American people, but we hope he’ll reconsider. The American people expect and deserve no less. Unfortunately, it appears that Barack Obama’s tough-guy talk on ‘duels’ this week was just more empty words. Americans are quickly coming to the conclusion that it’s better to look at what Barack Obama actually does and not listen to what he says.”
And to think, given McCain’s obvious interest in reasonable discourse, high-minded discussions, and substantive debate, Obama didn’t see the utility in meeting this guy once a week for debates.
Imagine that.
Personally, I believe Obama should accept any and every opportunity to debate McCain. He can think and talk circles around that contemptible old man, and would have unlimited opportunities to refute mendacious GOP talking points even as McCain spouts them.
The McCain campaign responded by, well, acting like the McCain campaign.
Oh, you mean like, ‘Obama promised us 13 townhall meetings — he gave us his word — and now he’s backing away from them’?
Off topic…
Breaking…
http://www.universetoday.com/2008/08/02/the-white-house-is-briefed-phoenix-about-to-announce-potential-for-life-on-mars/
John McAce McCain had an opportunity to “Talk to the people” in Buffalo New York when he visited here for 12 hours to collect $1,000,000 from right wing lemmings. He arrived at a secluded airport where no journalists were allowed, he took a limo to the Alright Knox Art gallery (nauseating) and then to a private dinner at a rich guy’s house where for $2000 you could eat with the liar and small man and see his yellow teeth close-up. He refused to meet with the “common folk” who are seen peopled at his “town house” meetings which by most accounts are peopled by hand picked ass holes not unlike the sots who enshrined Bushit for eight years. Nauseated yet? The rhetoric used in the above article is proof positive that the “free liberal press” not only doesn’t exist now, it never has. What a crummy man that McAce is…
leo…#2 (appropriately) link please??? Obama promised 13 town hall meetings? McCain doesn’t want discussion and debates…he wants a show as his gutter trash taling response indicates.
I agree with “Helena Montana” that I would have liked to see more debates earlier, because Obama would come out so much stronger against him. However — since I have found that in almost any case where I disagreed with Obama I wound up rethinking and agreeing with him (on campaign matters, I still find his statements on the death penalty and on some other matters — not FISA — insupportable and on his campaign I still regret his silencing of Wesley Clark) — perhaps he feels the impact of the contrast between them will be lost if there were too many debates — much as the impacy of the contrast between himself and Hillary was lessened.
Americans are quickly coming to the conclusion that it’s better to look at what Barack Obama John McCain actually does and not listen to what he says.
Ahh…..Now that’s better.
Americans are quickly coming to the conclusion that it’s better to look at what
Barack ObamaJohn McCain actually does and not listen to what he says.Ahh…..Now that’s really better.
We all love the Warner Brothers cartoons, and use the images from them frequently (and why hasn’t anyone compared McCain to Pepi LaPeu?) but there was one series of them that was forgotten until fairly recently, the ‘wolf and sheepdog’ ones. (Since they used a political image of both characters being ‘working men’ punching in to start the day and then each of them ‘doing their job’ the wolf’s job being to steal the sheep, the sheepdog’s being to protect them, perhaps that’s why they got lost.)
In the cartoons, the wolf would concoct wild schemes to succeed, much like Wile E., and the sheepdog would be lying back against a tree, apparently ignoring the wolf. Then, at the last minute, with a minimum of motion, he’d make the wolf’s plans explode in his face and ‘save the sheep.’
(Then the ‘work whistle’ would blow, they’d both ‘punch out’ and walk off the screen together, obviously headed for a beer together.)
Something tells me Obama watched those cartoons.
Jim, I think you have waaaay too much faith in Team Obama’s ability to know just the right timing. No one has ever done it before. There is no way of knowing when voters pay attention and when they don’t. This sitting back and waiting until the last second like the cartoon sheepdog makes for funny cartoons and would-be Democratic presidents. Way to risky, way too arrogant if that is really what they are doing.
McCain vs. Obama? Boring!
McCain vs. McCain? THAT’s the debate I want’ to see. There are some major policy differences between those two.
Zeit: So far Team Obama has lived up to my faith in them — against a much more formidable candidate in Hillary. She had so many advantages that McCain doesn’t. She was on the ‘right side’ — more importantly, the popular side — of most of the issues, she was the odds-on favorite in a Democratic year, people thought they knew her, and didn’t know Obama, she started with much more money, and she’s back in the Senate.
A lot of people were begging him to attack her, to exploit the weaknesses she had– I wanted him to exploit the McAuliffe statement on immigration, for example. Instead, Obama let her get more and more desperate until she became a national joke.
And McCain is heading the same way. We don’t hear about his ‘appeal to independents’ any more, or Obama’s supposed weakness with Hispanics or in Appalachia. We don’t see him, with his base secure, reaching out to the middle, instead, his base is still shaky — and, as I keep mentioning, every day another Republican complains about his campaigning.
If this weren’t a Democratic year — who would have thought Ted Stevens would have been in danger of even a close race — but he was ten points behind even before he was indicted — maybe the worries I keep hearing would be worth noticing.
Again, two months ago, everybody (but me) was talking about a close race — now people are shaking because Obama only has a lead in the hgih single digits — before the Convention — hey John, got your lime-green backdrop ready — before the debates (will Cindy be allowed to stand next to him they way she does, looking just like a nurse watching after her patient?).
Relax guys. Keep fighting, keep working, keep giving, and fergawdsakes don’t forget to support the down-ticket candidates (especially state legislators who will determine re-districting). But don’t think McCain has the slightest chance.
He doesn’t.
okie @ 11: McCain vs. McCain? THAT’s the debate I want’ to see. There are some major policy differences between those two.
That’s a GREAT idea! Obama’s camp could say that since McCain feels like voters are so eager to see him in debates, they’ve made up a couple of them that’ll give the voters even more than they bargained for: McCain vs. McCain. They could have both video of him taking both sides of issues and, for those many many speeches for which they don’t have video, they could have audio of him while just showing pictures of him (like pics of him hugging Bush). And where neither audio or video are available they could just have his words read with pics of him onscreen. It would be great. You could make hours of such debates. Why not run a different one every week, just like the McCain camp wants? It would be priceless! Let McCain destroy McCain. And how could they complain? It’s not like Obama would be lying or misrepresenting him. He’d have no defense whatsoever. Brilliant, Okie!
Ignore McCain and he’ll act like an grumpy old man. McCain wants to be in the limelight and he’s not able to do on his own.
And now I see McCain is goading him to travel to Latin America, just like he did with his last trip where Obama obliged and made it a tour de force. McCain’s camp is like the “I dare ya!” kid in school. Obama can take any of his dares and clean up, whether trips or debates. McCain’s got nothin’ on this kid.
To take the brilliant idea from OkieFromMuskogee @ 11 regarding the McCain vs. McCain debates even a little further than President Lindsay @ 13 did…
Maverick McCain vs Pandering McCain
End each clip with Obama agreeing with one of them, and then asking who McCain agrees with today?
Obama will destroy McCane in three debates. That’s all he needs.
Let McCain goad Obama on these town hall meetings. Imagine if Barack decides to do one or two of them. I can already feel the panic in the McCain campaign, ‘Oh cr*p, now what do we do?’ Because Obama, unlike most of the Lame Street Media, will challenge McCain’s lies.
McCain is nothing but a bully lately. A Rovian shell of his supposed “maverick” self. Taunting, lying, and belittling are hardly qualities we want in our president.
Imagine if Barack decides to do one or two of them. I can already feel the panic in the McCain campaign, ‘Oh cr*p, now what do we do?’ — Hannah, @18
Same as they did before. “One or two? We wanted 12 and we stand by our ‘all or nothing’ ultimatum.” Which gives them nothing in the way of debates — what they’d wanted in the first place — while leaving them something to taunt Obama with. They’re not actually bargaining, in good faith (I’ll take 50 for this. I’ll give you 10. 45. 15. 40. 20. And you end up at 30, with both sides happy).
#19 libra: sadly true
It’s hard to expect honorable or mature actions from these thugs.
It’s hard to expect honorable or mature actions from these thugs.
Make that: One is stupid to expect honorable or mature actions from these thugs.
I would like to see four, five or six Presidential debates and two VP debates and have debates dominate all of Oct and Nov. That would lessen the impact of negative ad campaigns because the debates themselves would chew up much of the political oxygen. It would also allow the candidates to deal with rumours and gossip head on, depending on the moderators which is a big IF.
I would also like the debate results to be evaluated on actual performance and not against the MSM expectations game. In 2000 and 2004, Bush got trounched by Gore and Kerry. But according to the MSM. Bush was a poor debator and so his C- performances were better than “expected” and the B/B+ performances of Gore and Kerry were below the “expected” A+.
Effectively, the winner was the candidate that “beat” the spread and not the more competent.
I wish the Dems would push that theme. Middle America would never stand for the football college national championship or Super Bowl to be teams that beat the spread in place of those with the best records.
It would be devestating against Repubs to couple the political arena to the concept that beating the pundit spread is less important than actual competancy.
When it comes right down to it, Obama won’t even have to break a sweat debating McCain to beat McCain—because McCain is beating himself. Right now, the ultimate debate would be just for McCain to have to debate all of the YouTube videos of—yep, you guessed it—McCain.
Although, I doubt that they could find a contingent of Secret Service who are truly so suicidal as to want that assignment….
I think anyone paying the least amount of attention to this race lately couldn’t fault Obama for saying “are you kidding, dude, you’ve been a total lying dick of a douchebag lately. Why would I agree to meet with you more than I have to?”
Then again, I think Obama should just BRING IT already.
Mostly I hope that McCain gets so ticked off with Obama’s preoccupation with FACTS that he ends up calling Obama a trollopy cunt.
I’m so glad Obama has not agreed to any townhall meetings! McCain is just trying to use Obama to draw a crowd and also to control his moves! Obama is very smart! He will not get boxed in by McCain! McCain is a big joke! He is a puppet being dragged around being told how to do his campaign by the karl rove devil’s! I have lost all respect for McCain! If he get’s in office we will be in some serious trouble! Wake up America, McCain is no good for this country!!!!!!
Obama has constantly turned around and went back on promises he made during the campaigns. FISA, McCain debates, NAFTA, religion and now offshore drilling… the list just keeps growing. Its a scary thought to have a candidate say and do anything to anyone just to win an election.
Obama knows that his speaking skills are totally dependent on scripted phrases and he is going to want to limit his exposure in a live Q&A session that McCain is extremely good at. However, after the first and second scheduled debates when Obama most likely will be exposed as an amateur, he will insist on further debates to make up ground which McCain will turn around not give him the cold shoulder like Obama has.
Of course Obama doesnt want anymore live debates than mandatory, his scripted phrases will be apply and I’ve seen him in a live Q&A… he struggles more than people think.
McCain vs. McCain? THAT’s the debate I want’ to see. There are some major policy differences between those two.
Somone made a clip on youtube of McCain debating himself using footage of him speaking on different days. Scary how much it actually looks like a real debate.
In December 1966, when John McCain requested his first combat assignment in Vietnam, Barack Obama turned 5 years old and was enjoying the freedoms a child should enjoy.
As Obama turned 7, McCain had survived a burning jet fire on the USS Forrestal and had just flown his 23rd bombing mission over communist North Vietnam.
In 1973, as Obama reached age 12, McCain was finally released from a prisoner-of-war camp in the Hanoi Hilton.
At age 15, when Obama was still in high school, McCain became the commanding officer of a Naval Training Squadron in Florida. He turned a poorly managed military unit into a distinguished, combat-ready team.
When Obama reached the legal age of 21 and was experimenting with pot and cocaine, McCain declined an admiral promotion and ran for and was elected to Congress.
By 1987, Obama was a young man of 25 and McCain had assumed the office of senator from Arizona (after a successful four-year tour in the U.S. House of Representatives).
At age 36, Obama looked on as Sen. McCain was named one of Time magazine’s 25 most influential people in America.
Whom do we choose as our next leader? Do we choose a man with proven military and political achievements, or a man with little experience other than a stint as a community leader and junior senator? Decisions, decisions!
Whom do we choose as our next leader?
Nothing in your description of Senator McCain makes a case for his ability to serve as the Executive. His service in the armed forces has never been in question, and his actions are a matter of record for all to see. His position on issues, his actions as a member of the US Senate and stated policy objectives as a candidate are a different matter entirely. Just keeping track of McCain’s own stated policy changes requires significant effort – just where does this guy stand on foreign policy, domestic policy, the kinds of topics that an actual PRESIDENT must know, understand and act upon, as opposed to a mere presidential candidate?
So I pose your question back to you: Whom do we choose as our next President? More importantly, what criteria should we use to make that decision?