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The Great Debates of Obama and McCain

Posted by PAUL SILVER in Uncategorized.
May 10th, 2008 | Comments

Obama Eager to Campaign With McCain. Newt Gingrich, who has advocated this, will stand up and cheer. It makes me shake with anticipation… Obama is receptive to the idea of a debate roadshow with McCain.

This would seem to benefit Obama by introducing him to a wider audience and contrasting him with the older and less rhetorically artful McCain. But beyond the contrast of candidates it is an exciting opportunity to engage in a sustained discussion of various world views by ideologically open minded spokesmen. Certainly each has their partisan credentials but they also have temperaments of pragmatism and realism.

And the audience for this would certainly not be limited to US political junkies, but the entire planet looking to see what kind of leadership the US intends to offer.

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superdestroyer

Of course Senator Obama is excited about debates with a Republican Candidate who is too lazy to read his briefing books, too stupid to understand them, and to incompetent to manage a staff into preparing him for the debate.

runasim

This certainly has the potential for being a novel and great approach.

I have a nagging memory of McCains last exchanges with Romney.
Tthere was quite a bit of interrupting and talking over Ronney by McCain. At least, neither Clinton nor Obama has done that in their debates.

So much depends on the nomitors and enforcing the ground rules!

Mike_P

I think many of us see the contrasts to be drawn in those debates as positive - younger, sharper Obama against the older, slower McCain. The policy wonk (Obama) against the guy who's a little vague on the talking points. The guy who while advocating continued committment to Iraq in the fight against AQI and their Iranian "supporters" still doesn't understand the difference between Sunni and Shia. Who believes the "death tax" on the wealthy is more onerous than the imposition of our national debt's "birth tax" on the rest of our children.

A lot of us think those are winning arguments, of course.

But then I think back to the 2000 election. Al Gore completely outclassed GW Bush. Over and over again, on just about every issue, and in every debate. To the point that Gore began to openly show (through his sighing on stage) his exasperation and disgust at having to "debate" the village idiot.

But those sighs were where Dubya's victory dwelled. And the more Obama speaks, the more ammunition the GOP has in the world of the politics of phony gotcha and manufactured outrage they've built victories on for a generation.

My advice to Democrats and Obama would be to be very careful when betting on "sure things." And make damn sure you understand the game that's being played.

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