More Close Encounters for the Campaign
Around their drive-by handshake at last evening’s forum on public service, John McCain and Barack Obama showed voters their best selves, but there must be an alternative to the sliming of the past weeks and yesterday’s arm’s length politesse.
Why doesn’t Obama take McCain up on the offer he repeated last night for face-to-face town hall encounters? In such a setting, McCain would not have been able to pass off Sarah Palin’s slur on community organizers without being pressed by Obama to repudiate such glib mindlessness.
In a race that has tightened with McCain’s momentum from the Palin effect, Obama should rethink his rejection of the town-hall setting as he did the issue of public financing. A presidential race is no place for a foolish consistency.
13 Responses to “More Close Encounters for the Campaign”
He is wise to sidestep those debates actually. O'ahh' ma doesn't do well in impromptu sitiuations. Too many “ums” and “uhhhhhs” can kill a campaign.
Meanwhile, another strategy to assist the flawed campaign might be instead of fronting with Obama about dissecting the issues GOP is guilty of malpractice on.(since looming-Obama-scandals make that impossible), instead those democrats dedicated to winning this Fall (as opposed to those “dems” who are dedicated to see a loss), might consider instead, turning out TV commercials featuring leading scientists presenting hard evidence as to why McLame's policy-proposals will harm our country.
If Obama stands for what the experts are saying, then the message “experts support Obama” will be implied. That might be a boost.
Just a reminder. Time is running out….
“Why doesn’t Obama take McCain up on the offer he repeated last night for face-to-face town hall encounters?”
He probably will. After checking the state-by-state polls, it’s clear he has to do something drastic. It appears he is heading for a Dukakis style loss.
He lacks the raw material to “do something drastic”. He is hamstrung in more ways than one.
I think having scientists and experts back up his radically differing platform might be the only last-ditch attempt that could salvage him. A return to the message of “real change” with a new twist: experts backing him on how it can really come about.
The GOP would be helpless under those conditions…
I think Obama should do a couple of the townhall meetings. It would interesting.
At the same time, McCain claim that Obama is forcing him to negative because he won't do the townhall meetings is absurd. McCain's honor and integrity seem to be tied to his popularity and nothing more.
Of course you think he should, even spite of the fact that it would be ultimately damaging to the democratic bid.
It's a riddle: solve
You think it would be a disaster because he says “uh” when he speaks?
My comments seem to post and not-post according to some glitch here.
I replied that you of course would support sabotaging Obama's image with a town-hall nosedive.
I don't agree that it would be a nosedive… that's all.
Bullocks. You know damn well it would be. You're far too shrewd to convince me of your “innocence” as to what would happen for Obama. It would be a strategic bloodbath.
Nice try though…lol..
Silhouette, on this topic I think you're just plain wrong. Anyone who saw Obama in the primary debates knows that he is more than capable of presenting his ideas and explaining his policies. So what if he says “um” while he's collecting his thoughts? Better to think before speaking than parrot empty talking points or just blurt out the first thing you think of. Besides, McCain is far worse at public speaking, scripted or unscripted.
Anyway, I agree with Robert that it would be good for the Obama campaign and good for the voters to see more townhall debates. Assuming, of course, that the debates aren't as hamstrung with preconditions as the Bush-Kerry debates were.
FYI, Omaba did not reject the idea of Town Hall meetings, he didn't want to do ten of them. Obama suggested 5 debates total with one as a town hall meeting. You might say the much smaller number is a cop out, but you can't say he said no entirely.
Why does Obama avoid townhall debates?
2 words
No teleprompter
Leo, the teleprompter thing is a great meme, but Obama's done tons of debates, one-on-one interviews in both news and entertainment media, a gajillion press conferences where he was questioned…. The idea that he only speaks with a teleprompter is just made up, though it surely sounds great.