A Modest Proposal for Friday’s Debate

It looks like John McCain is playing hardball and will not appear at Friday’s debate in Oxford, MS, even if Barack Obama does show up.

Could Barack Obama really debate an empty chair? Is there ANY precedent for this sort of thing? Sure, in the early days of the primary all but a few minor GOP candidates showed up to a black issues debate. But a Presidential debate, with 100 million people ready to tune in?

I think McCain has a solution, and if I may be so bold, I’d like to offer up the services of a ventriloquist to play the part of John McCain. Yes, we can have a ventriloquist do John McCain’s responses to questions about Iran, Georgia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Barack Obama can do his own.

Yes, imagine Obama on one side:

And “McCain” on the other:

Imagine the fun for the whole family as Barack Obama debates a puppet pretending to be John McCain.

“Sorry, but the real John McCain is off in Washington saving America from the Great Depression. So I’m here to carry on the foreign policy debate.”

It would be brilliant! What would Obama do? How do you argue with a puppet? Maybe Joe Gandelman, esteemed proprietor of the Moderate Voice could “be” John McCain.

If you have any other great ideas for the debate leave them in comments.

10 Responses to “A Modest Proposal for Friday’s Debate”

1. JSpencer says:

   September 24, 2008 at 10:19 pm

   If McCain blows off the debate his poll numbers are going to head south.
2. vwcat says:

   September 24, 2008 at 10:36 pm

   Obama shows up for the debate and McCain doesn't. obama kills time by giving one of his usual blow the audience away speeches and McCain bangs his head against the wall.
3. emeri1md says:

   September 24, 2008 at 10:38 pm

   Have McCain's answers come from video footage, especially when he opposes what he supports. The answers would be relevant to the questions, it would be in his own words, and you would actually get answers out of him.
4. StockBoySF says:

   September 25, 2008 at 12:26 am

   I think there should be about ten or eleven questions…

   Six should be foreign policy issues that McCain has voted on in the past and why he did so (with quotes from newspaper articles and TV interviews, as available). Of these six three should be legislation he supported and three should be legislation he opposed. There should be two additional components on all these past votes. The first component is whether such a vote broke from the Republican line or not. The second component should be whether the vote was in line with his past campaign promises.

   The other four or five should be how McCain would approach foreign policy issues. The information can be taken from his website and from quotes and TV interviews.

   For Obama's part of the debate… the same questions (past votes as much as possible and if Obama didn't vote on a particular issue then Obama can state what he believes).

   For questions on current foreign policy issues, then Obama can expand his thoughts as much as possible.

   I think McCain can “speak” first on the particular vote/issue. Then Obama can go.

   Obama does not get to “attack” McCain's position. Obama should only speak his own thoughts. There might be times when Obama disagrees with McCain's position, but Obama shouldn't beat up on McCain, which I don't think Obama would anyway.

   McCain might even come out ahead if this is the format since he would not have to be worried about Obama provoking his infamous temper.
5. superdestroyer says:

   September 25, 2008 at 8:12 am

   why not have Senator Obama debate Bob Barr who is also running for president is polling above the noise level? My guess is that Senator Obama would not debate anyone who would ask him about trillion dollar deficits.
6. pabel says:

   September 25, 2008 at 9:03 am

   Elrod — this is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. I laughed out loud — almost as heartily as I did at the Fey-Poehler SNL skit on Palin-Clinton.
7. DLS says:

   September 25, 2008 at 9:50 am

   That would be the right approach for so many Obama fans and McCain-haters.

   All about emotion, not reason.

   Why not just have a punch-me doll and Obama could strike it at propitious moments?
8. Rudi says:

   September 25, 2008 at 10:41 am

   SD – The debate is about foreign policy, not economics. The foreign Libertarian policies(Iraq), of former Republican Barr, are more isolationist than even Obama. Barr and the Libertarians are even bigger deficit hawks than Pence, Flake or Duncan(Tn). Try another flavor of KoolAid…
   http://www.bobbarr2008.com/issues/iraq-war/
   

   Bob Barr on: the Iraq War

   The invasion and occupation of Iraq were two separate mistakes, which collectively have cost thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. Every day that the occupation in Iraq continues without a withdrawal plan is a day that more American blood and treasure (some $400 million a day) is needlessly wasted.

   Unlike Republicans, who are calling for essentially permanent bases in Iraq, and Democrats, who have done nothing to counter Republican calls for an indefinite occupation, I would put in place plans for withdrawal without undue delay. While I support an exit from Iraq as quickly as possible

   http://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/america-n…
   

   America Needs “Surge” in Fiscal Responsibility, Says Bob Barr

   “Sen. John McCain has made the ‘surge’ his trademark phrase,” said Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential nominee. “He talks about the surge in Iraq, using a surge in urban neighborhoods, and replicating the surge elsewhere.”

   “What we need now is a surge in federal fiscal responsibility,” says Barr.

   “Both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions were filled with happy talk,” Barr explains. “The candidates promised vast new energy programs, big health care plans, special education initiatives and job training. How are they going to pay for everything? Easy. They will close those corporate loopholes we all hate. They will kill off a few pork barrel programs. Sen. Obama says he will look through the budget for ineffective programs. If it was so easy, you have to wonder why it didn’t happen years ago,” Barr observes.

   “But it isn’t easy,” he notes. “In one afternoon both candidates would spend more to bail out the housing entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than they would cut elsewhere. America is in a huge fiscal hole and it is only getting deeper. The deficit this year is $400 billion. It will be $500 billion next year. The national debt is $9.5 trillion and rising daily,” Barr says.

   “On my first day as president I will freeze federal spending,” Barr explains. “On day two, I will establish the Commission On Wasteful Government to develop a list of programs with no constitutional basis, which belong at the state or local level, or which don’t work. And I will go to Congress with a long list of programs to eliminate,” promises Barr.
9. lurxst says:

   September 25, 2008 at 1:07 pm

   I thought McCain was already a puppet.
10. superdestroyer says:

    September 25, 2008 at 2:51 pm

    Rudi,

    Then Barr could ask Senator Obama how he comes up with the idea of evacuation from Iraq along with a double-down, no exit strategy for Afghanistan.