The Debate About Tonight’s Obama McCain Debate (Or Nondebate?)

Tonight presidential hopefuls Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain will debate in Mississippi. Or will they? The Los Angeles Times’ Top-of-the-Ticket blog has set the scene by looking at past debate highlights and asking some bloggers for their take on it:

In preparation for the maybe debate, The Ticket did two things. One, we got a video showing highlights of some past presidential debates. Click on the Read more line below to see that.

And, two, we asked some of the nation’s top bloggers to comment on the debates and their importance. Click on the blog name to link to another sample of their writing.

And CLICK HERE to click on their clicks to read what the bloggers say about tonight’s big/non-big event/non-event and what is at stake for McCain and Obama.

NOTE: If McCain doesn’t show up, debate officials have said they’d turn it into a town hall meeting. McCain campaign officials reportedly reacted to that idea with near disdain, however, it makes it more likely McCain will show up in the end than if Obama had indicated he’d just show up anyway and debate facing an empty chair.

There is a precedent for candidates who’ve done a whole debate when their opponents don’t show up with an empty chair representing the no-show. It has never been an effective technique or politically beneficial. However, if the show will go on anyway and be turned into a a 90 minute town hall meeting that would mean Obama could get 90 minutes of free airtime, flying solo politically and taking questions. Even if it doesn’t get as big an audience as a debate, he’ll get a good chunk of free national political exposure.

Cartoon by RJ Matson, The St. Louis Post Dispatch