McCain, Obama Debate Debate Deals

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: June 13, 2008, 1:24 pm
McCain, Obama Debate Debate Deals
By Michael Falcone

After a week of proposals and counter-proposals concerning how many times Barack Obama and John McCain will meet for face-to-face debates between now and Election Day, both campaigns appear to be feeling a little rejected.

David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager, slammed Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, on Friday for declining to meet Mr. Obama in five joint appearances, which Mr. Plouffe said “would have been the most of any presidential campaign in the modern era.” The proposal offered by the Obama campaign would have pitted the two candidates against each other at three traditional debates in the fall as well as a town hall meeting on the economy in July and a debate on foreign policy in August. “It’s disappointing that Senator McCain and his campaign decided to decline this proposal,” Mr. Plouffe said in a statement. “Apparently they would rather contrive a political issue than foster a genuine discussion about the future of our country.”

But in almost every campaign appearance this week Senator McCain has been leaning on Mr. Obama to accept his offer to engage him at a series of ten one-on-one town hall meetings, a format that has worked well for the Arizona senator during the primaries....Mr. McCain has promised to hold a time slot open in his schedule every week from now until the party conventions in case his Democratic rival changes his mind about the joint appearances.

And the McCain campaign appears to be ready to push on with the forums even in Mr. Obama’s absence. The next one is scheduled for Thursday, June 19 in Minnesota. On Friday campaign manager Rick Davis also sent a letter to Mr. Plouffe informing him that Mr. McCain had accepted an invitation to attend joint town hall meetings in July at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library. In the letter Mr. Davis signaled that the negotiations between the two campaigns were “turning into a debate about process.” “That is exactly what we have always hoped to avoid, and why we proposed a town hall format that would render many of these process issues moot,” Mr. Davis wrote.

The two candidates first addressed the idea of holding a series of forums around the country in May. And in a letter last week, Mr. McCain officially extended an invitation to Mr. Obama to participate in the meetings “in the spirit of the politics of change, and to do our country good.” At the time Mr. Plouffe called the McCain campaign’s offer “appealing,” but said they would prefer a format that is “less structured and lengthier than the McCain campaign suggests, one that more closely resembles the historic debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/mccain-obama-debate-debate-deals/index.html?hp

[ananda]

1. Well, if like McCain, you knew you were going to..

.. get your clock cleaned, would you accept
certain defeat? lol

[FatherTime1408]

2. McCain wants 10 town hall meetings?!

I don't think the American people really want that many debates. McCain just wants to get media coverage again, the cobwebs and dust are really getting thick.

[democrattotheend]

3. I have to say, I actually liked McCain's idea of these joint town halls

And I thought the idea that they should travel to them in the same plane was kind of interesting. But I guess it's a bad idea for Obama to let McCain dictate all the terms.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. It's interesting that the initial response to McCain's proposal seemed to be positive...

but there seems to have been a change of mind -- or at least a different idea of what the joint town halls should be.

[TheDonkey]

7. Very bad idea to let McCain dictate all the terms. And Obama has more to lose

McCain is just trying to get attention because he is down in the polls. 2 additional debates would be plenty.

[Life Long Dem]

5. Obama called his bluff

and McSame declined because one of the meetings is on July 4th and too many people will not see the meeting.

McSame makes his mistakes at town hall meetings - like the 100 year old war comment.

But what bothers me is the media would use any little thing to derail Obama. Something McSame doesn't have to fear so much.

[TahitiNut]

6. "Mr. McCain has promised to hold a time slot open in his schedule every week "

... because he needs his nap time. :rofl: