Howie Klein asked a good question this week: Why Are Republican Incumbents Afraid To Debate In Their Home Districts? He listed numerous races in which the GOP incumbent is ducking debates with his or her challenger, from Darcy Burner's pursuit of Dave Reichert, to Gordon Smith fleeing contact with Jeff Merkley, to Iowa's Tom Latham (IA-4), who refuses to engage Becky Greenwald. But Howie missed at least one.
Steve King (IA-5), one of the most reactionary members in the entire Congress, will not debate challenger Rob Hubler. So today some enterprising poultry went after him. Picture after the jump.
I think someone should ask John McCain about some of the villains in Jane Mayer's book "The Dark Side". If a presidential debate moderator does not ask, then Obama should ask. If McCain continues his attempts to reassure the conservative movement, he will have to support the men who instituted torture as government policy.
On Tuesday, five of the seven candidates for Congress met at the the Unitarian Universalists Society in Albany. Democrats Tracey Brooks, Phil Steck, Joseph Sullivan, and Paul Tonko and Republican Steven Vasquez were all in attendance. The debate's moderator, Dr. Robert Fropp, introduced himself as the chair of the Capital District Alliance for Universal Health care, recieving plenty of applause when he announced "I am definitiely not running for Congress."
One Democrat, Darius Shahinfar, and the other Republican, Jim Buhrmaster, were both absent from the forum. Shahinfar because his wife was giving birth to his second child at the time, and Buhrmaster to cast votes in his capacity as Schenectady County Legislator. The five candidates that remained were then given several questions that devled deep into one of the biggest issues of the primary.
Below the fold, a full report of the questions and answers in yet another debate in this hotly contested primary.
Josh Zeitz, the Democratic nominee for Congress in New Jersey's 4th Congressional district, today challenged Rep. Chris Smith to four public debates.
In honor of the 150th anniversary of the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates, Zeitz asked Smith to join him at one public debate in each of the fourth district's counties: Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean. During their campaign for the U.S. Senate from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debated in each of Illinois's nine congressional districts.
As a sign of respect, Zeitz mailed a personal debate invitation to Smith's home, along with a copy of a book on the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
The Atlantic article revealing Clinton campaign emails is drawing all the attention but there is another fascinating politics piece in the same September issue, not yet online the last time I looked.
It's by longtime contributor James Fallows and it reveals his thoughts after doing what no sane person would do (as he admits): viewing every single GOP and Democratic primary debate.
The lengthy take reviews past Obama and McCain performances with an eye to to predicting what will happen this fall. And it closes with an assessment of what a President Obama would be like as he puts "just words" into action.
This is another issue he's getting pass on, and he shouldn't be. He claimed weeks after the attacks he'd received intelligence that Iraq was behind it. We now know that to be doubly false, not only was Iraq not behind the attack, there never was any intelligence to believe that, only Bush's wishful thinking. (Or devious plan? Well, that's another diary entry....)
Someone should ask him who gave him that intelligence.
I know. He won't answer and he'll claim "national security" blah blah...
But I still think the question itself is a winner, here's why:
The traditional media and jerks like Brad Blakeman seem to have a talking point: "Obama doesn't like to debate." "He only does well with a teleprompter." Frankly, I kind of hope this continues since it will set the bar low, and people will be surprised to see that he isn't just a light-weight celebrity.
Thinking about this and watching Senator Badass kick some butt this week, I got excited just thinking about the upcoming debates. Which led to the following idea for a
DEBATE DRINKING GAME
Assuming that the debates may inspire many of us to join with like-minded, um "kool-aid" lovers, party hosts may want to use the following idea to add to the fun while watching:
- McSame Meltdowns (also known as old man yells at clouds moments)
- Obama Smackdowns (also known as 3 pointers)
The Commission on Presidential Debates has announced the moderators for the four presidential/vice presidential debates. Fix Network was not chosen. This happened in the primaries and they complained. It has happened again. Maybe now they will begin to examine their fair and balanced slogan instead of complaining all the time.
UPDATE:
Just to add to this...
Jim Lehrer will be moderating the "Domestic Policy" debate
Tom Brokaw will do the "Town Hall Meeting"
and Bob Schieffer will moderate the "Foreign Policy" debate
David Plouffe, campaign manager for the Barack Obama presidential campaign, sent the following letter to the head of the Commission on Presidential Debates accepting the framework for the three fall debates between Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain.
The Obama camp designated U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel (D - Illinois) as their authorized representative to meet with the commission and the McCain campaign on ironing out the details of the debates tentatively scheduled for September 26th, October 7th and October 15th.
A debate between the vice presidential candidates is scheduled for October 2nd.
Below is the full text of the David Plouffe letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates:
The debates are going to be spectacular. Obama, of course, will perform as expected by the next commander in chief. McCain, to his credit, will survive the debates to become a legend in the History of Petard Hoists. His performance will make Richard Nixon, of Nixon/Kennedy 1960 debate fame, look like Fred Astaire (for historical foreshadow, see video below, and note Nixon and McCain's shared Luddite heritage).
Obama can put the election away in the debates by adopting two simple tactics. In this brief diary I'll spill the beans. Short form here, details below.
1. Demand all town hall meetings be at least 3 hours long 2. Use the laundry list!
Every debate, every town meeting has to last long enough to show an exhausted lump on the red seat. McCain's mental incompetence must be the main frame. Just keep bringing up the gaffes.
I admit I didn't watch the Democratic primary debates in full because I can't stand hearing fellow Democrats snipe at one another, but I did think that the qualify of the moderators was not universally good - think George and Brit. The presidential and vice presidential debates are another story. The moderator of the presidential debates is more important. S/he needs to be neutral but have enough gravitas to control the situation. Who would you pick
The Mccain and Obama polls don't mean anything to me, until one week after the second debate, after the conventions. After the second debate between the two any flukes from the first debate will either be dissolved or amplified depending on the performance in the second debate. Let’s face it Obama is not going to see any NATIONAL polling number above 52% because it seems between the media and the public and they are feeding off of each other, perceived underdogs tend to get a bit more support.
Right now Mccain seems like the underdog to a lot of people. So people are willing to give him slack (plus he has age and "hero" status) as direct and indirect excuses to underperform/screw up.
Obama has is not the underdog (plus he has age, and race) which cause for more scrutiny unjust or not.
There is almost a weird social equilibrium that balances itself on so many issues in American. That’s why if you take a poll on almost any issue, it’s just about right down the middle.
JULY 19, 2008 - Yesterday night, the Albany Jewish Community Center and NORC hosted a forum featuring all seven candidates vying for both major party lines in an open Congressional race to fill the vacancy that will be left when Rep. Mike McNulty (D-Green Island) retires. It was the first debate held after the filing of nominating petitions, so all seven candidates will be appearing on the ballot for the September 9th primary.
"I am not the League of Women Voters!" the hostess pointed out at the beginning of the forum, before asking the first question of all the candidates: would they all sign a civility pledge as drawn up by the League? The response was unanimous in the affirmative, and the candidates kept to that pledge for the entirety of the debate.
Below the fold, you get the candidates opening and closing statements and their answers to six questions submitted from the audience.
