McCain has good reasons to want these weekly debates. Most of all it is free publicity and exposure that he can’t afford to buy. And Obama is not as strong in that venue as he is speechifying.
OTOH McCain may think that he is good off the cuff and maybe he once was, but now he stumbles. I listened last night (on XFM’s POTUS’08) to McCain speaking in that venue and he was awful - whiney rambling and stilted. Obama would absolutely destroy McCain in this context - he may not be as strong there as he is at giving speeches but if nothing else all that practice with Hillary has made him much much better at it.
So despite the fact that it gives McCain free media, I think that Obama should do some version of these, at least twice a month anyway. Get McCain to agree that most are in reddish purple states too. Take it to his house. Bring it across Appalachia. Into Texas.
I view it as little more than posturing, with a nod towards gaining an advantage (if possible) in the terms. There are going to be debates anyway, that’s a given, the only thing up for grabs is the settings and terms, moderators or no, and who.
With this move, McCain grasps for an advantage, its like he suggests debates as if such a thing weren’t a given. Plus, he gets to frame it as a “challenge” from a confident candidate, rather than the preordained set piece it is. This is only a slight advantage, being seen as the more confident and assertive candidate, but any straw in the wind.
I think McCain loses in another aspect: physically he simply looks small and old compared to Obama. Is that important? Of course it is, folks will see the two of them on the stage together and before a word is spoken one will automatically seem more PResidential than the other.
Are you serious? This format is about as different from the usual debates as you can get, and I welcome these so-called town hall meetings, where real people get to ask real questions and expect answers that aren’t timed down to the last second, chopped and formed to appeal to the most possible voters without actually saying anything.
I suspect that McCain has made an error in judgment here, in that while he may perform better in the town hall arena than he does in making formal speeches, Obama almost certainly performs better than McCain. McCain also lacks the presence that Obama projects, and his voice sounds almost squeaky in comparison to Obama, probably the best speaker of our time. On the other hand, it will get him audiences and exposure he wouldn’t otherwise have garnered on his own. And McCain is a smart and cagey guy who has been around the block a time or two; he’ll score a few points of his own on Obama, no doubt.
luci, don’t let the source of the idea blind you to its merits. This is a good idea for the candidates and for the country. I wouldn’t vote for McCain with a ten foot pole and a gas mask, but that doesn’t mean he *never * has a decent thought.
I thought it was pretty telling that the Obama campaign responded that it liked the idea, but thought the format should be 1/2 hour time for one candidate, 1 hour to the second, and then a 1/2 hour rebuttal time for the first again.
That’s about as far from a town hall meeting as you can get.
My take is that McCain is more open to accepting questions for regular folks, (potentially hostile!), and Obama just wants to lecture. :rolleyes:
Duly noted. But keep in mind, the “town hall” format is not clearly defined. And the identity of the questioners as “real folks asking questions” is fluff, we all know what the questions are. And who gets to decide about which of the “folks” gets to ask and, importantly, phrase the question?
“Town hall” is a nice phrase, and has a good ol’ fashioned ring of straightforward candor to it. But de debbil lurks in the details. This smells a bit like McCain’s people trying to gain leverage in those details, being the challenger, if Obama balks on a given point, they get to say he’s afraid of McCain, and/or afraid of an open, folksy setting.
I pretty much agree with **elucidator **on this. I think McCain has something up his sleeve here.
Frankly, though, if McCain were smart, he’d insist on the standard debates. Obama really didn’t do very well in the ones the Democrats had during the primaries. McCain’s message is more easily contained in sound bites, too.
Wrong… Just because the Lincoln / Douglas debates were like this, do you think Obama really wants it to be exactly like that? No he does not. Potentially hostile regular folks? We’re not talking about Bush here, Obama isn’t afraid of taking questions from the public.
And yes, it is normally the position of the losing candidate to ask for more debates. Because if you’re winning, a debate doesn’t really pay of in any way. I think we’ll see a maximum of 5 debates of varyin
Yes, we certainly did. Happens every time. Like someone said upthread, the candidate behind, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain by having more debates. For the guy ahead, it’s just added risk, so why take it?
In Obama’s case you at least consider taking that risk because you are not that far ahead and you have ambitions of not just winning but winning big enough to declare a mandate … and because you are confident that the process of these debates will end up helping you achieve that.
Mind you his team will negotiate to preferred venues (hit Appalachia, Florida, Michigan, Texas, and the Western States hard), frequency (not so often that it impairs your ability to whistlestop through high value areas, or that it completely fatigues the voters interest), etc. But the risk of giving McCain free publicity is worth the opportunity of having them both available for the casual voter to compare and contrast on the same stage thinking on their feet.
This is largely illusory. In practice, the questions are vetted and pre-selected before the start of the debate. The candidates know what the questions will be and already have their prepared answers. Town halls are just as scripted and staged as any other debate, the only exception being that a few carefully selected audience members get to read the pre-selected questions. The presence of the audience also allows the candidates to try to give an appearance of “connecting with real people” if they can. Bill C. was a master of walking up close, looking the questioner in eye and empathizing with them. It hurt Poppy Bush in one of the '02 debates when he seemed dismissive and condescending to the questioners and looked at his watch while Bubba was out there feeling their pain.
I think the McCain camp’s desire is to keep Obama reigned in somewhat and keep him from getting into an oratory mode, but I’m not sure that Obama would do as poorly at this as McCain hopes. There really is a charisma gap between the two of them, and this format might end up highlighting that more than combatting it.
When I first heard about it I assumed McCain was trying to get free airtime, and if he has to be in the same room as Obama to get it, so be it. That assumption was confirmed when I heard his suggestion they carpool to the debate. Sure, he was undoubtedly joking but he sees that the media love “Hollywood” Obama, not for his politics but because he makes GREAT TV, and I feel like McCain is, subconsciously, trying to get in some of Obama’s limelight. McCain needs to remember that reflected glory doesn’t get you elected.
