Obama has been having townhalls with Americans all summer taking questions without a teleprompter. I invite you to go on youtube and search Obama and "townhall" dozens and dozens and dozens of them all year, all summer. And the Obama campaign made a counter offer that would not Obama going on McCain's turf. If you'll recall McCain would not agree on the kinds of crowds that would be involved in these town halls. Also? McCain, at the time, had fundraising trouble and was behind, he needed Obama to pack a room before Sarah Pali. So Obama's decision to not participate was not "cowardly" it was politically shrewd. Just like McCain's faux outrage over the townhall debates not happening.

And yes these debates are more important. They are conducted by impartial board. They are much closer to the election and thus will have a much higher viewership. And they are occuring at a moment when people need to hear from the next President about what they plan to do to move the country beyond this economic crisis.

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Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president he’ll take on, and I quote, 'the old boys’ network in Washington.' I’m not making this up. This is somebody been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he’s the one who’s gonna take on the old boys' network,” he said. “In the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting!- Obama, 9/17/2008

I didn't say anything about "people". I said you.

Hell, I'd wager that you've never even registered to vote. That would be so entirely typical.

This saga ain't finished being told. Figure by Monday or Tuesday, it will be very clear who of the two is the unqualified jackass. Who is the empty suit. Who is the teleprompter junkie. Who actually leads.

Tell you what - hit your bong every time Um-bama says "Um" during the debate. Maybe McCain will get your vote, then. Nah. Never mind. He doesn't care for it and neither do I. Sometimes a man is most kindly described in terms of the people that have contempt for him. He and I definitely want you "over there". Somewhere...else... CorpMediaSux can join you, AFAIC.

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"Compassionate Conservatism"?!?! That is a stupid phrase. Conservatism is inherently compassionate. It is liberalism that is cruel for the sake of maintaining a constituency.

Do you speak for the McCain camp? How do you know he doesn't want MY vote and how do you know he doesn't care what I think? If McCain has become clairvoyant you'd think he'd announce it. Speaking of hitting bongs, you might want to refrain from doing so. It could have debilitating affects on your abililty to post coherent thoughts.

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Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

He has never expressed interest in or respect for the loony left - of which you are a card carrying, if not charter, member. Given the chance, you'd have likely played tambourine for Hayden and Fonda during the camp tours. I'm being kind when I say McCain has no interest in you. Truth is, he probably hates you more than Nixon did. Fine with me.

Do we need to hold an intervention for you - get you to quit deluding yourself into believing you're, in any way, "moderate"? Be what you be, man! It's quite liberating.

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"Compassionate Conservatism"?!?! That is a stupid phrase. Conservatism is inherently compassionate. It is liberalism that is cruel for the sake of maintaining a constituency.

Yes, there's still lots of other ways McCain can torpedo his own campaign.

I love that the GOP has falsely established that Obama needs a teleprompter to be effective. I've watched his townhalls, he's smart, quick on his feet AND answers questions specifically. Have you ever watched an Obama townhall?
Saying um means you're going to be a bad POTUS...why?

Oh is that the new spin? McCain won't win because he didn't "want" the votes of people who thought he was a bad candidate. Hilarious.

I don't even know you enough to have contempt for you. Why are you so intense?

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Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president he’ll take on, and I quote, 'the old boys’ network in Washington.' I’m not making this up. This is somebody been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he’s the one who’s gonna take on the old boys' network,” he said. “In the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting!- Obama, 9/17/2008

dude stop it..okay? its embarrassing...the messiah himself said he would be glad to townhall on foreign policy etc.. remember that?....so what happened to this?

McCain Calls On Obama to Join In Series of Town Hall Meetings - America’s Election HQ

same thing that happened to campaign financing, it died the death of the politically expedient thing to do....ahhh that’s change.....

impartial board? Oh boy…..

we'd get a lot more out of townhalls laid out here than these horse and pony shows....

On June 4, the day after Obama clinched the delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination, McCain proposed a series of 10 town-hall style debates in addition to the three commission-sanctioned debates that Obama agreed to Saturday.

Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, had suggested after McCain first raised the prospect of town-hall debates in May that Obama would be interested in having more debates than just the typical three post-convention meetings and would favor a more open format.

"We're at war. Our economy is in turmoil. And we've got so many challenges that the people of this country deserve a serious discourse, and it shouldn't be limited necessarily to three kind of very regimented debates in the fall," Axelrod said on FOX News Sunday May 11. "We ought to begin sooner, and we ought to have a free-flowing conversation about where we want to take this country."

Under McCain's plan, the candidates would have met once a week between June and the Democratic National Convention at the tail end of August. Though it left room for negotiation of details, the McCain camp suggested that the candidates appear together for 60 to 90 minutes at each meeting and take "blind questions" from members of an audience ranging from 200 to 400 people.


Obama, McCain Set Debates, But "Town Hall" Idea Is Dead - Yahoo! News

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

So if he doesn't have any interest in the loony left surely he doesn't have any interest in the loony right?

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"Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy." -fortune cookie

You non-sequiturs really bore me. Since you don't have anything to say of any intellectual value to add to the thread topic and since you insist on trying to have the last word, I'll end this conversation with you now. Go ahead have the last word, I'm moving on.

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Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

Wish in one hand, shit in the other...

Immaterial. Let's watch the debate.

It's a terrible speaking habit that truly does - unlike saying NUKE-U-LAR - indicate an inability to think on one's feet.

Where did I say McCain wouldn't win? What I did say is that, for those of you that wouldn't vote for your own mother if she were a Republican, he/they/we/I don't give a shit about your vote. Your vote does not matter to him. He is not out to please you. The motherfucker could walk on water, and you'd bitch about his "inability to swim". That is one thing GWB's victory has taught us - cut your losses and energize your base. We don't need you to win. We wear your side's scorn like a badge - from dog catcher to POTUS and everywhere in between. It only helps further the cause.

I suppose you could take it literally and figure I wished you into the cornfield. Not really. More accurately, I'm saying to you and yours, "Keep it up! You may very well be the GOP MVP's of the election!" We like that voodoo you do so well.

Wow...looks like McCain and I have something in common...

Ajax, if you need a reminder of what a "non-sequitur" is, check this out:

See? That's a "non-sequitur". Gah.

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"Compassionate Conservatism"?!?! That is a stupid phrase. Conservatism is inherently compassionate. It is liberalism that is cruel for the sake of maintaining a constituency.

Seems to me Obama did actually revolutionize campaign financing.

Andrew

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“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Gee, this whole McCain goes to Washington scheme was pretty anti-climactic.

- McCain never really suspsended his campaign. His campaign offices were in full swing this whole time and TV ads were being run.

- McCain made it sound urgent, but did not arrive in Washington until this morning, some 18 hours after he announced that he was suspending his campaign in order to focus on the financial crisis.

- While in Washington, Mccain sat in the meeting with the Pres., Obama and others without saying a word. He spent more time speaking with his hired staff advisors and his trusty buddy Joe Lieberman than he did in actual negotiations.

- The result is that the House Republicans are just as defiant today (if not more so) than before McCain arrived this morning.


He left Washington after being there for a few hours and declared that he essentially set things on the right course.

We're back to where we were a couple of days ago. His trip had either no effect on the mortgage bailout deal or a negative effect.

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The world could use more Stan Ovshinsky's

His trip did reveal even moreso that he's nothing more than a political opportunist who would use the nation's disasters as a time for self-aggrandizement. It reminds me of somebody else...

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Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

Nice, I like that reference. Interestingly enough, if Rod Serling were alive today he would probably be one of the 'loony left' you oh so love to hate. My point? I don't have one, this really is a non-sequitur.

He'd likely be of the Scoop Jackson mold, so, far from reprehensible.

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"Compassionate Conservatism"?!?! That is a stupid phrase. Conservatism is inherently compassionate. It is liberalism that is cruel for the sake of maintaining a constituency.

According to something I read from Electoral-vote.com: President, Senate, House Updated Daily there are a couple reasons why McCain "suspended" his campaign. One was he needed a rest (no ageism intended, every presidential hopeful needs a rest somewhere along the line). The second was that he needed to save the campaign donations for later use because he was being severely outspent by the Obama campaign. McCain needs as much money as possible for later use.

If this is true then you would probably be half right on the first point. Perhaps he was still airing ads in certain states, but he probably was doing it a lot less frequently than he usually would. It also means that his campaign probably thought this move would atleast make up for all the ads he didn't air.
If so they took a huge risk.

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"Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy." -fortune cookie