Thursday, June 05, 2008
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Praise for McCain's Town Hall Meetings Proposal
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
11:54 AM
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I, for one, love McCain's idea of having a series of serious Town Hall meetings with Obama, across the country.
Obama gets credit for "change," but a lot of what he does is fairly conventional.
I've often made the argument that if voters really want a different kind of politician, then McCain is that man. I mean, here's a guy who hosts frequent calls with (gulp) bloggers, for crying out loud (and takes the slings and arrows, I might add).
McCain's new idea of hosting Town Hall meetings around the country, is another great example of his eagerness to bring about change.
In this case, he's changing the way we hold debates. Who says we need a moderator -- and a venue better-suited for sound-bites than real discussion? How did our presidential debates become perverted and corrupted, to the point where no real debating goes on???
This is an idea whose time has come.
What is more, instead of promising change after the election to -- McCain wants to start the change now!
Will Obama be willing to accept the offer?
Update: Though the CNN/YouTube debate turned out to be a real disaster, the thing I initially liked about the idea was the idea that real people -- not establishment media reporters serving as moderators -- would be the ones asking the questions.
It obviously turned out to be a bad idea, partly because it was still controlled by CNN moderators (who selected the questions), and partly because of the Democrat "plant" who asked a bogus question.
McCain's Town Hall idea would avoid the first concern can by making sure the rules provide for a real discussion -- not merely a "show" that is "packaged" for TV.
The second concern will be a factor, though. There is no way of keeping bogus questioners from asking embarrassing questions. The good news is this is a good way to judge how candidates handle difficult situations. McCain, of course, has plenty of experience of walking the "high-wire" of being in "live" Q&A situations ...
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