Obama Rejects McCain's Town Hall Proposal

Source

WASHINGTON, June 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his Republican rival John McCain failed in reaching an agreement on Friday to hold ten "town hall"-style meetings where they are supposed to answer questions directly from a small audiences.

According to McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis, Obama's team only agreed to participate one town hall meeting before the Democratic national convention in late August.

McCain Plans Joint Meetings Anyway

In keeping with our original proposal, we are planning a joint town hall meeting in Minnesota next Thursday evening (June 19, 2008). We will hold time on our schedule for joint town halls every Thursday night until the Democratic convention. I hope Senator Obama would reconsider his position and agree to join Senator McCain as early as next week.

They Just Cannot Agree

“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, of Illinois, 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.

Seems John McCain invited Obama to TEN Town Hall Meetings. Obama Countered with 5 meetings, three of which were to be traditional debates and one Town Hall Meeting style. McCain rejected the counter-offer and planned the ten meetings anyway. He hopes Obama will show up.



Obama said he would meet John McCain Anywhere, Anytime for A debate. Not Ten.


[edit on 13-6-2008 by Benevolent Heretic]

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
Obama said he would meet John McCain Anywhere, Anytime for A debate. Not Ten.

Generally there are more than one ... but less than ten.

It was a political move by McCain.
McCain came out looking better (this time).
Next time Obama will come up with something and McCain will refuse.
Then Obama will look better in that round.

McCain does better in a free-style town hall approach.
Obama does better with prepared speeches.

These two not agreeing on a format is predictable.

Obama should have called McCains bluff.

Poor John would have become unintelligible by no. 3 and would have had to cancel the remaining town hall debates.

The candidates at least owe the taxpayers some sort of debate; even thought they are usually nothing more than glorified photo ops and not real debates.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Why would he say yes? So Juan's buddies can pack the stands and ask bull# questions?

I can't wait to see the 2 debate. McCain is going to have a heart attack on stage. He'll be 72 soon, why do we want a President from another era? He doesn't know what's "hip" with the kids.

reply to post by biggie smalls


I think John McCain's purpose for these joint Town Hall meetings was to get exposure for himself in the first place. It's like if people know Obama's coming, they'll turn out but if it's just going to be McCain, the crowd will be sparse.

I wouldn't have agreed to any. But since Obama agreed to one previously, I'm glad he kept his word, McCain is going to look bad.

I'm also looking forward to the actual debates. And I couldn't agree more. Regardless of McCain's numerical age, he's old-fashioned and doesn't appeal to younger people.

Of course Obama rejected the Fox News debate. That would be like McCain agreeing to do a debate on Democracy Now! moderated by Al Franken.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


The word is out that Obama doesn't speak well unless he has a teleprompter.

Obama will probably avoid debating McCain if he can and do as many prepaired speeches as possible. He starts sounding silly when he has to think on his feet!

reply to post by plumranch


I understand that you are passionate about your candidate, but you should stick to real information instead of lame innuendo. Wait until you see a fair debate between these candidates. In case you hadn't noticed, McCain doesn't even know who the enemy is without Lieberman whispering in his ear.

And speaking of teleprompter problems, let's go to the tape:



[edit on 13-6-2008 by flashback]

[edit on 13-6-2008 by flashback]

Originally posted by plumranch
Obama will probably avoid debating McCain if he can and do as many prepaired speeches as possible. He starts sounding silly when he has to think on his feet!

And he is different from McCain in that respect how? Every time McCain opens his mouth he sounds like a government-sponsored terror propagandist.

...And a bad one at that. The man is completely irrelevant to every day life. He is so out of touch its not even funny to talk about anymore.

How anyone supports him is beyond me.

[edit on 6/13/2008 by biggie smalls]

No surprise here, and you thought Bush was a bad public speaker? The difference is Bush knows it and does it anyway. Obama is going to hide behind his memorized speeches, and telepromters for as long as he can get away with it.

The sad thing is he will probably get away with it. The media will cover for him, and if anyone raises suspicions about it, they will be deemed as racists.

Originally posted by biggie smalls
why do we want a President from another era?

I don't know what the prevailing opinion is, but I for one would LOVE to step back in time and have today more like the 50s & 60s when McCain was in his heyday. I think many of his policies suck, but I certainly don't have any issue with age related to him being out of touch with today's youth.

reply to post by flashback

Your video doesn't work. Or is it just me?

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Fixed it. Thanks for letting me know.

Thanks. That was cute.

reply to post by flashback


Not passionate about either candidate. Just noticed that when Obama tries to think for himself he claims there are 57 states and that his granddaddy did things he really didn't do.

I'll be on needles and pins to hear what else he can come up with when he is under a little pressure!

The 57 state thing is a talking point just like the "whitey" thing (it was actually "why'd he"). The reality of the situation is that there were 54 primaries, which means 57 is still wrong, but nonetheless it is another soundbite taken out of context. The number of contests included territories such as Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and one more that I forget.

Were you aware that's what he was talking about? Not number of states but number of contests? Probably not, because the GOP is struggling to feed us bumperstickers and out-of-context soundbites because their guy is really going to have a hard time convincing us to keep the PNAC dream alive.

I shared your undecided sentiment for a while. I have been a fierce independent since Bush the first. I've been voting Libertarian, Green, Contitutionalist, and even American Taxpayer Party.

This time, though, I cannot bear the thought of McCain continuing the Bush fiasco any longer. I have to do something about it. And I can't let the right wing crazy media keep brainwashing people without speaking up.

Edit: for the record, I voted as Undeclared in the CA Democratic Primary for Dennis Kucinich (I voted early, before he dropped out).

[edit on 13-6-2008 by flashback]

This time, though, I cannot bear the thought of McCain continuing the Bush fiasco any longer. I have to do something about it

reply to post by flashback


so even though you have libertarian sentiments you are going to try to ellect the undisputed most liberal Senator. Makes a lot of sense!

It does indeed to me. I'm a Liberal Libertarian. We do exist. I believe that the government should stay out of my life but instead exist for the benefit of the populace and to provide the fairness and equality that our Constitution guaranteed, including the regulation necessary to prevent corporate fascism. (I know this is going to draw out a lot of free-market Reaganite nutters, so I'll say right now that I won't reply to them.)

Besides, that "most liberal senator" thing is another talking point. I recommend reviewing his voting record. Obama is as centrist as Clinton and I'd like to see someone prove otherwise. My favorite, Kucinich, has a much more liberal voting record.

I especially recommend that you review McCain's voting record on issues that may affect you directly, such as warrantless wiretapping, equal pay legislation for women (hello Hillary supporters). And now he is pro-Bush on almost all policy. Phil Gramm is his guy on the economy. Gramm was (perhaps still is) a lobbyist for Swiss bank, UBS. He is also to blame for policies (while in the senate) that are responsible for creating the subprime mortgage meltdown. Do we really want more of the same economically? Can we even survive that?

Sorry I have to go for a while. Making dinner. Perhaps I'll see you again later. Good to chat with my fellow citizens on such important matters.

My favorite, Kucinich, has a much more liberal voting record.

reply to post by flashback


Well then you really are a left wing nut. I rest my case. And BTW Baroc still wins the prise as the most liberal Senator. Kucinich is only a close second IMHO.

I thought we were going to have a civil discourse. Oh well. Have a nice weekend.