by emptypockets
I groaned when I heard Clinton had accepted an invitation to a Fox News Channel debate, because it is a huge distraction from what had threatened to become a substantive, engaging primary. I'm not personally among those who really care one way or the other whether a debate is held on Fox -- the discussion, to me, feels like a battle between media interests (and, yes, if you have a blog you're a media interest) and I can't reconcile it with the boasts of how Democrats are poised to put the reddest of red counties into play -- but I do see an opportunity here.
The very simple idea arose when I heard a soundbite from Clinton while flipping among election reports last night. I haven't been able to find it online, but here's my best paraphrase [this is not a quote]: We want to have a debate every week for the next four weeks, and at this point we're accepting all invitations.
Well, that sounds open! That sounds lovely! And that sounds like a great idea.
Instead of whetting our knives, why not invite Clinton and Obama to debate on the terms of the progressive blogosphere? The owners of the most-trafficked 3 or 4 sites can moderate. An outstanding list of questions was drafted last week by mcjoan over at dailykos in her What I want to know post. I'm sure we can think of other ways to bring a debate live on-line in a manner that hasn't been seen before. And, if Clinton is indeed accepting invitations from all comers, surely she will not embrace Fox and refuse us?
I've got an auditorium packed full of scientists I could volunteer, and I can make some lemonade or something. Anyone else willing to chip in?
Yes, definitely, as long as there's no Matt Bai "moderating" and taking up half the time for himself.
Posted by: Redshift | February 06, 2008 at 12:49
McJoan asks good questions, but one of them is a clunker.
Breaking our dependence on foreign oil is probably not realistically achievable.
Asking candidates to commit to this goal is asking them to mislead us, to pander,
just as Bush did with his "hydrogen car" bullshit.
Yes, we can do a lot better; we can have good electric cars, eventually,
but there will remain many uses for petroleum
where all the alternatives are greatly inferior.
And most of our own petroleum is gone.
Posted by: joel hanes | February 06, 2008 at 15:24
Yes yes yes, fantastic idea! And quite frankly, one the Obama camp should adopt. A blogosphere debate is the perfect counteroffer from them to Sen. Clinton's Faux debate.
Posted by: Paradox13VA | February 06, 2008 at 15:37
Let's see. Hillary Clinton's war chest is drying up. She's had to cop to lending herself money.
You reckon she wants these debates for free air time?
::nods head::
Posted by: Brady Bonk | February 07, 2008 at 14:51
The finally announced the 16 finalists for the Now Debate THis Reality show! http://www.nowdebatethis.com/
Posted by: Buzzguy223 | July 02, 2008 at 13:34
The finally announced the 16 finalists for the Now Debate THis Reality show! http://www.nowdebatethis.com/
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