The second presidential debate is on tonight in Nashville, TN, and it stands to bring the candidates closer to each other — and to voters than they've been to date. The townhall format could be a dicey proposition given the . . . strong turn talk has taken in the last couple of days.
With fewer than 30 days left, McCain said since Obama was "taking the gloves off," he leveled a strong criticism of Obama's accusations over the credit crunch. He said, "I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed." In Albuquerque, McCain continued saying, "For a guy who’s already authored two memoirs, he’s not exactly an open book. It’s as if somehow the usual rules don’t apply, and where other candidates have to explain themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that."
To see what Obama's said lately, and how the the new format changes the whole game, read more.
Obama isn't taking the criticism lying down. He's planning a multi-media campaign to hit McCain on his involvement in the Keating Five scandal. He's adding a stringent ad saying, "Three quarters of a million jobs lost this year. Our financial system in turmoil. And John McCain? Erratic in a crisis. Out of touch on the economy. No wonder his campaign wants to change the subject."
With all of the strong words lashed back and forth, facing off on the same stage tonight in Nashville, townhall-style, could stand to be a little more than tense. What do they need to do to deal with the change in format? Slate's John Dickerson has the nuts and bolts on how to deal with a townhall audience — especially given the dark turn the campaign has taken lately.
Have the hard hits been equal? Are you geared up for the townhall format?
Marks and Spencer
La Perla
Rebecca Taylor
I am excited for a debate with a town hall format.
1Well McCain's gloves were never on, I mean does he really think we didn't see through all his smear tactics. If anyone's a liar it's methuselah and the his walking talking barbie, the killa from wasilla. I just wish this could be over so we could know who won.
2Cant wait!! I was expecting to be bored with the last debate, but I was riveted, and I know that the town hall format is even more interesting/relevant. Plus I heart Tom Brokaw.
3We've been talking here about McCain's negative ads for months, Obama's had some, but has been much less vitrolic than the McCain campaign. Tonight should be very interesting in terms of watching the candidate's demeanor - especially whether McCain can keep his temper under control.
4I want someone to ask McCain if he agrees with the man who yelled that Obama is a terrorist at a McCain rally. The idiot was answering McCain's question of "who is the real Barack Obama?".
McCain clearly heard it. But he said nothing in response.
5mccain probably laughed, he has a great sense of humor. you should hear some of his jokes about chelsea clinton, bombing iran, his own wife... oh man, the guy is a LAFF RIOT.
6
yesteryear. bomb bomb bomb iran, yeah that gets great laughs when i tell it to my muslim
friends. Oh and don't forget Sarah Palin(she should win moron of the year award for this) with her i've been hearing joe biden since 2nd grade comment forgetting that John McCain is as old as
father time himself and Joe Biden is younger and then trying to act like she didn't mean it as a snide remark. Ugh I am soooooo f**king over these two.
7That multimedia campaign mentioned above is now available: www.keatingeconomics.com
There's a 13 minute video detailing McCain's involvement with Keating and it's certainly eye opening!
8Nya-It's bomb baby bomb. Wink
9"It’s as if somehow the usual rules don’t apply, and where other candidates have to explain themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that."
Is he confused?
Was he talking about "Side Steppin' Sarah"? She is the one who doesn't seem to want to explain her views about the economic crisis, her REAL record on earmarks, why she fires people, or even where she gets her news.
I am just so amazed that the McCain campaign is doing so much to take the focus off the economy when they KNOW that is what voters want to hear about. It should be an easy order to fill.
10Its pretty irrational to expect a candidate to answer for one of their supporters actions. There was a story about Obama supporters that vandalizeda soldiers car.... I wouldn't expect Obama to have to answer for that.
11McCain has kept his temper under control for a long time now. When protestors busted in on the RNC and disrupted it what? THREE TIMES? he was fine. In the last debate he was fine.
This temper thing is a figment of some's imagination. The guy has been in politics forever, if he's a handful of flare ups over 20 years thats pretty understandable.
Some people will just take any excuse to dislike him.
12but im pretty tired after yesterday, so i'm out! have a good lovefest!
13If Obama was present and saw the vandalism, I'd expect a response.
14Palin rally in Florida:
""Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said.
"Boooo!" said the crowd.
"And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.
"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.
"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/06/in_fla_palin_goes_...
15I agree with stephley--I know I'm personally biased, but I do remember a lot of my more unbiased/undecided friends being really put off by the vitriol at the RNC (can't tell you how many of them were shouting during Giuliani's speech for him to "shove it"
), and this isn't
helping matters. I expect "political moves" from both sides, especially at this stage in the game, but the terrorist claims from the McCain camp, coupled with the latest news about more
reporters being turned away from a McCain/Palin event in Clearwater, just really weirds me out.
16Em, I didn't hear about Clearwater and the reporters. What happened?
17"That multimedia campaign mentioned above is now available: www.keatingeconomics.com
There's a 13 minute video detailing McCain's involvement with Keating and it's certainly eye opening!"
Adrenalyn, I watched this and then emailed it to a few people.
18Jill--found it from the St. Petersburg Times--I'm afraid the link will get flagged (because I'm totally clueless--seriously, it's a miracle I can send an email) so here is a tidbit:
Reporters weren't permitted to wander around inside Coachman Park in Clearwater to talk to Palin's audience, the St. Petersburg Times reported.
When reporters tried to leave the designated press area and head to where the crowd was seated, an escort would dart out, confront him or her and say, "Can I help you?" and turn the person around, Times staff writer Eileen Schulte wrote on the paper's Web site. When one reporter asked an escort, who would not give her name, why the press wasn't allowed to mingle, she said that in the past, negative things had been written, Schulte reported.
19Chuck Hagel's wife Lilibet Hagel is endorsing Obama today:
She said it will be her first endorsement of a Democrat and that perilous world conditions were a factor.
"The fact is we're in two wars, two of the longest we've ever been in. We've run up a third of our nation's debt in just the past eight years. We're in the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression," she said.
The Hagels know John and Cindy McCain, and she said her endorsement was not meant to slam them.
"This isn't anti-McCain. This is pro-Obama. I'm just convinced he's the right person," she said.
20Thanks Em!
21em - if you want to post a link in a comment, if you delete the http:// part then usually they post immediately and don't get flagged
22Thanks for the tip, Haus!
23someone told me that a while back and it seems to work pretty well! i hate getting my comments flagged!
24Thanks for educating the most technologically clueless 25-year-old, haus!
25Wasn't there some kind of you tube debate from last election? Where people recorded questions and they answered them during a debate. I was eighteen and living in dorms at the time, so I will admit my attention was not 100% on the election.
Anyway, I think they should do this again. I really liked the concept.
26Em...that WaPo article was certainly disturbing. I really disliked the part about the African-American cameraman being told by a supporter to "Sit Down, Boy". That set me off. But I think this type of action says more about the location as well. I doubt when Palin was in California, the same type of behavior was seen. It's Florida and its the south. There's still alot of work to be done in those parts to improve race relations.
27Why is it that the Keating crude is still being talked about, even after McCain has been exhonerated, and yet Obama's ties with radicals (not just Ayers, but he is certaintly a terrorist, and I'd like to know why Obama chose to associate with someone like him) isn't?
28I think it still is, UD. And I think it's pointless on both sides to still be re-hashing all of this.
29Because Keating is relevant today as it was in the 80s in 90's, espicially in light of our current financial crisis. I think the public should be aware of how McCain handled the last financial institution bailout and his role in it. If your going to rehash the Bill Ayers bridge to nowhere story, then let's do the same for McCain. I'm glad Obama is hitting back and hitting hard. Pocketbooks and the economy is issue #1 in the American people's lives. So when you cast doubt about how one presidential hopeful handles the economy, it speaks more volumes then some causal relationship with a guy who was once a domestic terrorist when Obama was 8 and is now a professor teaching our youth at the local state University.
30OK, but the problem is that the relationship began when Obama was 8, and has continued. Ayers has said many times that he wished he could've bombed more. Just like his involvement with a church that condemed America for the 9/11 attacks for 20 years, and only recently left. These all point very squarely to the type of person Obama is.
31Huh, UD...where did you get your news? Obama and Ayers did'nt meet when he was 8. They met some 30-40 years later. The point of Obama being 8 was that when Ayers was a domestic terrorist, Obama was 8 years old and I believe he was living in Hawaii at the time. He knew Ayers the rehabilitated professor living in the suburbs teaching at the University.
32I misread your last statement, although Ayers isn't rehabilitated.
33The relationship didn't begin when Obama was 8 years old at all - get your facts straight Dave. Ayers is 'rehabilitated' and has worked with Republicans and Democrats in Chicago for years - should all the Republicans who worked with Ayers come under suspicion now?
McCain vacationed with Keating a number of times, there were shared investments, McCain used his Senate credentials to try and influence regulators on Keatings behalf in a scandal that cost people more than 3-billion dollars.
34I can't wait. While it's supposed to be common knowledge that McCain does better in the town hall format than the supposedly more abstract and less small-crowd-engaging Obama, I think Obama will perform quite better than expected and will most likely stick much more to the point and to policy than McCain. He succeeds quite well at playing the personality game without losing sight of policy issues, I think.
35I want to hear about the issues. Not personal attacks. I have a feeling that the ole attack dog "maverick" will be looking for blood tonght.
36McCain loves town hall meetings when they are filled with Republicans. It will be interesting to see him tonight.
Obama has been doing some town meeting format meet and greets too. And seems to easily go into enemy territory while holding his own and even O'Reilly was impressed with him one on one.. so who knows how he will do.
The most important thing for McCain is to hold his temper in check. It is his biggest character flaw and not Presidential at all.. the smirking, snide, snicker of anger he gets rolling when he starts to get hot under the collar. So if he can avoid that.. he should actually be able to increase his poll numbers and maybe reclaim a state or two.
As long as the real McCain doesn't show up.
37www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSlAJ5hkAC4
If he's not rehabilitated, why is he still teaching? And why is he a functioning member of society? If he was a threat to national security, I'm confident our CIA, FBI and other government intelligence agencies would have had him arrested by now. And like Stephley said, McCain's relationship with Keating cost the American taxpayers billions and many more to lose their retirement and life savings. It's another example of corrupt deregulation practices. Sound familiar? The Keating 5 scandal is more relevant today then any other time in our history. I live in AZ, where McCain presides...and if you walk down my neighborhood, you'll see a foreclosure signs and empty and abandoned homes. What I don't see is Bill Ayers lurking in the bushes.
38I don't know about the rest of you...but I've got my bikini ready for this mud-bath!!!!
39And how big was the housing bubble? Weren't homes in AZ the most overpriced in the US a couple of years ago? Could that be why there are so many houses in foreclosure? McCain was exhonerated, what more do you want?
And you are correct that Ayers isn't lurking in the bushes, he's in a classroom teaching our kids his own version of the 60's.
40Amen Adrenalynn 75.. I live in Phoenix and you are preaching to the choir. I am currently the meat in the foreclosure sandwich..an empty house on each side. About a month ago a drop house filled with kidnapped illegal aliens was busted three blocks away.. with drugs and AK47 weapons found inside. NICE! Thanks McCain!
41We want evidence that McCain learned from the mistakes he made with Keating - so far, there isn't any reason to believe he did.
42I wonder how McCain will do since townhall debates are his "thing." Didn't he challenge Obama to a gazillion townhall debates a few months ago? I so want McCain to lose hist sh*t. I'm sure he will if Keating 5 is brought up. Or perhaps Obama should bring up the Mother Jones article where McCain underestimates Bin Laden.
43AZ houses were the most overpriced? I don't think Phoenix was even in the top 10 of overpriced.. were they?
44Wow...IMA!!!! Where in Phoenix are you? Too funny! We should meet up. I live out in Buckeye and commute all the way in Tempe.
UD - As for AZ being in the housing bubble. Yes they were...so was California, Texas, Washington, Colorado, Florida...the list goes on and on and on and on. The amount of foreclosures weren't due to the cost of homes, but the lack of regulation on the people buying these homes. I bought a home under it's peak value at the time 2 years ago...it's worth half the undervalued price now. Meanwhile, my property taxes doubled over last year! So I'm not afraid of the suburban terrorist living in Chicago. What am I afraid of is what my house will be worth next year, and if my property taxes are still going to increase, or will I still have a job. Those are the issues people should care about. Thats what keeps me awake at night.
45Its a fire sale now baby!! That is if you have 20% down, a credit score over 750 and a low debt to income ratio. Then it s easy peasy lemon squeezy to buy a lot of home for peanuts. Get your foreclosure pick of the litter. Every third of fourth house is up for grabs..foreclosure, bank owned, or short sale. Sad state of affairs.
46We are not that far apart Adrenalynn.. I am east of you on the Baseline Corridor at the foot of the South Mountains! You are about two suburban cities away. A hop, skip and a jump so to speak
47Ima...want to hear something sadder!?! A few months ago, they're were loads of people in my neighborhood, foreclosing on their undervalued homes, and buying up the bigger house down the street for far less.
You would think any type of regulation would prevent people from doing that? Oh, but no. Mortgage brokers don't care. They see a sale. Its s**t like this that makes me so mad. Which is why the the economy is issue #1 for me. And after seeing that Keating video the Obama campaign produced, I'm even more scared of McCain and his history on handling a financial crisis.
48WOW.. Luckily we didn't buy when we moved here. We sold our condo in Southern Cal to move to SC.. where we had a huge home on a golf course with a pool for less than the rent of a 1 brm apt in Cali! Then felt we were too far away from home. So we sold that and moved here to Phx. But we hesitated to buy.. we didn't know what city we wanted to be in.. we rented a home in Chandler for a year and then moved here to Southern Phoenix renting a home on a golf course that was a foreclosure bought on the courthouse steps. Now two years later the houses on both sides of us our empty and bank owned. And we watched the price of the larger homes on the course (3000 sq ft) drop from 400,000 to 223,000. OUCH! SOOOOOOOOOOOO glad we didn't buy. My BIL though purchased a country club house in Gilbert for 700,000..now worth only 400,000. And thats not factoring the PGA golf course and clubhouse membership they purchased! I can't even bring myself to ask them how they are doing financially.
Crazy out here in the desert..ol McCain's backyard. I wonder if Cindy stands at the window of her million dollar condo looking out over the city.. out towards their million dollar parking lot over by the stadium and thinks.. meh.. let them eat cake!
49I made the jump from So. Cal as well. I lived in Long Beach (Strong Beach!). LOL! Sold that condo, doubled my money and bought a beautiful new house out here in Phoenix. I don't regret buying the house, just the timing of it. Ah wells. Everyone I know is in the same boat, so I don't feel too bad.
Love the description about Cindy McCain. I totally see her doing that. Whenever I hear about McCain in Sedona, I feel like protesting and asking him to come down into Phoenix and see what he's done to his constituents. Its a sad state of affairs. I can't help thinking how many of these foreclosures could have been prevented if they worked with the homeowners more. But no, banks are greedy and instead of letting people adjust their loans, they'd rather take the risk of leaving a house in foreclosure and hoping to sell it at a marked down price. How F'ed up is that? Now we have to bail these damn banks out and are houses are losing significant value. It just makes me sicker. And what does John McCain do on the day our stock market with our 401k's dropped 777 points. He goes out and spews that infamous line "The Fundamentals of our economy are strong". He should walk down the streets of Phoenix once in while and sober up to the fact that it really is'nt. What a jack***.
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