McCain Challenges Obama to 10 Town Hall Meetings

Source: WP

Republican Sen. John McCain challenged his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, to a series of 10 joint town hall meetings, starting next week in New York City, and said the American people deserve "a new tenor" in its presidential campaigns. Less than a day after Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, McCain delivered a letter to his campaign, formally proposing what he had raised last month. In the letter, he proposed that the two men fly to the first town hall meeting in the same plane as symbol that they are "embracing the politics of civility."

"What a welcome change it would be were presidential candidates in our time to treat each other and the people they seek to lead with respect and courtesy as they discussed the great issues of the day, without the empty soundbites and media-filtered exchanges that dominate our elections," he wrote.

McCain unveiled the proposal at his own town hall meeting here in Baton Rouge, where he discussed energy policy and the Iraq war, answering questions from a mostly friendly audience.

He said he envisions a series of town halls based on an agreement that Barry Goldwater and John F. Kennedy had to hold similar forums before Kennedy was assassinated.

"No process questions from reporters, no spin room," McCain said.

Read more: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/04/mccain_challenges_obama_to_10.html?hpid=topnews

:rofl:

Sounds like McCain is having a little flashback: "I'll just do a high yoyo, slip into his six and put an AIM-9 up his ass. Easy-Peasy."

Uhhh...not exactly.

McCain is CLEARLY trying to get the upper hand here. Trying to appear not intimidated by a clearly superior opponent. He feels his best forum is the town hall meeting...but I think Obama's going to smack him down good when he starts his experience rant. Bad call McCain!

Appearing side by side with McCain will ONLY be to the benefit of Barack Obama. And what will McCain do when faced with an Obama-sized LARGE crowd? Instead of the few hundreds he's been exposed to so far...WHOOPS!

Fact-check: Goldwater-Kennedy

In McCain's letter he quotes Goldwater as saying a similar deal on town hall meetings "would have done the country a lot of good."

The quote actually comes from a 1988 Washington Post interview with Goldwater -- and it might be interesting to see the full quote in context.

In it, Goldwater says, "It probably wouldn't have happened." Here's the full quote: (and as I type historian Michael Beschloss just made this point on MSNBC): ..........................


http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/04/1110876.aspx

year old Washington Post interview. As clueless as McCain is, I'm beginning to think his staff is worse.

come on Obama, you would welcome the debate, that is what Obama said last nite.

I wonder if they would make McSame stand on a box to make him look taller ha ha!!!

Obama will CLEAN THE FLOOR with Old Grumpy!

going to link Obama to the Kennedy tragedy?


"He said he envisions a series of town halls based on an agreement that Barry Goldwater and John F. Kennedy had to hold similar forums before Kennedy was assassinated."

the only problem will be the crowd-- It may not go so well if it is a room full of republican plants asking questions in line with GOP talking points.

How about we wait until after the Democratic Convention, and then we can do the dance. Why give the media two extra months to over annalyze every word and fart that comes out of their mouths are hind ends.

mcAncient just wants to look like he's ready and willing. He'll be shredded to pieces in a town hall type setting. Just hope they don't stock the town hall meetings with party loyalty goons like the repugs are so well noted for.

The race is over, and it hasn't even really begun. Start shopping Winnebagos old man, cause you're going to get crushed in the general election once the moron public see you can't even remember your own middle name.

...if you challenged any prominent UFC fighter to ten fights and got the shit stomped out of you the first time, would you take the remaining nine fights?

Obama should take him up on this. After three or four clear victories, McCain would run away like Brave, Brave Sir Robin, and it'd be all but over right there.

as long as it's not giving another "major" speech.

His performance last night was the worst I've even seen. It was unsettling. He made Jr. Bush seem eloquent.

give the american public a break. summer is upon us. why increase our suffering?

at least let BHO bury HRC & begin the party's healing.

The room will be filled with shitheads asking "why do you hate 'Murica"? And "Are you a Muslim"?

Bleh.

The fact that it wasn't an original idea from McCain is beside the point. He's going on offense and making the challenge, and Obama is basically forced to accept the basic premise.

Obama could have issued the challenge himself, but didn't.

that impacts public opinion (and therefore has a stronger effect on the election). The media spent hours and hours saying that Bush beat Kerry and Gore in every single debate (which, in both style and substance, we know is total bullshit). After hearing that for weeks, I bet you could poll every average person in America, and most of them would say that Bush won every single one. They'd be talking about how Obama sighed, didn't articulate his positions, rolled his eyes, and how that makes him a lightweight elitist. Most people have cooler or more important things to do than watch a meaningless debate between politicians, so people who didn't watch them (which would probably be a lot people) would just fall in line with what they heard and carry that perception with them to the voting booth. Either that, or they'd see the media covering the Obama sigh (on the 10 trillionth replay of it) like they did the Dean scream and it would either reinforce or create negative attitudes toward our candidate, COMPLETELY IRRESPECTIVE OF ACTUAL EVENTS WITHIN THE DEBATE OR THE CANDIDATES' SUBSTANCE ON THE ISSUES.

The fewer debates, the better for our party when the corporate media is working against us. We have public opinion going our way on the issues, so the fewer opportunities we give the corporate media to manufacture a Dean scream moment for our candidate, the better. It's about time we benefit from the public's cynicism toward politician and apathy toward politics.

isn't it always the weaker candidate that wants to lard up the calendar with debates?

Obama ought to tell McSame he will let him know if and when he can squeeze him into his schedule.

Any candidate for president has to get good at doing that, since that's all our presidents are good for anymore. Or meeting with his stock broker about some of his investments that do business with Iran...or a day in which he and Phil Gramm are not crafting a strategy to fuck the American middle class a little harder and deeper to suck the last drops of blood out of the poor. McCain also probably spends a lot of time giving foreign governments suggestions about torturing detainees on our prison ships. After all, if there's one thing McCain knows about, it's torture.

say something like that, making sure to use one of the code words like "stances".

the DEMOCRATIC Party, not the democrat party.:mad:

Let the old preacher and the new preacher go at each other.

though not Obama's strong suit, he does think faster on his feet than McCain.

Old, ghostly white geezer next to tall, dark and handsome. And just wait until they start to talk!

his makeup was melting.

Can you imagine that happening during a debate with the public watching? And a town hall style he could move around to cool off.