Monday, September 22, 2008
Let her fight.
"Pact on Debates Will Let McCain and Obama Spar"The article talks about the agreements made between both the Obama campaign and the McCain campaign about the structure of both the presidential and vice presidential debates. The Vice Presidential debate is what really interested me within the article. Palin advisors wanted less open discussion and more direct questions which will limit the interaction between the candidates themselves. After watching her RNC speech, I see no problem with letting her and Biden spar. From previous readings on Palin it seems intimidation is her strongest trait. It seems that the McCain camp will only talk about the “Executive” experience of Palin when it benefits his choice for picking Palin; then when the Debate commission wants to set up a fair and informative debate, the McCain campaign states that Palin is a rookie debater. Let her attack Biden, see if she can keep up with the senior members of Washington. We saw other governor’s debate throughout the primaries; there were no special privileges for them. Will foreign leaders ask only direct questions? Negotiates and communication are a key parts of diplomacy, and the debate is a long standing part of the political process. Should debates be modified because particular candidates don’t feel comfortable in them? Does good debating represent good negotiations and leadership, or does it simply mean you can memorize prepared answers to be rattled off? It seems to me that the role of President or even Vice President might be filled with new uncomfortable situations. Will Joe Biden really be the most intimidating force the Vice President will face? http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/us/politics/21debate.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I agree that debates are of vast importance to diplomacy and politics in general. Debates have been influential in many past presidential campaigns; such as the famous Lincoln-Douglass debates and the Nixon-Kennedy debates. The article mentions how detailed the planning for the debates is and I can definitely see why. However, with so much constant coverage of the political candidates, I think the debate has lost some importance. It is no longer one of the most influential factors in a voter’s choice for president.
While rattling off prepared answers has definitely become a part of the question and answer process for many modern ‘debates,’ I think that Palin should be able negotiate for whatever format she and Biden can agree on. A candidate’s skill with on-the-spot debating used to be a more significant component of the election. Foreign leaders will not give Palin prepared questions ahead of time so she should get practice in debates such as these.
I think there is no way Palin can completely avoid a debate. As a vp candidate she is going to have to show her ability to handle pressure and come up with quick intelligent responses. If she does not, there is no way the public can have any faith in her and her abilities as a possible president. The fact that she is an inexperienced debator should have nothing to do with it because the only way to get better at debates is to do them and when else is she going to practice before she is elected. Also people always are talking about how Obama is inexperienced and he has not turned down debating McCain. If Palin is ready to step up and become the vice president of our country, she can not refuse to step up for a simple debate.
McCain’s advisers made a good decision to structure the vice presidential debate. This structure will help the Republicans because it will help in preventing Biden from overpowering Palin with his debate experience. I find the decision to have the foreign policy debate first rather than the economic debate to be in favor of McCain. I agree with the articles reference to McCain being stronger in the foreign policy arena. I feel that the economics would have been a challenge for him. The republicans have the stigma of the Bush administration. Because the first debate is the most watched, it works well for McCain. I am unsure as to why Obama wanted foreign policy first. Possibly he has a new perspective he is going to bring out in the debate. Time will tell.
In response to Marla: "I think the debate has lost some importance." This is difficult to tell because I think the debate is the only tool that gives independent voters a chance to asses both candidates side by side. I think the debate might be the most important part of the electoral process, whether good debating makes you a better president or vice president is hard to say.
In response to Daniel, I think Obama wanted to have the first debate about foriegn policy to prove himself. Foreign Policy is what a lot of people question about Obama and I think he handled it really well on Friday.
Post a Comment