Duel at Dartmouth preview
Posted: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 9:29 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Democrats
The Dartmouth campus newspaper has the details on the format. “The debate will be broken into four segments, with three commercial breaks of approximately three minutes each dividing the segments… Candidates will have 90 seconds to respond to questions, and the moderators may award them 30 seconds of rebuttal time.” More: “Campus life will likely be disrupted for the first day of classes, as the Green is taken over by the Campaign Visibility Area, also known as the ‘free speech zone’ -- the only area where ralliers are allowed to demonstrate or display signs.”
The Union Leader looks at a new CNN/WMUR poll showing Clinton expanding her lead over Obama and Edwards.
Meanwhile, the RNC says it purchased online ads on 39 New Hampshire-related Web sites (including news sites and blogs). They feature an interactive game that allows users to guess which Democrat said what on important topics. The RNC also issued a press release early this morning noting how much money the Dem front-runners’ health-care and tax plans will costs US taxpayers.
NBC/National Journal’s Athena Jones spoke with several Dartmouth students, and most of them were either undecided or leaning towards Clinton or Obama. Those who supported Clinton often cited her husband as one of the reasons. “I think she has a lot of experience, and I really like her stance on a lot of the issues. And I also think if we get her, we also get Bill Clinton,” said Delfina Gonzalez, an 18-year-old from Corpus Christi, TX, who said she planned to register to vote in New Hampshire.
Those who said they were leaning towards Obama talked generally about his idealism and optimism, Jones adds. Jean Luo, an undecided sophomore who is leaning towards Clinton, said she wanted the candidates to step out of their managed personas in the debate tonight and get into more specifics about their plans for America. “I want them to stop sticking to their agendas that they’ve had so far, like Barack Obama having the really like inspirational speeches all the time and Hillary Clinton appealing to the same people she’s been appealing to,” Luo said.
As it turns out, hundreds of Dartmouth students will be participating in an online poll to pick their winner of tonight’s debate.
At 6:15 am ET this morning, as one of us was walking to work, Obama campaign workers were already outside planting signs along the main road on the Dartmouth campus.
