Tonight's debate: Hear the music
Posted: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 9:14 AM by Domenico Montanaro
The Nashville Tennessean previews tonight’s debate. “As the two men get set for their second presidential campaign debate at 8 tonight in Nashville, otherwise known as Music City, Republican nominee McCain needs to change the words and the music. Democrat Obama would just as soon sing in the same key from now until Election Day. The debate, a town-hall-style affair at Belmont University, comes after one of the roughest periods of the general election campaign for McCain and an escalation in personal attacks from both sides.”
The Chicago Sun-Times Lynn Sweet examines the format of tonight’s debate. “Tuesday's match-up at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., will be moderated by NBC's Tom Brokaw, with the questions to be culled from a group of 100 to 150 uncommitted likely voters in the audience and another one-third to come via the Internet. The Gallup Organization -- as in past debates like this -- has the job of making sure the questioners reflect the demographic makeup of the nation.”
“Brokaw selects the questions to ask from written queries submitted prior to the debate, according to the ‘contract.’ An audience member will not be allowed to switch questions. Under the deal, the moderator may not ask followups or make comments. The person who asks the question will not be allowed a follow-up either, and his or her microphone will be turned off after the question is read. A camera shot will only be shown of the person asking -- not reacting. While there will be director's chairs (with backs and foot rests), McCain and Obama will be allowed to stand -- but they can't roam past their "designated area" to be marked on the stage. McCain and Obama are not supposed to ask each other direct questions.”
The New York Times: “At least six million questions have been submitted via the Internet to be asked at the town-hall-style presidential debate Tuesday in Nashville between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. That’s a lot of queries for 90 minutes, and obviously they won’t all get asked -- there will be time for only 15 to 20… The format allows about five minutes for each question: two minutes for each candidate and one minute for what the co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., described as ‘interplay’ to be managed by Mr. Brokaw.”
"Both campaigns have signaled a willingness to engage on character in tonight's debate, a town hall-style event at Belmont University in Nashville in which the candidates will answer questions submitted by the audience and from voters online at www.mydebates.org," the Boston Globe writes, adding, "This new chapter in the presidential contest was precipitated by concern in McCain's campaign that the race is slipping from its grasp, with national and state polls moving in Obama's direction since the economic crisis began dominating headlines last month. But yesterday's economic news illustrated how difficult it will be to change the subject: The Dow Jones industrial average, following big losses in foreign markets, slid below 10,000 for the first time in five years, closing down more than 360 points."
The AP: "The debate's town hall format is McCain's favorite style of campaigning. He asked Obama to appear with him in a series of town hall debates this past summer, but Obama wouldn't take him up on the challenge… The town hall is McCain's signature -- one way he built his ‘Straight Talk’ reputation by interacting with voters in the 2000 campaign and then pulled himself out of single digits to win this year's Republican primary. Since he won the nomination, however, the audiences for these events have needed to get tickets and have not been the come-one-come-all events of the primaries."
Both the McCain and Obama campaigns have new TV ads that they’ve released on Debate Day. Here’s Obama’s: “He’s out of ideas. Out of touch. And running out of time. But with no plan to lift our economy up, John McCain wants to tear Barack Obama down. With smears that have been proven false. Why? McCain’s own campaign admits that if the election is about the economy, he’s going to lose. But as Americans lose their jobs, homes and savings, it’s time for a President who’ll change the economy. Not change the subject.”
Here is McCain’s: “Obama's presidential campaign is asking Missouri law enforcement to target anyone who lies or runs a misleading television ad. How hypocritical. Obama's Social Security attack was called ‘a falsehood.’ His health care attack ... ‘misleading.’ Obama's stem cell attack ... ‘not true.’ Barack Obama. He promised better. He lied.”
