Passing through the newsroom this morning, I checked with Leroy to see what kind of response he’s gotten on the reader panel for the presidential debates.
He says he’s gotten eight applications from among the fine, upstanding citizens who frequent this blog, and 15 from the general public, via a notice they put in the paper Sunday.
One problem — so far, the respondents are heavily supportive of Obama, so he’s in the hunt for balance. Need more McCainiacs and independents.
That would describe some of y’all. So hurry up and sign up to be considered — the first debate’s Friday night.
To help you remember, here’s Leroy’s original message:
Colleagues,
The government team is assembling a panel of voters in our community
to watch the presidential and vice presidential debates with us and,
afterward, serve as a focus group on how the debaters fared during a
roundtable discussion we’ll have here at the newspaper. We will feature
this panel on thestate.com and include it in our debate coverage.Know somebody who’s mad for McCain, crazy for Palin, in love with
Obama and rooting for Biden? Know somebody who is undecided? Please,
send them my way. Especially the undecideds.We, of course, want diversity — men, women, young, old, political,
apolitical, Democrat, Republican, independent, black, white, brown,
etc. Keep that in mind as you think of folks who might be interested.Anticipating a fun experience. Please let anyone who is interested
know we would like for them to sit on the panel for all four debates.Thanks for your help
Write to him at lchapman@thestate.com.
FYI, if there are enough folks from the blog, I might even show up to say hey.
Related Posts
Need more McCainiacs
Brad, I think you may qualify…
What if there aren’t any more McCainiacs?
The debates are a sham.
The Republicans and the Democrats have created an organization called the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) for the purpose of taking the debates away from the League of Women Voters, in order to exclude third party and independent candidates from the political process.
Every four years, the two major parties negotiate a complex contract which excludes other presidential candidates from the national debates.
This year, the two negotiators for the secret contract were Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-IL). In order to protect the the Obama and McCain campaigns from public criticism, the Commission on Presidential Debates has refused to release this back-room contract for public inspection.
In order for your voice to be heard in this important presidential election, it is critical that this contract is made available to the general public before the debates.
Call the Commission on Presidential Debates at 202-872-1020 and voice your displeasure with the dishonest format.
I’d love to participate because I’m sure that the Bavarian Illuminati are woefully underrepresented. But, I’m quite tied up — work-wise, not deSade-wise — until the end of next week.
How busy am I?
I’m not intending to cast any aspersions or anything negatory, but does anyone else find that Brad’s mention that they’ve got a lot of Obama supporters imply that those folks have a lot of free time on their hands, or at least more than independents and McCainiacs seem to have? Now I’m not saying independents and McCainiacs work for a living and Obamanoids don’t, but that could be one explication, ya know.
I also am not intending to cast any aspersions or anything negatory, but perhaps it’s that the Obama supporters are the type of people who are making and taking the time to be informed, while the McCainiacs fail to thoughtfully consider their votes.
(Just in case it doesn’t read that way, I mean that as a friendly ribbing.)
The obamaoids are cultist delusionals, drunk of kook aid, sell their gonads for the cause.
Happens every second generation in stable capitalist societies; good for the body politic to purge.
stable capitalist society…someone hasn’t been reading the news. W and his boy Paulson are proposing government intervention that would make Castro blush. I don’t think Paulson nor W would be confused with “obamaoids”
Perhaps there aren’t more McManiacs because they’re seeing the light as George Will, the conservative writer, has as reflected in his thrashing of McCain: http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/will092308.php3
Perhaps George Will can wean Brad from the McKool-aid.
The mortgage market collapse is the result of the failure of two giant GOVERNMENT agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which backed millions of junk loans to unqualified minority home buyers, and to speculators.
And there’s racist Lee, once again blaming some of the nations problems on minorities (what, no unqualified loans to whites)?
In any case, Brad, I’m passing on a link to your plea to a few friends who are likely going in the McCain direction. Good luck.
I don’t blame the mortgage crisis on minorities. They are just pawns, used by race baiting Democrats and greedy bankers and builders to funnel money from the taxpayers into their pockets. They just used blacks and other unwitting, unsophisticated first-time buyers as a means to sell overpriced houses and fraudulent mortgage-backed securities.
It is an indisputable fact that most of the bad home loans were made due to the big push in the Clinton years to sell houses to low-income minorities. They eliminated down payments, and the Justice Department threatened to prosecute banks who used “profiling” by asking for proof of income, employment, assets and repayment history.
The current mortgage problems are nothing compared to what Obama and his radical socialist advisors and Muslim financiers have planned for America.
by all means lee let’s include the candidate for each party which captured electoral votes in the last 15 elections, any dixiecrats out there running? we coud also use 10% of total votes cast in elections, that might let in the progressives from 48 also. lee are you advocating some kind of european style socialist proportional representation? shocking! rush is very dissapointed.
I am advocating open and honest debates, not closed shows run by two parties who swap members and appointees.
No more phony “town hall” forums, moderated by faux journalists.
Obama now has a big lead in at least one major poll. Too bad the economy has to slip so far for people to understand the truth. That is, the GOP is incompetent when it comes to handling the nations economy. This from the Washington Post:
Economic Fears Give Obama Clear Lead Over McCain
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 24, 2008;
Turmoil in the financial industry and growing pessimism about the economy have altered the shape of the presidential race, giving Democratic nominee Barack Obama the first clear lead of the general-election campaign over Republican John McCain, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News national poll.
Economic Fears Give Obama Clear Lead Over McCain in Poll
Just 9 percent of those surveyed rated the economy as good or excellent, the first time that number has been in single digits since the days just before the 1992 election. Just 14 percent said the country is heading in the right direction, equaling the record low on that question in polls dating back to 1973.
More voters trust Obama to deal with the economy, and he currently has a big edge as the candidate who is more in tune with the economic problems Americans now face. He also has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street, and as a result, there has been a rise in his overall support. The poll found that, among likely voters, Obama now leads McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent. Two weeks ago, in the days immediately following the Republican National Convention, the race was essentially even, with McCain at 49 percent and Obama at 47 percent.
I don’t blame the mortgage crisis on minorities. They are just pawns, used by race baiting Democrats and greedy bankers and builders to funnel money from the taxpayers into their pockets.
-Lee
Greedy bankers and builders??? Are these here-to-fore icons of capitalism now socialists too?
True capitalism would not have any government-subsidized junk loans, and real capitalist builders would not seek out naive buyers using government loans.
But socialism corrupts morals, because it is basically a political system based on immoral greed. That is another reason we have to oppose it in all forms.
the swedish socialist system has a ceo – worker ratio of less than 40-1 while ours in now at 275-1. of course they also live longer, have lower infant mortality, rates, cancer rates, heart attack rates, etc. isn’t greed great-you can even get a 700 billion welfare check your grandchildren can pay.
Compare the health of middle class white Americans to middle class Swedes.
You might also wonder why those Swedes and other Europeans who can afford to, also purchase private medical insurance to bypass the socialist medical system.
Socialist redistribution of wealth works fairly well in a homogeneous population of industrious workers like Sweden or Denmark, but not in transferring wealth from a minority of productive workers to a majority of illiterate, lazy deadbeats, like the US welfare system.
And that “worker ratio of less than 40-1 while ours in now at 275-1” is totally BOGUS, so I wonder if bud made it up, or who fed it to him.
Unfortunately, I have a social obligation that conflicts with the debate, so I will be Tivo’ing it and watching the highlights. I also missed the message in the paper, so I’m glad you posted it on the blog.
So, not this time, but if you plan on doing this for future debates, I will definitely consider participating.
“True capitalism” — I like that. Reminds me of the Marxists who complained that the Soviet Union didn’t practice “true socialism…”
And Randy, Will has never liked McCain because McCain is not his sort of conservative. He doesn’t like all that Teddy-Roosevelt-type ranting against entrenched moneyed interests and the like. And he hates, hates, HATES McCain-Feingold, because Mr. Will is one of those people who believes that spending=speech.
Brad, you are the one who brags about not knowing what socialism and capitalism real are, and not caring which one delivers your goodies.
If newspapers were not exempt from McCain-Feingold spending limits, they would be all for immediate repeal.
Looks like the need for a debate panel will be moot. I guess McCain heard that no one in Columbia SC wanted to take his side he decided to bail from the debate.
Seriously do we have to stop our politics for this financial crisis? Sure there’s a bit of a financial problem here but the stock market is holding firm today. Housing starts are only down by about 2%. It seems like a lot of panic on the basis of relatively modest bad news. I’m starting to think the GOP is using this as an opportunity to scare the voters. Their philosophy seems to be a scared voter is a GOP voter.
A bit of a financial problem?
A bit?
More like umpteen gigabytes.
But, alas, for the have-nots, not so much as a bump in the road.
The Democrats figure a failed economy gets Obama elected, and won’t cost their constituents much, because their constituents don’t have much to lose.
So here it comes, here it comes, here comes my 19th nervous breakdown.
Democrats at the top already skimmed off their millions in bonuses from Lehman, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and made their donations to the Obama campaign, leaving poor black homebuyers and the US taxpayers stuck with the bills.
Obama’s top advisors raked in over $400,000,000 in bonuses last year from Lehman Brothers, Freddie and Fannie.
Let Barack Obama debate Bob Barr, while John McCain tends to business.
Barr would strip the gloss off Obama in a New York minute.