Via Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:
Sen. Barack Obama "backed away from rival John McCain's challenge for a series of joint appearances, agreeing only to the standard three debates in the fall," the AP reports.I'm sorry, but I have to call out Obama's campaign on this. These joint appearances, as I wrote back in June, would be good for our nation's electoral process and its political mood. I also can't help but wonder why Obama would not welcome these debates. Is he really concerned that he would not win them? McCain has been stumbling over his own tongue for weeks now.
Wrote campaign manager David Plouffe: "Due to the late date of the two parties' nominating conventions, and the relatively short period between the end of the conventions and the first proposed debate, it is likely that the four Commission debates will be the sole series of debates in the fall campaign."
I know that, as the front-runner, all Obama's campaign really needs to do is minimize potential mistakes. But he's got to start taking a few more chances or risk losing the "post-partisan" label he's worked so hard for.
| Like this post? | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
 Subscribe by RSS |
 Subscribe by Email |
1 comments:
For starters, McCain is on a lying binge and is relying on bogus facts and up-is-down takes on current events. In a debate setting this puts Obama in the position of having to "correct" McCain. This feeds powerfully into the image McCain has been trying to create of Obama as "uppity." The younger man looks disrespectful for correcting his elder, but if he doesn't, a lie stands and his lack of objection gives the lie added life.
Secondly and less defensible, Obama is clearly in the lead (more than the polls would suggest as they only measure movement among the fickle) and standard campaign strategy dictates that he limit his exposure to such settings.
In that context you need to remember that the media has shown itself to biased to an absurd extent. Fox News and ABC are unacceptable venues, but with three debates one of them will undoubtedly get to host a debate and that will be to Obama's detriment.
But mostly I suspect that the Obama folks would like lots of debates but haven't been able to figure out how Obama can criticize McCain without looking like a bully as Gore and Mondale were accused of.
Post a Comment