The Belmont Debate brought with it a mass migration of media and political operatives, protesters, and Obama supporters. The Hustler reports from the ground.
VANDY HOSTS NATIONAL ELECTION EXPERTS
Chris Matthews, Joe Klein, Harold Ford Jr. and others broke down for students the major issues of the campaign Tuesday morning -- and we've got the details.
A LITTLE ITALIAN CONSERVATISM
Sydney Wilmer finds a little surprise support for John McCain in Florence, Italy. Who knew?
RESPONSE TO DEBATE: EH. AWFULLY BORING.
Watch Hustler Editor Mike Warren and Torch Editor Katherine Miller's reaction to the terrible Belmont debate.
SARAH PALIN'S GOOD FOR MONEY...NOT LIKE THAT.
Fortunately for the Republicans, Sarah Palin has helped them bring in record shattering funds.
Both Robert and Robin Duncan said that, as they looked at the stage in Nashville during the televised debate, they had an uneasy feeling that they didn’t see the next president of the United States standing there.
Of course, they almost certainly did.
Robert and Robin are not alone. As of late, like some kind of Stockholm syndrome victim, I’ve found Messrs. Clinton and Bush particularly strong, sturdy, and well-reasoned. Now, of course, I’m one of six remaining Bush supporters, but both men have some unapologetic gravitas that’s lacking with the candidates. Both McCain and Obama — despite his altogether coolness — appear borne out of this crazy post-9/11 decade as reactive to the times and temperament of America, rather than pushing forwards a long-range vision. As a product of how early this election cycle began (and the blindsiding of the economic crisis), the primary seasons were basically removed from the two issues that became central for this campaign: the economy and, to a lesser extent, energy. The primaries were incredibly shortsighted, basically, and so we received shortsighted candidates. Wouldn’t you feel better if Hillary Clinton were running against Mitt Romney?
Like me, Fred Barnes pines for a return of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Forum:
“Oddly enough, it wasn’t a journalist who staged the best debate between McCain and Obama. It was an ordained minister, Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California [...] Their answers gave voters a far better idea of what makes the two candidates tick than all the policy-reality questions asked in the two official presidential debates and one vice presidential debate.
Once again for Youth Vote, Hustler editor Mike Warren and I provide a little video commentary on the debate which has already begun repressing itself in my mind for its sheer tedium.
Aside from that, I weighed in on the debate with the eloquently titled “McCain missed” for today’s Hustler. A morsel:
“There is a certain circle of hell, designated for Beltway Insiders, where the Belmont debate will be played on a continuous loop for the rest of time. Despite breathless anticipation for a riveting, running rebel, garage band type of town hall forum, we got a debate that did its damnedest to bore the financial crisis to an end.”
The column’s largely on both candidates’ push towards intense regulation and why that breaks my tiny, tiny heart of stone. Also, for Youth Vote, I broke down why the Belmont debate failed to capture Nashville at its core and suffered for it.
America’s political circus came to town Tuesday and the midway was the Belmont University campus, where the sideshows included political impersonators and musical entertainment.
The university was flooded by a spirited mass of political enthusiasts decked out in variations of red, white and blue.
Braving rain and wind, I trekked over to Belmont to catch all the finest moments of the debate atmosphere, here we go:
The entire area was just crawling with Obama supporters, though I found more McCain supporters than other Hustler people who were down there — they’re just drawn to me.
First of all, I’m not writing about the Vice-Presidential debate.I was tempted, as anyone would be, but after seeing everything else that has been written about the debate, I knew I wouldn’t be able to say anything original.Actually, Sarah Palin sounded really intelligent, and I hope she runs our country one day.That would be original.
Campus today has been abuzz with talk over the Presidential debate that will occur tonight right down the street at Belmont University.I had fairly low expectations for the last debate, and unfortunately, I was right.The debate was pretty dull.Barack talked about change and George W. Bush.McCain talked about experience and war and blah blah blah.Despite desperate pleas by the moderator, the two did everything they could to avoid interaction with one another.Basically, anyone who’s been following the campaign could have mapped out exactly how that debate would go before it ever even began.
Dana Millbank wants to make clear that Palin rallies have devolved into French Terror levels of mob mentality:
“Palin’s routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her ‘less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.’ At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, ‘Sit down, boy.’”
The first and second half of that paragraph only tangentially related to one another; by placing them together, he subtly implies Palin’s endorsement (or, at least, toleration) of casual racism. Solid city, y’all. Althouse gloriously shoots the defeatist train of thought down:
“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.
Intrepidly, I walked over to Belmont this evening to see what was happening on the ground and took a few photos of Vandy’s redheaded stepsister and her big day.
Looks classy — and fenced in. Not shocking or anything, but the entire campus looks like something from a state prison or a theme park (…are those things really any different?); you’re very limited in where you can go. Except the media, who have the best kind of transportation you can have:
With no clear winner in the first debate and major financial issues in the oven, both Barack Obama and John McCain want to distinguish themselves in the Belmont debate. August’s Saddleback Forum with Rick Warren may serve as a decent model for the debate. Obama will probably lean more toward intellectual, pragmatic responses that could be short on decisiveness, McCain more towards anecdotal, witty responses with forceful answers that can be a little too strong for some. For each big issue, we’ve provided the Rasmussen tracking for how each candidate is polling with voters as of Sept. 24, 2008.
