The Belmont Debate brought with it a mass migration of media and political operatives, protesters, and Obama supporters. The Hustler reports from the ground.
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.
Sydney Wilmer finds a little surprise support for John McCain in Florence, Italy. Who knew?
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.
Often ignored by the public, third-party candidates were finally given a chance to talk about their parties and issues on Monday in a debate hosted by the Coalition for October Debate Alternatives.
Six third-party candidates convened in Stevenson Center and expressed their views on topics ranging from the Wall Street bailout to the environment. Bruce Barry, professor of sociology and management at Owen Graduate School of Management, moderated the debate, which was followed by a reception.
The debate featured Charles Jay of the Boston Tea Party, Brad Lyttle of the U.S. Pacifist Party, Frank McEnulty of the New American Independent Party, Brian Moore of the Socialist Party, Darryl Castle of the Constitutional Party and Gloria La Riva of the Party of Socialism and Liberation. While the parties differ significantly from each other and from the major parties, they are alike because they want to “change the very nature of government,” according to Barry.
All candidates expressed the belief that the major parties do not represent the American people.
“The two major political parties ignore the majority of Americans,” said McEnulty, who is also the vice-presidential candidate for the Reform Party, another third party.
The candidates also thanked CODA for giving them the opportunity to participate in a political forum.
“America is winning because we are here tonight,” said Jay, who is making his second bid for the presidency.
Aimee Sobhani reporting for The Vanderbilt Hustler.
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:
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.
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America's political circus came to town Tuesday and the midway was the Belmont University campus, where the sideshows included political ...
Often ignored by the public, third-party candidates were finally given a chance to talk about their parties and issues on ...
“When I woke up this morning, I felt like I had to pinch myself,†said political science professor John Geer. ...
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