Presidential Debates Set

The debates are set, there will be four of them: Sept. 30, Oct. 8, and Oct. 13, and Oct. 5 for the VPs. All are at 9 p.m. Eastern. Get more details and read the memorandum of understanding (it is unreadable in Preview for me, I had to use Acrobat). There's not much different in here than in previous years. Says CNN: "A senior Kerry source said the Bush campaign was 'hung up' over whether a light or something audible like a buzzer would be used to tell the candidates when their time is up. A Bush official acknowledged that last-minute questions, mostly over the time cue issue, held up the agreement." In related news, it appears the first debate proposed by the truly nonpartisan Citizens' Debate Commission, scheduled for this Wednesday in Columbus, isn't going to happen.

Comments

Re:The debates could be very good for Kerry

[ImaLamer]

You've got some good points.

But what I think will be interesting is the way the Bush campaign is going to shift ahead of the debates. Both Edwards and Kerry are quick with the tounge and smart men, it will be fun to watch the strategy shift in the GOP.

Seriously, and I'm not 'baiting here. Bush and Cheney have twisted a lot of what these two have said. Take the $87bln for Iraq. Their big line at the convention was that Kerry said he voted for it before he voted against it. Now, think about it. Isn't that how the congress works? You introduce a bill that I don't like, I say "nay" and we move on to something that we can hopefully agree on. Kerry was in favor of a bill that rolled back some tax cuts to fund the troops. Now, if everyone else had voted for his favored version it wouldn't be an issue. But it has become an issue and no one in the mainstream press has pointed out that many Republicans actually voted against the $87 billion before they voted for it.

These type of 'lies' or 'mistruths' aren't going to work when thrown in the face of Kerry and Edwards. It's easy to say this stuff behind their backs, hundreds of miles away but when all are on stage together we'll see what is really going to happen. I'll admit that I'm a Kerry supporter, but I've yet to see him tell a lie about Cheney and Bush. It doesn't have to be done, their records paint a bad enough picture.

But then again Cheney's lying takes the cake. Remember he said that Iraq had reconstituted their nuclear program on Meet the Press? Then when confronted about this he said that he never said that. The interviewer was shocked (and awed) at this, and IIRC, she had nothing to say in response.