Interesting. Though this would never work. Without a moderator, the microphone would have to be pulled from Hillary's cold, dead hands before she stopped talking lying.

Oh man, I hope this is true and Obama accepts, because I think he could clean her clock.

MAKE IT HAPPEN!

If this happens, we might actually get to see Hillary cry and/or use the n-word in frustration live on television.

this could be interesting, but she's going to be in trouble if she can't steer things towards useless issues like flags, pastors and snipers, instead of towards actual issues like the economy, iraq, and health care.

Unright: Oh man, I hope this is true and Obama accepts, because I think he could clean her clock.

MAKE IT HAPPEN!

i'm sure it's true, but he shouldn't. there isn't enough policy difference to really debate for that long. she very clearly simply wants an hour of free air time to sling mud at him. and without meaningful policy differences to talk about, and not wanting to resort to mud slinging, it would not be a good thing for him.

i would LOVE to see this happen between he and mccain though.

Unright: Oh man, I hope this is true and Obama accepts, because I think he could clean her clock.

...if he could get a word in edgewise, because this sounds more likely to me:

Atillathepun: Interesting. Though this would never work. Without a moderator, the microphone would have to be pulled from Hillary's cold, dead hands before she stopped talking lying.

I imagine she'd make Bill O'Reilly look considerate and generous.

burndtdan: i'm sure it's true, but he shouldn't. there isn't enough policy difference to really debate for that long. she very clearly simply wants an hour of free air time to sling mud at him. and without meaningful policy differences to talk about, and not wanting to resort to mud slinging, it would not be a good thing for him.

aimtastic: ...if he could get a word in edgewise,

So give them a timekeeper who controls which microphones are live.

Give Clinton 30 minutes. Then Obama gets 30 mins to respond. Then each get 15 minutes.

If Clinton spends her entire time mudslinging, then it will hurt her because Obama has proven very adept at not being frazzled by nonsense and at calling her out on her hypocrisy and making her look foolish.

Let's not practice soundbite politics for once.

Hillary Clinton challenges Barack Obama to a 90-minute moderator-free debate, Lincoln-Douglas style, before May 6th

Why the hell would he accept this?

That'd be like the Patriots calling for a 30 minute OT without refs.

Obama is not going to debate her again. At least not before 5/6.

And just because one person (the desperate one) wants another debate doesn't mean that another debate is needed. Twenty one debates so far has to be some kind of record.

I'd look forward to it just to see someone wear a stove-pipe hat. That shiat needs to come back in style.

I believe she means a semi-moderator free debate, you're going to have to have some kind of moderator to prevent it turning in to a shouting match.

And you don't want one anyway. Do you really want to see a debate where Hillary gets to ask Obama questions and vice versa?

I'd love it if Jon Stewart could teach him some of the facial cues he uses. Just let her ramble on and on, and every minute or so, when she lies, give one of those pained, "what a maroon" looks.

But really, just stay cool and collected. It bugs the hell out of her, and that comes across pretty clearly.

After the last catastrophe? He's not going to do it and she knows it. She just wants more press. She's getting it.

Hilary: You're a spineless, indecisive, vision lacking loser.
Obama: Biatch STFU and get me a sammich and a beer.
Hilary: I love you Barack.

From the other debates she now knows how to get under his skin.
Al she wants to do is make him lose his cool, becoming just another poitician, and forever disturbing his mojo.

I'd never vote for either of them, but I might actually watch that. And I've watched all of one Democratic debate this past year, and that was back when they still let Mike Gravel on stage.

My bet is that McCain will only do one debate, if that. I think Obama's dead wrong on a lot of things, as I do McCain, but there's little doubt that Obama could crush him in a debate. Particularly since Obama will have actual policy differences with McCain to talk about rather than having nothing to talk about but campaign tactics and bullshiat "scandals".

Really, because if you know anything at all about the Lincoln Douglas debates they were not debates in the modern sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln-Douglas_debates_of_1858

Each debate had this format: one candidate spoke for an hour, then the other candidate spoke for an hour and a half, and then the first candidate was allowed a half hour "rejoinder." The candidates alternated speaking first. As the incumbent, Douglas spoke first in four of the debates.

I don't think this is what Hillary wants.

burndtdan: i'm sure it's true, but he shouldn't. there isn't enough policy difference to really debate for that long. she very clearly simply wants an hour of free air time to sling mud at him. and without meaningful policy differences to talk about, and not wanting to resort to mud slinging, it would not be a good thing for him.

I think there are enough differences in how they would execute their policies to make a debate interesting and worth watching.

Health care: Insurance mandate vs. working to lower costs without a mandate. Mortgage crisis: Put a freeze on mortgage interest rates vs. reform lending laws. Pre-K education: What has to be cut to find funding? Etcetera.

It could be the most informative and important debate, for Democratic voters, that the candidates could ever hold.

On the other hand, it makes me think Hillary has been watching too much West Wing.

Oh, and I forgot to say, from all the other debates I've seen- the moderators are the worst part of the whole farce.

burndtdan: Unright: Oh man, I hope this is true and Obama accepts, because I think he could clean her clock.

MAKE IT HAPPEN!

i'm sure it's true, but he shouldn't. there isn't enough policy difference to really debate for that long. she very clearly simply wants an hour of free air time to sling mud at him. and without meaningful policy differences to talk about, and not wanting to resort to mud slinging, it would not be a good thing for him.

John Jackson: "It's time someone had the courage to stand up and say: I'm against those things that everybody hates."
Jack Johnson: "Now, I respect my opponent. I think he's a good man. But quite frankly, I agree with everything he just said."
John Jackson: "I say your three cent titanium tax goes too far."
Jack Johnson: "And I say your three cent titanium tax doesn't go too far enough."

Lawnchair: I'd love it if Jon Stewart could teach him some of the facial cues he uses. Just let her ramble on and on, and every minute or so, when she lies, give one of those pained, "what a maroon" looks.

But really, just stay cool and collected. It bugs the hell out of her, and that comes across pretty clearly.

Did you watch the Ohio debates? Obama's physical reactions to her mic-whoring were priceless.

Right now he's throwing up ad's in every remaining state just to make her overextend what comparatively little cash she has left for the primaries.

Giving her any free airtime in upcoming states just doesn't make sense.

wasn't he floating the idea of another debate back before she released her tax documents and she said no? I seem to remember that being the case. If so, he should just say "you had your chance, now my schedule's full - too short notice"

Atillathepun: Interesting. Though this would never work. Without a moderator, the microphone would have to be pulled from Hillary's cold, dead hands before she stopped talking lying.

/THIS

Hillary's campaign is low on funds and wants any free exposure they can get.

I see no reason for Obama to debate Hillary again. Their platforms are far too similar for most people to tell the difference, and we've had quite enough in the way of debates.

That said, as a former Lincoln-Douglas debater, I would LOVE to see these two go at it with National Forensics League rules (pops - scroll down and read Lincoln Douglas Introduction). The idea of having an actual debate that I can flow makes my girl-parts happy.

worlddan: I don't think this is what Hillary wants

That format made a whole lot more sense back when everyone seeing the debate would be hearing those speeches for the first time. If Hillary and Obama did that, we'd just hear the same goddamn speeches that we've heard for months.

I do agree the speaking times should definitely be expanded from a minute or thirty seconds out to four or five minutes, though. Or maybe it'd be even better to have a moderator who'd freely let them speak and respond to each other without set time limits. As long as a candidate stays on one point, they get to keep speaking, but only so long as they stay on one point. Other candidates would have to signal the moderator to be recognized to speak rather than interrupting. And they should all have live equal time clocks, like the idiots only finally started using when all the candidates they never let speak had been forced out of the debates.

randomjsa: Do you really want to see a debate where Hillary gets to ask Obama questions and vice versa?

I can picture it now,


Sen. Clinton: Sayingsorrymeansyouconcede.

Sen. Obama: I'm sorry Sen. Clinton?

Sen. Clinton: I accept my opponent's concession and hope that he can help me move this country forward.

"Face to face, no moderator but a chess clock" might be amusing.

Hillary's got a plan!

She wants an oportunity to drag Obama down to her own ugly standards. Without a moderator she will start throwing filth and dirt at him from getgo, expecting Obama to stay above the fray and thus win by default. Either way she plans to win, if Obama plays a decency defence she will shout and yell that Obama had nothing to say in his defence, and if Obama does gets down and dirty she will cry and tear up and use that to her advantage with her poor, old, illiterate, female demographic.

/filthfest

Clinton would challenge Obama to a pissing in the snow contest if she could get him to turn it down, then clam he's weak.

/clinton would win.
//she has a bigger penis.

Mavian: Right now he's throwing up ad's in every remaining state just to make her overextend what comparatively little cash she has left for the primaries.

Giving her any free airtime in upcoming states just doesn't make sense.

True if you think about it from an Obama standpoint. But if you think about it from a party standpoint, it has merit. If Hillary and Obama are debating the one person that's not in the news is McCain. So the debates do serve one purpose which is to keep the attention focused on the Democrats.

Whether in the long-run that works out as a positive for the party is ahem..debatable, but it is a fair point.

"Please, please, give me free TV exposure! I'm totally broke!"

Unright: Give Clinton 30 minutes. Then Obama gets 30 mins to respond. Then each get 15 minutes.

About 6 years ago or so, the weekend before Election Day, C-SPAN had a sort of marathon of Governor, House, and Senate debates from across the fruited plain. I remember that the Indiana Senate debate (Dick Lugar against Some Guy) had a format very similar to that. Something like one guy got 15 minutes, then the other guy got 20 minutes, then the first guy got another five or something.

who wants to listen to that kunt ramble on incessantly?

nobody

Here's what Obama needs to do: just ignore her. Stop responding to her accusations, don't comment when asked about them by the media, and generally just act like she doesn't exist.

Then he goes right after McCain as though he were the Democratic nominee. Start taking McCain to task for some of the foibles and lunacy coming out of his mouth. He could actually start talking about the differences in their policies instead of personal crap with a fellow "democrat".

Basically, he should just start running his presidential campaign and ignore Clinton as though she has already lost and is just hanging around like some type of crazy person. *cough* That part shouldn't be so tough.

I think if he started playing it that way then a lot of this meaningless crap would just dissolve.

/one could hope

NFL Lincoln-Douglas debate follows this format:

Affirmative Constructive 6 minutes (AC)
Cross-Examination 3 minutes
Negative Constructive 7 minutes (NC)
Cross-Examination 3 minutes
First Affirmative Rebuttal 4 minutes (1AR)
Negative Rebuttal 6 minutes (NR)
Second Affirmative Rebuttal 3 minutes (2AR)

No new arguments after the NC.
3 minutes of downtime per candidate, to be used at their discretion between speeches.
3 uncommitted judges (maybe superdelegates?)

. . . yeah, I can get behind this.

hours of this?

Uh , and what does he have to gain by giving it to her!
He hasn't done so well in a free style forum and without a set answer he doesn't seem to be very fast on his Uh feet.

32 minutes per issue x 3 issues = 96 minutes.

/Do it.

hotter than the ads:

Darn you!

A real debate?

You mean sommat other than just another painful opportunity for the MSM to bring up pseudo scandals and irrelevant minutia in a further attempt to dumb down and trivialise the process?

Hell, yeah.

Bring. It. On.

Quatchi don't buy into the idear that Hillary is a better debater than Obama, as some have suggested. She is a better mudslinger certainly, more comfortable with disingenuousness and quick to bring up nonessentials and make it sound like there is some substance to her words but, in point of fact, she could not sustain the fight on a policy wonk level Obama when he slips into full professorial mode and her entire schtick would fall flat when she can no longer engage in sound byte politics. Also, her ugly, seamy, nasty side would eventually become obvious to all but the most oblivious Hill Shills in the audience.

Obama FTW.

Obviously it would be playing into increasingly impoverished hands up to a point but one must also consider the traction she will get by going around Idiana and to a lesser degree NC mentioning Obama's name and making poultry-esque noises.

Of course, an Obama-McCain debate would be even more worthy of the biggest batch of real buttered popcorn one could make cos McAncient is seriously barking mad and his policies are as stupid as they are dangerous. The Dem on Dem bloodshed to date has largely obscured McCain's obvious madness from sinking into the zeitgeist.

Obamatron can't and won't appear on any live debate vs. Clinton. Why? He is showing what a pussy he really is.
If he is so far out in front, has such a commanding lead, why not take the opportunity to bury her once and for all??? Isn't it about time to start preparing for Johnny Mac, get rid of the bizzo and start going after the old guy???
Obamatron managers know why, this doof is a liability when it comes to debate, he is ready to uncork the statement that finally shows the fanboys that they are supporting a tape recorder, not a candidate.
Must suck to support a loser. Congrats Obamatron fanboys.

I think this is how the last debate will go (the 19th century way):

Link (new window)


Funny stuff, but true.

slyde: Obamatron can't and won't appear on any live debate vs. Clinton. Why? He is showing what a pussy he really is.
If he is so far out in front, has such a commanding lead, why not take the opportunity to bury her once and for all??? Isn't it about time to start preparing for Johnny Mac, get rid of the bizzo and start going after the old guy???
Obamatron managers know why, this doof is a liability when it comes to debate, he is ready to uncork the statement that finally shows the fanboys that they are supporting a tape recorder, not a candidate.
Must suck to support a loser. Congrats Obamatron fanboys.

but i'm a fan boy and i farking LOVE tape recorders. i find them witty and informative.

A hail mary that would make her look like the slime she is.

Unright: If Clinton spends her entire time mudslinging, then it will hurt her because Obama has proven very adept at not being frazzled by nonsense and at calling her out on her hypocrisy and making her look foolish.

I respectfully disagree. Obama supporters may like to think Obama handles direct confrontation well, but it isn't the case. Hence the whole ABC was mean to Obama flap. If Obama handled the ABC moderators well, there would have been no issue.

There is a reason why he stopped debating after the ABC debate and avoided the press prior to the PA primary, he does not respond well to pressure. The only way he can lose the nomination at this point are by errors on his part, debates are an excellent opportunity for such errors.

On the other hand, the long form of oration in a Lincoln Douglas debate is closer to speech than actual debate, which could play to his advantage.

It is a good idea for Hillary to throw this idea out there. If I were in her position, I'd be challenging him every day until he says yes.

I'd love to see them go at it in this format and see if it revealed anything new about either of them. Besides, Obama would be given a chance to hone his skills before he takes on McCain in a debate.

slyde: Obamatron can't and won't appear on any live debate vs. Clinton. Why? He is showing what a pussy he really is.
If he is so far out in front, has such a commanding lead, why not take the opportunity to bury her once and for all??? Isn't it about time to start preparing for Johnny Mac, get rid of the bizzo and start going after the old guy???
Obamatron managers know why, this doof is a liability when it comes to debate, he is ready to uncork the statement that finally shows the fanboys that they are supporting a tape recorder, not a candidate.
Must suck to support a loser. Congrats Obamatron fanboys.

She will lose, you will rue, world will rejoice.