• • Did you watch the debate or listen to it on the radio?
• • Are you aware of the secret contract [in this case, the hush-hush agreement that both Senator Obama and Senator McCain have hammered out in private before the event]?
• • Format and minor details • •
• • Some of these debates can feature each candidate standing behind his/ her podium, or at a conference table with the moderator on the opposite side. Depending on the agreed format, either the moderator or an audience member can be the one to ask a questions. Typically there are no opening statements, just closing statements.
• • Sponsorship • •
• • How much do you, a registered voter, know about debate sponsorship?
• • How much do you care?
• • How much have you been involved in what is known as "oversight"?
• • Control of the presidential debates has been a ground of struggle for more than two decades.
• • The nonpartisan League of Women Voters • •
• • This role used to filled by the nonpartisan League of Women Voters (LWV) — — a civic organization — — in 1976, 1980, and 1984.
• • In 1987 . . . • •
• • In 1987, the LWV withdrew from debate sponsorship, in protest of the major party candidates attempting to dictate nearly every aspect of how the debates were conducted.
• • On October 2, 1988, the LWV's 14 trustees voted unanimously to pull out of the debates, and on October 3 they issued a dramatic press release:
• • • • The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the presidential debates... because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity, and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.
• • Hoodwinking of the American public is certainly going on in September 2008 — — and every major newspaper has struggled to expose the secret contract at the heart of this "hoodwinking."
• • The same year [1987], the two major political parties assumed control of organizing presidential debates through the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). The commission has been headed since its inception by former chairs of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee.
• • Some have criticized the exclusion of third party and independent candidates as well as the parallel interview format as a minimum of getting 15% in opinion polls is required to be invited. In 2004, the Citizens' Debate Commission (CDC) was formed with the stated mission of returning control of the debates to an independent nonpartisan body rather than a bipartisan body. Nevertheless, the CPD retained control of the debates that year and in 2008.
• • Do you care about "secret contracts" and being hoodwinked? Or was your main concern, as you watched the debate, how fresh your taco chips were?
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Born in Brooklyn, NY, Mae West came into the world on 17 August 1893.
• • Over 2 dozen individuals came up to see Mae on August 17th and celebrate with us in New York, NY!
• • Come up and see Mae West onstage — —
view link
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • Read more — —
view link
_______________________________
______________
posted by ChelseaLad
Write in Guestbook