John McCain agrees with Web group on opening debates more; Barack Obama silent

The campaign of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin has endorsed a proposal by a diverse coalition of Internet pioneers to drastically change some aspects of the current string of presidential campaign debates.

In a Thursday letter signed by McCain campaign general counsel Trevor Potter to the Open Debate Coalition, the Republican's campaign says:

"The McCain-Palin campaign agrees with you that the debates are ultimately for the benefit of the American people ... we support your suggestion that the public play a role in selecting the questions to be asked."

"We also believe that Americans -- including the campaigns themselves -- should be able to 'debate the debates' using all available tools on the Internet and elsewhere, including blogs, web-video services and other means."

Potter also notes that the next presidential debate is Tuesday in Nashville, a town hall format favored by McCain because the questions come directly from the audience free of media filter.

Potter recalls that the Arizona senator proposed a series of at least 10 such town hall sessions between the two major party candidates during the summer, but Obama ultimately rejected that opportunity.

As The Ticket reported exclusively the other day, the debate openness group sought freedom from copyright restrictions on all debate-related materials and a system to allow regular Americans to submit and winnow through questions for the candidates, not leaving that to the hosting media.

To drive home its agreement with the coalition, the McCain campaign copied its letter to the co-chairmen of the Commission on Presidential Debates, Frank Fahrenkopf and Paul Kirk, both former national party chairmen.

Ironic that the GOP campaign, which has taken some PR hits, especially McCain himself, for being allegedly less tech-savvy than the campaign of Barack Obama, would be first to respond and agree with the new openness coalition.

Its members include Craig Newmark, founder of CraigsList; Lawrence Lessig, a law professor; Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos and Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit.com.

A coalition source said it was still waiting to hear officially from Obama's campaign. A complete text of the McCain letter is available here.

--Andrew Malcolm

By the way, you can still get free instant alerts on all Ticket items like this flashed direct to your cellphone by registering here free at Twitter.

Comments

[disbeliever]

I hope McCain is asked about how hes learned from his involvement with the S&L Scandal, having been one of the Keating 5; the 5 senators implicated as being directly involved in the scandal.

[DG Clark]

Didn't citizens, not the media, choose the questions when the League of Women Voters ran the debates? Once again, Big Government has screwed it up.

[John]

Is anybody going to comment on the obviously republican pronunciation of NOOKYALER?
Palin used it several times during the debate. Do we have to deal with yet another administration that can't speak proper english? Does she strive to be as ingorant as W?
Why - with a 'no child left behind' policy do they continue to use this non-word?
If they wish to lead by example, what they are teaching is 'Stand firmly behind your ignorance'.

[John]

Is anybody going to comment on the obviously republican pronunciation of NOOKYALER?
Palin used it several times during the debate. Do we have to deal with yet another administration that can't speak proper english? Does she strive to be as ingorant as W?
Why - with a 'no child left behind' policy do they continue to use this non-word?
If they wish to lead by example, what they are teaching is 'Stand firmly behind your ignorance'.

[Monk]

Brilliant!!! Let's change the rules just before the election. What MORON thought this up???

[shannon]

The McCain camp must consider everyone to be stupid. I think ANYONE could show up with their Own questions, and answer them in general terms. Especially, if you have a background as a beauty queen where generalities are given in speeches. The Republicans talked about her "Performance," and I would consider them correct-it was a PERFORMANCE. There was no substance and she did not answer the questions given. As far as G.W. being the in the past, last time I checked, he was still our President, making decisions and influencing policy, which is still affecting us as citizens. Past? As far as I'm concerned, George Bush is very much in the present and if you can't distinguish him from McCain policy, there's a problem!

[Martin]

Did Sarah debate for Governor of Alaska or VP and eventually President of the USA? She talked many times about Alaska but ask yourself is Alaska demographically comparable to the most of the other States? Does the oil in Alaska make her to an energy expert??! Give me a break with all this nonsense. Of course she gets 84% for exceeding expectations but that is not a surprise after her embarrassing interviews. Does anyone seriously believe that she would be able to sustain a tough debate without any notes with Vladimir Putin, what would she do change subject to energy! Keep in mind she is a heartbeat away!

[GeraldD]

I WONDER IF THE FANNIE MAE CROOKS WILL EVER GO TO JAIL ? THE BAIL OUT CRISIS WAS CAUSED BY A HANDFUL OF CORRUPT CONGRESSMEN AND FANNIE MAE OFFICIALS. THEY BOUGHT UP OVER 7 TRILLION DOLLARS IN BAD DEBT IN ORDER TO PAD THE BOOKS AND COLLECT HUGE SALARY BONUSES FOR THEMSELVES.

THREE VIDEOS THOSE CORRUPT FANNIE MAE OFFICIALS & CORRUPT CONGRESSMEN DON'T WANT THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE TO SEE:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMouthPeace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WKtp01yOw


One Of The Crooks Is Rumored To Be The Next Attorney General Under Obama. If That Happens, NONE of them will ever be brought to justice.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=67068

[steve rodriguez]

The one who Unites us Barrack Obama is inviting on his website his supporters to protest Sarah Palins Dallas rally today!

[CJH]

It appears McCain is playing another one of his tricks with help from his friends. Who set up this proposal so late in the process? Nothing about McCain is straight forward...There is a hidden agenda somewhere. I do not trust any agreement to change debate rules from McCain, his lawyer, his advisors, or the person who wants to make this changes This is another example of McCain's erratuc behavior. Is he calling in favors for this cheap shot?

[lovemyUSA]

Lets not change debate rules--like have the moderator be in the tank for a book she wrote about "The One"--don't ask any questions about abortion because Obama will get creamed! Or let's not ask about how the dems caused this whole bail-out fiasco...."The One" has the mods in his pocket--we won't see any controversial question asked of him...

[samcat]

CJH claims :"It appears McCain is playing another one of his tricks with help from his friends. Who set up this proposal so late in the process? Nothing about McCain is straight forward."

3 of the 4 people who proposed this are liberal Democrats and at least two are firm Obama supporters. How are these McCain's friends? He simply wants to speak directly to the American people without the bias and distortion of a media filter. I can't blame him considering how disreputable and sensationalist the media has become.

It takes a lot of spin to see a hidden agenda there. Is the Obama camp afraid to step out from behind the filter and media protection? Hmm.

Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos is involved in the proposal and DailyKos is one of the most liberal forums on the net and is firmly anti-McCain/Palin

That web group isn't that "diverse"; most of the ones I'm familiar with are partisan hacks who don't really want an open debate. In fact, three of the people involved in this effort were involved in an earlier effort that succeeded only in showing that they don't want a real debate:

http://24ahead.com/blog/archives/008048.html

The bottom line: it's a scam, whether Lessig and some of the others know it or not.

P.S. It'd be great if people wouldn't post off-topic copy 'n' pastes like the Youtube one above.

[RHRobinson]

l. Disbeliever- It was DC Attorney Robert Bennett who stated that McCain was included in the Keating Five investigation solely to make it a bipartisan scandal. The special prosecutor tried to drop McCain from the issue because HE WASN'T INVOLVED, but the Democrats couldn't let themselves be rightfully the only ones shown to be liars and thieves, so they had to include someone. SEE ALSO: Fannie, Freddie, Community Reinvestment Act and Revisions. Coming to a courtroom near you with a full cast of Dem characters.
2. John-NOOKYALER is how President Jimmy Carter and J. Robert Oppenheimer pronounce the word. Both probably know a LOT more about NOOKYALER stuff than you.
3. Monk-Obama is all about change. Look up how he got the DEM nomination.
4.Shannon-Sorry, your rant doesn't make sense. Look up Joe Biden. You may have been separated at birth.
5. Martin-She's FROM Alaska. Yes, her experience makes her of an expert on energy. Hang in there with Biden, he's priceless. As far as debating with Putin, she will debate him just fine, thank you. Much better than 0bama with his tendency to start with "how do I surrender?".
6.Steve-Now THAT'S being Presidential! The kind of change we can believe in. Grow up, 0Bots.
7. CJH-Yeah, keep that paranoia alive. Remember how McCain offered to do 10 town hall debates (as mentioned above) and 0bama slinked away? What? No teleprompters allowed? I loved how the 0 needed a teleprompter to congratulate Biden on is win (sic) at the VP debate. LOL! You are right - don't trust ANY debate format that doesn't include a moderator that is writing a book about the 0 coming out Jan 20th (and neglects to mention that to the CPD, just slipped her mind that she stands to gain financially from the outcome).

[Ellie K]

McCain isn't playing tricks... several months ago didn't he challenge Obama to several townhall debates that Obama didn't take up?

Also, according to this wikipedia entry devoted entirely to the mispronunciation of 'nuclear' as 'nucular' one can see that this isn't a "Republican mispronunciation" as one sneering commenter here seems to suggest. On the list of people who say 'nucular' are Clinton, Carter and Walter Mondale (and yes, also Eisenhower, G.W. Bush, and Palin). Apparently these are sourced claims...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucular

Anyway, I for one look forward to another debate of Obama saying "You're right, John" several times and attempting to lie about what Kissinger said (which Kissinger himself later called him out on).

[geokstr]

Disbeliever:

Can't you leftwing Obamabots ever stop lying?

Bob Bennett is a DEMOCRAT, and was the DEMOCRATIC special counsel appointed by the DEMOCRAT Ethics Committee to investigate the Keating Five. On Fe8 21 of THIS YEAR he repeated exactly what has said all along about McCain and the Keating scandal:

"You know, I'm in a pretty unique position to talk about John McCain. First, I should tell your listeners, you know, I'm a registered Democrat, so I'm not on his side of a lot of issues. But I investigated John McCain for a year and a half, at least, when I was special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee in the Keating Five, which, by the way, this New York Times article goes back to and discusses, goes back years and years.

And if there is one thing I am absolutely confident of, it is John McCain is an honest man. I recommended to the Senate Ethics Committee that he be cut out of the case, that there was no evidence against him, and I think for the New York Times to dig this up just shows that Senator McCain's public statement about this is correct. It's a smear job. I'm sorry."

So YOUR guy says McCain was kept on the case ONLY because the other four, ALL DEMOCRATS, insisted because they did not want this to look like a DEMOCRAT scandal, which it WAS.

ALL FOUR DEMOCRATS WERE FOUND GUILTY. MCCAIN WAS FOUND INNOCENT.

And he even had the integrity (look it up) to apologize for even the appearance of impropriety.

I really wish that dirtbags like you would have to identify yourselves. You are all over every blog that has anything bad to say about Obama and anything slightly positive about MCCain or Palin with your lies and smears copy/pasted from Kos, even ones like this that have no basis in fact whatsoever. Does Soros pay you by the post, or by the number of blogs you leave your smelly little droppings on?

[charles]

Change you can trust, a slogan that could turn around McCain's campaign?

Change you can trust contrasts beautifully with change you can believe in.

Everyone wants change, only with a team that we can trust to implement it.
If you're in a tough spot, you want someone to come to help you that you can trust, not someone you believe may want to help you.

John McCain, polls show, is rated as highly qualified and highly trusted. This slogan, change you can trust, reinforces this message.

It can even be added on to John McCain’s current slogan. Country first, change you can trust. Or perhaps Change you can trust that puts Country first. Or how about Change you can trust that puts America first

It implies without directly saying it that the other side is perhaps a little less trustworthy.

It also reinforces the message that in a time we are facing battle with Al Qaeda worldwide and two conventional wars, John McCain is a commander in chief you can trust to lead us to victory.

There are 30 days left before Election Day. Sarah Palin’s debate performance was good, but it's really up to John McCain to win.

CHANGE You Can TRUST

CHANGE You Can TRUST to put COUNTRY FIRST

CHANGE You Can TRUST to put AMERICA FIRST

CHANGE - TRUST
COUNTRY FIRST

John, are you listening???

http://strategicthought-charles77.blogspot.com/2008/10/change-you-can-trust-slogan-that-could.html

[Curious Orange]

Here is my question for both senators
Is it proper to use Homeland security agents to intercept our sick and old peoples prescription drugs at the Canadian border?

[Charles Chuh]

Many questions were asked of Palin's experience for being president. Why can't we have a question and/or pool for Obama's experience's suitability for being the president of our country?